143-660: Cygnus is a northern constellation on the plane of the Milky Way , deriving its name from the Latinized Greek word for swan . Cygnus is one of the most recognizable constellations of the northern summer and autumn, and it features a prominent asterism known as the Northern Cross (in contrast to the Southern Cross ). Cygnus was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy , and it remains one of
286-425: A celestial coordinate system lies in one of the modern constellations. Some astronomical naming systems include the constellation where a given celestial object is found to convey its approximate location in the sky. The Flamsteed designation of a star, for example, consists of a number and the genitive form of the constellation's name. Other star patterns or groups called asterisms are not constellations under
429-571: A black hole. It is located approximately 2.2 kiloparsecs from the Sun . There is also supergiant variable star in the system which is known as HDE 226868 . Cygnus also contains several other noteworthy X-ray sources. Cygnus X-3 is a microquasar containing a Wolf–Rayet star in orbit around a very compact object, with a period of only 4.8 hours. The system is one of the most intrinsically luminous X-ray sources observed. The system undergoes periodic outbursts of unknown nature, and during one such outburst,
572-462: A boy from Aetolia who throws himself off a cliff when his companion Phyllius refuses to give him a tamed bull that he demands, but he is transformed into a swan and flies away. He also mentions a son of Poseidon , an invulnerable warrior in the Trojan War who is eventually killed by Achilles , but Poseidon saves him by transforming him into a swan. Together with other avian constellations near
715-694: A collection of translations and responses to the poem, entitled After Ovid: New Metamorphoses , was produced by numerous contributors in emulation of the process of the Garth volume. One of the most famous translations of the Metamorphoses published in France dates back to 1557. Published under the title La Métamorphose d'Ovide figurée (The Illustrated Metamorphosis of Ovid) by the Maison Tournes (1542–1567) in Lyon , it
858-404: A continuing and decisive influence on European literature as Ovid's Metamorphoses . The emergence of French, English, and Italian national literatures in the late Middle Ages simply cannot be fully understood without taking into account the effect of this extraordinary poem. ... The only rival we have in our tradition which we can find to match the pervasiveness of the literary influence of
1001-502: A declaration that everything except his poetry—even Rome—must give way to change: And now, my work is done, which neither Jove Nor flame nor sword nor gnawing time can fade. That day, which governs only my poor frame, May come at will to end my unfixed life, But in my better and immortal part I shall be borne beyond the lofty stars And never will my name be washed away. Where Roman power prevails, I shall be read; And so, in fame and on through every age (If bards foretell
1144-453: A hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god out of reason . The work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor. The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue (Book XV.871–879), one of only two surviving Latin epics to do so (the other being Statius ' Thebaid ). The ending acts as
1287-399: A hundred manuscripts and was informed of many others through correspondence. Collaborative editorial effort has been investigating the various manuscripts of the Metamorphoses , some forty-five complete texts or substantial fragments, all deriving from a Gallic archetype. The result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of
1430-595: A hundred stars in Cygnus with known planets, the most of any constellation. One of the most notable systems is the Kepler-11 system, containing six transiting planets , all within a plane of approximately one degree. It was the system with six exoplanets to be discovered. With a spectral type of G6V, the star is somewhat cooler than the Sun. The planets are very close to the star; all but the last planet are closer to Kepler-11 than Mercury
1573-449: A list of 88 constellations with three-letter abbreviations for them. However, these constellations did not have clear borders between them. In 1928, the IAU formally accepted the 88 modern constellations, with contiguous boundaries along vertical and horizontal lines of right ascension and declination developed by Eugene Delporte that, together, cover the entire celestial sphere; this list
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#17328595209731716-421: A long tradition of observing celestial phenomena. Nonspecific Chinese star names , later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions , have been found on oracle bones from Anyang , dating back to the middle Shang dynasty . These constellations are some of the most important observations of Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC. Parallels to the earliest Babylonian (Sumerian) star catalogues suggest that
