vovat | Bears in the Air

Continuing with the bear theme, today's mythology post is about two constellations always visible in the Northern Hemisphere (meaning that they're visible year-round, that is, not in the daytime or anything), Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The association of these two groups of stars with bears was common in and around the Middle East, and apparently among some Native American tribes as well. I've read that most of the constellations we know were originally conceived by the Babylonians, so the idea might well have spread from there to Greece and Judea (the Great Bear is mentioned in the Book of Job), but that doesn't explain how the Iroquois had the same idea. In Western Europe, the most recognizable part of what is considered Ursa Major is more commonly seen as a plow or wagon, or sometimes a cleaver or saucepan. Some Africans (ones in the Northern Hemisphere, I suppose) identified the seven main stars as a drinking gourd, which is presumably where we get the modern American idea of the Big Dipper.

The Greek myth surrounding the two Ursa constellations involves a nymph named Callisto, daughter of Lycaon of Arcadia, and part of the retinue of Artemis. Our horny old pal Zeus was attracted to her, and some versions of the myth say that he took the form of his own daughter in order to rape the girl. Regardless of the details, Zeus and Callisto had a son named Arcas, and Hera took her revenge for her husband's infidelity by turning the nymph into a bear. When he'd grown older and become a hunter, Arcas almost killed his ursine mother, but Zeus saved both of them by turning the hunter into a bear as well. He then pulled them into the heavens to become constellations, stretching out their tails in the process. Some other takes on the myth say that Arcas was not transformed, but that he became the constellation Bootes. Anyway, the reason the two bear constellations never move below the horizon was that Hera made it so they could never have access to water.