If you look west at around 9:30 p.m., the set of stars that are above the horizon is the constellation, Aquila. It was first cataloged by Ptolemy in the second century. Aquila belongs to the Hercules family of constellations. When the ancient card for this constellation is observed, you’ll see the eagle with a man from a different constellation, Antinous, which no longer exists. It has since been merged with Aquila.
Aquila is known as the eagle since that’s what it means in Latin. As with most constellations, there are a few different myths associated with it, particularly because just about all the myths with an eagle seem to be Aquila. Most know the eagle as Zeus’ pet that carried thunderbolts to him and was named Aetos Dios.
Then there’s another story involving a young Trojan shepherd boy, Ganymede. Zeus sent Aquila to carry Ganymede to Olympus so that he could be the cup bearer of the gods. Ganymede is most commonly known as being in the constellation of Aquarius, which is also very close to Aquila.
In another story, Aphrodite disguises herself as an eagle to pursue Zeus while he was a swan. It was so that Zeus’ love interest, goddess Nemesis, would shelter him. Zeus later places their images in the sky to honor that event.
Then there’s a dark side to Aquila. Do you remember the story of Prometheus? His story came up when we were exploring the constellation of Sagittarius. Prometheus gave mankind fire, against the wishes of Zeus. As punishment, he was tied to a rock where a bird would eat his liver, each day. If someone took the place of Prometheus, then he would be free. Chiron traded places with him and because of his great sacrifice, he was allowed to die. But in a different version of this story, it’s Aquila that eats Prometheus’ liver each day since he was immortal. After several years, Prometheus was saved by Hercules. Hercules killed Aquila with his bow and arrow. Zeus then placed Aquila among the stars so the eagle could soar.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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