1859-409: A majority of its stories do not originate with Ovid himself, but with such writers as Hesiod and Homer , for others the poem is their sole source. The influence of the poem on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer is extensive. In The Canterbury Tales , the story of Coronis and Phoebus Apollo (Book II 531–632) is adapted to form the basis for The Manciple's Tale . The story of Midas (Book XI 174–193)
2002-624: A mark on his contemporaries. These illustrations contributed to the celebration of the Ovidian texts in their hedonistic dimension. In this respect, Panofsky speaks of "extraordinarily influential woodcuts" and the American art historian Rensselaer W. Lee describes the work as "a major event in the history of art". In the Musée des Beaux-arts et des fabrics in Lyon, it is possible to observe wooden panels reproducing
2145-453: A period of 790 years and is 73 light-years from Earth. The primary and secondary, both white stars, are of magnitude 4.8 and 6.2, respectively. The unrelated tertiary component is of magnitude 6.9. Though the tertiary component is visible in binoculars, the primary and secondary currently require a medium-sized amateur telescope to split, as they will through the year 2020. The two stars will be closest between 2043 and 2050, when they will require
2288-503: A planetary nebula ( Kronberger 61 , now nicknamed "The Soccer Ball") on old survey photos, confirmed recently in images by the Gemini Observatory; both of these are likely too faint to be detected by eye in a small amateur scope. But a much more obscure and relatively 'tiny' object—one which is readily seen in dark skies by amateur telescopes, under good conditions—is the newly discovered nebula (likely reflection type) associated with
2431-473: A quark star. 4U 2129+ 47 is another X-ray binary containing a neutron star which undergoes outbursts, as is EXO 2030+ 375 . Cygnus is also home to several variable stars . SS Cygni is a dwarf nova which undergoes outbursts every 7–8 weeks. The system's total magnitude varies from 12th magnitude at its dimmest to 8th magnitude at its brightest. The two objects in the system are incredibly close together, with an orbital period of less than 0.28 days. χ Cygni
2574-470: A star of magnitude 9 near the nebula's northwest edge. Further to the northwest, there is a dark rift and another bright patch. The whole nebula measures 15 arcminutes in diameter. Sharpless 2–115 is another emission nebula with a complex pattern of light and dark patches. Two pairs of stars appear in the nebula; it is larger near the southwestern pair. The open cluster Berkeley 90 is embedded in this large nebula, which measures 30 by 20 arcminutes. Also of note
2717-417: A telescope with larger aperture to split. The stars 30 and 31 Cygni form a contrasting double star similar to the brighter Albireo. The two are visible in binoculars. The primary, 31 Cygni, is an orange-hued star of magnitude 3.8, 1400 light-years from Earth. The secondary, 30 Cygni, appears blue-green. It is of spectral type A5IIIn and magnitude 4.83, and is around 610 light-years from Earth. 31 Cygni itself
2860-534: A thunderbolt, causing it to plummet to the earth into the river Eridanus . According to the myth, Phaethon's close friend or lover, Cygnus of Liguria , grieved bitterly and spent many days diving into the river to collect Phaethon's bones to give him a proper burial. The gods were so touched by Cygnus's devotion that they turned him into a swan and placed him among the stars. In Ovid 's Metamorphoses , there are three people named Cygnus, all of whom are transformed into swans. Alongside Cygnus, noted above, he mentions
3003-443: A yellow star and a red dwarf, also contains a planet. The planet is somewhat similar to Jupiter , but with slightly more mass and a more eccentric orbit. The Kepler-22 system is also notable for having the most Earth-like exoplanet when it was discovered in 2011. The rich background of stars of Cygnus can make it difficult to make out open cluster . M39 (NGC 7092) is an open cluster 950 light-years from Earth that are visible to
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#17328595209733146-421: A young globular cluster . Cygnus A is the first radio galaxy discovered; at a distance of 730 million light-years from Earth, it is the closest powerful radio galaxy. In the visible spectrum , it appears as an elliptical galaxy in a small cluster . It is classified as an active galaxy because the supermassive black hole at its nucleus is accreting matter, which produces two jets of matter from
3289-466: Is one of largest stars currently known in the galaxy with a radius exceeding 1,000 solar radii . Its magnitude is around 16.6, its period is about 940 days. The star KIC 8462852 (Tabby's Star) has received widespread press coverage because of unusual light fluctuations. Cygnus is one of the constellations that the Kepler satellite surveyed in its search for exoplanets , and as a result, there are about
3432-420: Is 430 light-years away and is visible in large binoculars and all amateur telescopes. γ Cygni , traditionally named Sadr, is a yellow-tinged supergiant star of magnitude 2.2, 1800 light-years away. Its traditional name means "breast" and refers to its position in the constellation. δ Cygni (the proper name is Fawaris) is another bright binary star in Cygnus, 166 light-years with a period of 800 years. The primary
3575-514: Is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid . It is considered his magnum opus . The poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. Although it meets some of the criteria for an epic , the poem defies simple genre classification because of its varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from
3718-483: Is a red giant and the second-brightest Mira variable star at its maximum. It ranges between magnitudes 3.3 and 14.2, and spectral types S6,2e to S10,4e (MSe) over a period of 408 days; it has a diameter of 300 solar diameters and is 350 light-years from Earth. P Cygni is a luminous blue variable that brightened suddenly to 3rd magnitude in 1600 AD. Since 1715, the star has been of 5th magnitude, despite being more than 5000 light-years from Earth. The star's spectrum
3861-449: Is a binary star; the tertiary component is a blue star of magnitude 7.0. ψ Cygni is a binary star visible in small amateur telescopes, with two white components. The primary is of magnitude 5.0 and the secondary is of magnitude 7.5. 61 Cygni is a binary star visible in large binoculars or a small amateur telescope. It is 11.4 light-years from Earth and has a period of 750 years. Both components are orange-hued dwarf ( main sequence ) stars;
4004-470: Is a blue-white hued giant star of magnitude 2.9, and the secondary is a star of magnitude 6.6. The two components are visible in a medium-sized amateur telescope. The fifth star in Cygnus above magnitude 3 is Aljanah, designated ε Cygni . It is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 2.5, 72 light-years from Earth. There are several other dimmer double and binary stars in Cygnus. μ Cygni is a binary star with an optical tertiary component. The binary system has
4147-574: Is a faint open cluster with up to 22 stars visible in small and medium-sized amateur telescopes. Nebulosity is visible to the north and east of the cluster, which is 7 arcminutes in diameter. The brightest star appears in the eastern part of the cluster and is of the 7th magnitude; another bright star has a yellow hue. Dolidze 11 is an open cluster 400 million years old, farthest away of the three at 3700 light-years. More than 10 stars are visible in an amateur instrument in this cluster, of similar size to Dolidze 9 at 7 arcminutes in diameter, whose brightest star
4290-404: Is a unifying theme amongst the episodes of the Metamorphoses . Ovid raises its significance explicitly in the opening lines of the poem: In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora; ("I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities;"). Accompanying this theme is often violence, inflicted upon a victim whose transformation becomes part of the natural landscape. This theme amalgamates
4433-517: Is also called the Cygnus Loop . The Loop is only visible in long-exposure astrophotographs. However, the brightest portion, NGC 6992, is faintly visible in binoculars, and a dimmer portion, NGC 6960, is visible in wide-angle telescopes. The DR 6 cluster is also nicknamed the "Galactic Ghoul" because of the nebula's resemblance to a human face; The Gamma Cygni Nebula (IC 1318) includes both bright and dark nebulae in an area of over 4 degrees. DWB 87
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4576-476: Is another of the many bright emission nebulae in Cygnus, 7.8 by 4.3 arcminutes. It is in the Gamma Cygni area. Two other emission nebulae include Sharpless 2-112 and Sharpless 2-115 . When viewed in an amateur telescope, Sharpless 2–112 appears to be in a teardrop shape. More of the nebula's eastern portion is visible with an O III (doubly ionized oxygen) filter. There is an orange star of magnitude 10 nearby and
4719-503: Is generally considered to meet the criteria for an epic; it is considerably long, relating over 250 narratives across fifteen books; it is composed in dactylic hexameter , the meter of both the ancient Iliad and Odyssey , and the more contemporary epic Aeneid ; and it treats the high literary subject of myth. However, the poem "handles the themes and employs the tone of virtually every species of literature", ranging from epic and elegy to tragedy and pastoral . Commenting on
4862-465: Is of magnitude 7.5. It, too, has nebulosity in the east. Collinder 421 is a particularly old open cluster at an age of approximately 1 billion years; it is of magnitude 10.1. 3100 light-years from Earth, more than 30 stars are visible in a diameter of 8 arcseconds. The prominent star in the north of the cluster has a golden color, whereas the stars in the south of the cluster appear orange. Collinder 421 appears to be embedded in nebulosity, which extends past
5005-508: Is referred to and appears—though much altered—in The Wife of Bath's Tale . The story of Ceyx and Alcyone (from Book IX) is adapted by Chaucer in his poem The Book of the Duchess , written to commemorate the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster and wife of John of Gaunt . The Metamorphoses was also a considerable influence on William Shakespeare . His Romeo and Juliet is influenced by
5148-515: Is so large; at its widest, the North America Nebula is 2 degrees across. Illuminated by a hot embedded star of magnitude 6, NGC 7000 is 1500 light-years from Earth. To the south of Epsilon Cygni is the Veil Nebula (NGC 6960, 6979, 6992, and 6995), a 5,000-year-old supernova remnant covering approximately 3 degrees of the sky - it is over 50 light-years long. Because of its appearance, it
5291-559: Is the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), located between Gamma and Eta Cygni, which was formed by the Wolf–Rayet star HD 192163 . In recent years, amateur astronomers have made some notable Cygnus discoveries. The " Soap bubble nebula " (PN G75.5+1.7), near the Crescent nebula, was discovered on a digital image by Dave Jurasevich in 2007. In 2011, Austrian amateur Matthias Kronberger discovered
5434-625: Is the Suzhou Astronomical Chart , which was prepared with carvings of stars on the planisphere of the Chinese sky on a stone plate; it is done accurately based on observations, and it shows the supernova of the year of 1054 in Taurus. Influenced by European astronomy during the late Ming dynasty , charts depicted more stars but retained the traditional constellations. Newly observed stars were incorporated as supplementary to old constellations in
5577-499: Is the result of a collaboration between the publisher Jean de Tournes and Bernard Salomon , an important 16th-century engraver. The publication is edited octavo format and presents Ovid's texts accompanied by 178 engraved illustrations. In the years 1540–1550, the spread of contemporary translations led to a true race to publish the ancient poet's texts among the city of Lyon's various publishers. Therefore, Jean de Tournes faced fierce competition, which also published new editions of
5720-424: Is to the Sun, and all the planets are more massive than Earth, and have low densities. The planets have low densities. The naked-eye star 16 Cygni , a triple star approximately 70 light-years from Earth composed two Sun-like stars and a red dwarf , contains a planet orbiting one of the sun-like stars, found due to variations in the star's radial velocity. Gliese 777 , another naked-eye multiple star system containing
5863-448: Is unusual in that it contains very strong emission lines resulting from surrounding nebulosity. W Cygni is a semi-regular variable red giant star, 618 light-years from Earth.It has a maximum magnitude of 5.10 and a minimum magnitude 6.83; its period of 131 days. It is a red giant ranging between spectral types M4e-M6e(Tc:)III, NML Cygni is a red hypergiant semi-regular variable star located at 5,300 light-years away from Earth. It
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6006-605: Is used within the play to enable Titus to interpret his daughter's story. Most of Prospero's renunciative speech in Act V of The Tempest is taken word-for-word from a speech by Medea in Book VII of the Metamorphoses . Among other English writers for whom the Metamorphoses was an inspiration are John Milton —who made use of it in Paradise Lost , considered his magnum opus , and evidently knew it well —and Edmund Spenser . In Italy,
6149-583: The Bayer designations from Alpha to Omega and then using lowercase Roman letters to g. John Flamsteed added the Roman letters h, i, k, l and m (these stars were considered informes by Bayer as they lay outside the asterism of Cygnus), but were dropped by Francis Baily . There are several bright stars in Cygnus. α Cygni, called Deneb , is the brightest star in Cygnus. It is a white supergiant star of spectral type A2Iae that varies between magnitudes 1.21 and 1.29, one of
6292-453: The Hellenistic tradition , which is first represented by Boios ' Ornithogonia —a now- fragmentary poem of collected myths about the metamorphoses of humans into birds. There are three examples of Metamorphoses by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of their contents. The Heteroioumena by Nicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an influence on the poem: 21 of
6435-666: The Inca civilization identified various dark areas or dark nebulae in the Milky Way as animals and associated their appearance with the seasonal rains. Australian Aboriginal astronomy also describes dark cloud constellations, the most famous being the "emu in the sky" whose head is formed by the Coalsack , a dark nebula, instead of the stars. Footnotes Citations Metamorphoses The Metamorphoses ( Latin : Metamorphōsēs , from Ancient Greek : μεταμορφώσεις : "Transformations")
6578-602: The KJV , but ‘Ayish "the bier" actually corresponding to Ursa Major. The term Mazzaroth מַזָּרוֹת , translated as a garland of crowns , is a hapax legomenon in Job 38:32, and it might refer to the zodiacal constellations. There is only limited information on ancient Greek constellations, with some fragmentary evidence being found in the Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod , who mentioned
6721-508: The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. , USA. A digital copy is available on Gallica . It would also appear that a copy has been auctioned at Sotheby's . The 1557 edition published by Jean de Tournes features 178 engravings by Bernard Salomon accompanying Ovid's text. The format is emblematic of the collaboration between Tournes and Salomon, which has existed since their association in
6864-405: The Metamorphoses ' enduring popularity from its first publication (around the time of Ovid's exile in 8 AD) no manuscript survives from antiquity. From the 9th and 10th centuries there are only fragments of the poem; it is only from the 11th century onwards that complete manuscripts, of varying value, have been passed down. The poem retained its popularity throughout late antiquity and
7007-400: The Metamorphoses after this period was comparatively limited in its achievement; the Garth volume continued to be printed into the 1800s, and had "no real rivals throughout the nineteenth century". Around the later half of the 20th century a greater number of translations appeared as literary translation underwent a revival. This trend has continued into the twenty-first century. In 1994,
7150-650: The Metamorphoses before working on his engravings, which nevertheless display a remarkable originality. In the book Bernard Salomon. Illustrateur lyonnais , Peter Sharratt states that the plates in this edition, along with that of the Bible illustrated by the painter in 1557, are Salomon's works that most emphasise the illustrative process based on "a mixture of memories". Among the earlier editions consulted by Salomon, one in particular stands out: Metamorphoseos Vulgare , published in Venice in 1497. The latter shows similarities in
7293-455: The Metamorphoses did not suffer the ignominious fate of the Medea , no ancient scholia on the poem survive (although they did exist in antiquity ), and the earliest complete manuscript is very late, dating from the 11th century. Influential in the course of the poem's manuscript tradition is the 17th-century Dutch scholar Nikolaes Heinsius . During the years 1640–52, Heinsius collated more than
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#17328595209737436-562: The Metamorphoses in his Tales from Ovid , published in 1997. In 1998, Mary Zimmerman 's stage adaptation Metamorphoses premiered at the Lookingglass Theatre , and the following year there was an adaptation of Tales from Ovid by the Royal Shakespeare Company . In the early 21st century, the poem continues to inspire and be retold through books, films and plays. A series of works inspired by Ovid's book through
7579-532: The Metamorphoses is perhaps (and I stress perhaps) the Old Testament and the works of Shakespeare . — Ian Johnston The Metamorphoses has exerted a considerable influence on literature and the arts, particularly of the West ; scholar A. D. Melville says that "It may be doubted whether any poem has had so great an influence on the literature and art of Western civilization as the Metamorphoses ." Although
7722-497: The Metamorphoses , inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythologies, which were reunited in the Titian exhibition at The National Gallery in 2020. Other famous works inspired by the Metamorphoses include Pieter Brueghel 's painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and Gian Lorenzo Bernini 's sculpture Apollo and Daphne . The Metamorphoses also permeated the theory of art during
7865-435: The Metamorphoses . He published the first two books of Ovid in 1456, a version that was followed by an illustrated reprint in 1549. His main competitor was Guillaume Roville , who published the texts illustrated by Pierre Eskrich in 1550 and again in 1551. In 1553, Roville published the first three books with a translation by Barthélémy Aneau , which followed the translation of the first two books by Clément Marot . However,
8008-603: The Renaissance . There was a resurgence of attention to Ovid's work near the end of the 20th century. The Metamorphoses continues to inspire and be retold through various media. Numerous English translations of the work have been made, the first by William Caxton in 1480. Ovid's relation to the Hellenistic poets was similar to the attitude of the Hellenistic poets themselves to their predecessors: he demonstrated that he had read their versions ... but that he could still treat
8151-666: The Society Islands it was called Pirae-tea or Taurua-i-te-haapa-raa-manu , and in the Tuamotus it was called Fanui-raro . Beta Cygni was named in New Zealand; it was likely called Whetu-kaupo . Gamma Cygni was called Fanui-runga in the Tuamotus. Deneb was also often a given name, in the Islamic world of astronomy . The name Deneb comes from the Arabic name dhaneb , meaning "tail", from
8294-610: The Zodiac of Dendera ; it remains unclear when this occurred, but most were placed during the Roman period between 2nd to 4th centuries AD. The oldest known depiction of the zodiac showing all the now familiar constellations, along with some original Egyptian constellations, decans , and planets . Ptolemy's Almagest remained the standard definition of constellations in the medieval period both in Europe and in Islamic astronomy . Ancient China had
8437-586: The horizon when viewed from a particular latitude on Earth is termed circumpolar . From the North Pole or South Pole , all constellations south or north of the celestial equator are circumpolar . Depending on the definition, equatorial constellations may include those that lie between declinations 45° north and 45° south, or those that pass through the declination range of the ecliptic (or zodiac ) ranging between 23.5° north and 23.5° south . Stars in constellations can appear near each other in
8580-479: The summer solstice , Vultur cadens and Aquila , Cygnus may be a significant part of the origin of the myth of the Stymphalian Birds , one of The Twelve Labours of Hercules . A very large constellation, Cygnus is bordered by Cepheus to the north and east, Draco to the north and west, Lyra to the west, Vulpecula to the south, Pegasus to the southeast and Lacerta to the east. The three-letter abbreviation for
8723-524: The zodiac (straddling the ecliptic , which the Sun , Moon , and planets all traverse). The origins of the zodiac remain historically uncertain; its astrological divisions became prominent c. 400 BC in Babylonian or Chaldean astronomy. Constellations appear in Western culture via Greece and are mentioned in the works of Hesiod , Eudoxus and Aratus . The traditional 48 constellations, consisting of
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#17328595209738866-399: The "heavenly bodies". Greek astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in the Hellenistic era , first introduced to Greece by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the 4th century BC. The original work of Eudoxus is lost, but it survives as a versification by Aratus , dating to the 3rd century BC. The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by
9009-594: The 14th century. The Ancient Greek word for constellation is ἄστρον ( astron ). These terms historically referred to any recognisable pattern of stars whose appearance was associated with mythological characters or creatures, earthbound animals, or objects. Over time, among European astronomers, the constellations became clearly defined and widely recognised. In the 20th century, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognized 88 constellations . A constellation or star that never sets below
9152-448: The 1557 version published by Maison Tournes remains the version that enjoys the greatest fortune, as testified by historiographical mentions. The 16th-century editions of the Metamorphoses constitute a radical change in the way myths are perceived. In previous centuries, the verses of the ancient poet had been read above all in function of their moralising impact, whereas from the 16th century onwards their aesthetic and hedonistic quality
9295-519: The 17,000-year-old cave paintings in Lascaux , southern France, depict star constellations such as Taurus, Orion's Belt, and the Pleiades. However, this view is not generally accepted among scientists. Inscribed stones and clay writing tablets from Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) dating to 3000 BC provide the earliest generally accepted evidence for humankind's identification of constellations. It seems that
9438-471: The 17th-century German celestial cartographer Johann Bayer 's star atlas the Uranometria , Alpha, Beta and Gamma Cygni form the pole of a cross, while Delta and Epsilon form the cross beam. The nova P Cygni was then considered to be the body of Christ. There is an abundance of deep-sky objects , with many open clusters , nebulae of various types and supernova remnants found in Cygnus due to its position on
9581-548: The 88 IAU-recognized constellations in this region first appeared on celestial globes developed in the late 16th century by Petrus Plancius , based mainly on observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman . These became widely known through Johann Bayer 's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. Fourteen more were created in 1763 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille , who also split
9724-497: The 88 modern constellations. Cygnus contains Deneb (ذنب, translit. ḏanab, tail) – one of the brightest stars in the night sky and the most distant first-magnitude star – as its "tail star" and one corner of the Summer Triangle the constellation forming an east pointing altitude of the triangle . It also has some notable X-ray sources and the giant stellar association of Cygnus OB2 . One of
9867-663: The Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman writer styled pseudo- Hyginus . The basis of Western astronomy as taught during Late Antiquity and until the Early Modern period is the Almagest by Ptolemy , written in the 2nd century. In the Ptolemaic Kingdom , native Egyptian tradition of anthropomorphic figures represented the planets, stars, and various constellations. Some of these were combined with Greek and Babylonian astronomical systems culminating in
10010-504: The IAU as well as those by cultures throughout history are imagined figures and shapes derived from the patterns of stars in the observable sky. Many officially recognized constellations are based on the imaginations of ancient, Near Eastern and Mediterranean mythologies. Some of these stories seem to relate to the appearance of the constellations, e.g. the assassination of Orion by Scorpius, their constellations appearing at opposite times of year. Constellation positions change throughout
10153-493: The Middle Ages, and is represented by an extremely high number of surviving manuscripts (more than 400); the earliest of these are three fragmentary copies containing portions of Books 1–3, dating to the 9th century. But the poem's immense popularity in antiquity and the Middle Ages belies the struggle for survival it faced in late antiquity. The Metamorphoses was preserved through the Roman period of Christianization . Though
10296-636: The Milky Way. Its molecular clouds form the Cygnus Rift dark nebula constellation , comprising one end of the Great Rift along the Milky Way's galactic plane . The rift begins around the Northern Coalsack , and partially obscures the larger Cygnus molecular cloud complex behind it, which the North America Nebula is part of. Bayer catalogued many stars in the constellation, giving them
10439-567: The Navigator in c. 500 BC. The history of southern constellations is not straightforward. Different groupings and different names were proposed by various observers, some reflecting national traditions or designed to promote various sponsors. Southern constellations were important from the 14th to 16th centuries, when sailors used the stars for celestial navigation . Italian explorers who recorded new southern constellations include Andrea Corsali , Antonio Pigafetta , and Amerigo Vespucci . Many of
10582-500: The Palomar Observatory survey photos in 2005 but had not published it for others to confirm and analyze at the time of Waldee's first official notices and later 2010 paper. Cygnus X is the largest star-forming region in the solar neighborhood and includes not only some of the brightest and most massive stars known (such as Cygnus OB2-12 ), but also Cygnus OB2 , a massive stellar association classified by some authors as
10725-569: The Renaissance and the Baroque style, with its idea of transformation and the relation of the myths of Pygmalion and Narcissus to the role of the artist. Though Ovid was popular for many centuries, interest in his work began to wane after the Renaissance, and his influence on 19th-century writers was minimal. Towards the end of the 20th century his work began to be appreciated once more. Ted Hughes collected together and retold twenty-four passages from
10868-640: The ancient Chinese system did not arise independently. Three schools of classical Chinese astronomy in the Han period are attributed to astronomers of the earlier Warring States period . The constellations of the three schools were conflated into a single system by Chen Zhuo , an astronomer of the 3rd century ( Three Kingdoms period ). Chen Zhuo's work has been lost, but information on his system of constellations survives in Tang period records, notably by Qutan Xida . The oldest extant Chinese star chart dates to that period and
11011-409: The ancient constellation Argo Navis into three; these new figures appeared in his star catalogue, published in 1756. Several modern proposals have not survived. The French astronomers Pierre Lemonnier and Joseph Lalande , for example, proposed constellations that were once popular but have since been dropped. The northern constellation Quadrans Muralis survived into the 19th century (when its name
11154-462: The beginning of printing, and traces a path through the history of publishing. William Caxton produced the first translation of the text on 22 April 1480; set in prose, it is a literal rendering of a French translation known as the Ovide Moralisé . In 1567, Arthur Golding published a translation of the poem that would become highly influential, the version read by Shakespeare and Spenser. It
11297-585: The bottom of the toy it is named for. A larger amateur instrument reveals 8 more stars, nebulosity to the east and west of the cluster, and a diameter of 9 arcminutes. The nebulosity in this region is part of the Gamma Cygni Nebula . The other stars, approximately 3700 light-years from Earth, are mostly blue-white and very hot. Other open clusters in Cygnus include Dolidze 9 , Collinder 421 , Dolidze 11 , and Berkeley 90 . Dolidze 9, 2800 light-years from Earth and relatively young at 20 million light-years old,
11440-708: The bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC. Mesopotamian constellations appeared later in many of the classical Greek constellations. The oldest Babylonian catalogues of stars and constellations date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age , most notably the Three Stars Each texts and the MUL.APIN , an expanded and revised version based on more accurate observation from around 1000 BC. However,
11583-631: The celestial equator), and southern constellations Puppis , Vela , Carina , Crux , Centaurus , Triangulum Australe , and Ara . Polaris , being the North Star, is the approximate center of the northern celestial hemisphere. It is part of Ursa Minor , constituting the end of the Little Dipper's handle. From latitudes of around 35° north, in January, Ursa Major (containing the Big Dipper ) appears to
11726-494: The cluster's borders to its west. Berkeley 90 is a smaller open cluster, with a diameter of 5 arcminutes. More than 16 members appear in an amateur telescope. NGC 6826 , the Blinking Planetary Nebula, is a planetary nebula with a magnitude of 8.5, 3200 light-years from Earth. It appears to "blink" in the eyepiece of a telescope because its central star is unusually bright (10th magnitude). When an observer focuses on
11869-622: The composition of some episodes, such as the 'Creation of the World' and ' Apollo and Daphne '. In drawing his figures, Salomon also used Bellifontaine's canon, which testifies to his early years as a painter. Among other works, he created some frescoes in Lyon, for which he drew inspiration from his recent work in Fontainebleau . Better known in his lifetime for his work as a painter, Salomon's work in La Métamorphose d'Ovide figurée nevertheless left
12012-491: The constellation Orion : A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defined in prehistory . People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation , and mythology . Different cultures and countries invented their own constellations, some of which lasted into
12155-438: The constellation, as adopted by the IAU in 1922, is "Cyg". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined as a polygon of 28 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system , the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 19 07.3 and 22 02.3 , while the declination coordinates are between 27.73° and 61.36°. Covering 804 square degrees and around 1.9% of
12298-648: The daytime and lower at night, while in winter the reverse is true, for both hemispheres. Due to the Solar System 's 60° tilt, the galactic plane of the Milky Way is inclined 60° from the ecliptic, between Taurus and Gemini (north) and Scorpius and Sagittarius (south and near which the Galactic Center can be found). The galaxy appears to pass through Aquila (near the celestial equator) and northern constellations Cygnus , Cassiopeia , Perseus , Auriga , and Orion (near Betelgeuse ), as well as Monoceros (near
12441-431: The deeds of a human hero , it leaps from story to story with little connection. The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor ( Cupid ). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by Amor , an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon , who is the closest thing this putative mock-epic has to
12584-519: The development of today's accepted modern constellations. The southern sky, below about −65° declination , was only partially catalogued by ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Persian astronomers of the north. The knowledge that northern and southern star patterns differed goes back to Classical writers, who describe, for example, the African circumnavigation expedition commissioned by Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II in c. 600 BC and those of Hanno
12727-432: The early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many changed in size or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity. Some were limited to a single culture or nation. Naming constellations also helped astronomers and navigators identify stars more easily. Twelve (or thirteen) ancient constellations belong to
12870-399: The early constellations were never universally adopted. Stars were often grouped into constellations differently by different observers, and the arbitrary constellation boundaries often led to confusion as to which constellation a celestial object belonged. Before astronomers delineated precise boundaries (starting in the 19th century), constellations generally appeared as ill-defined regions of
13013-543: The east has part of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall in the deep sky , a giant galaxy filament that is the largest known structure in the observable universe, covering most of the northern sky. In Polynesia , Cygnus was often recognized as a separate constellation. In Tonga it was called Tuula-lupe , and in the Tuamotus it was called Fanui-tai . In New Zealand it was called Mara-tea , in
13156-425: The ecliptic), approximating a great circle . Zodiacal constellations of the northern sky are Pisces , Aries , Taurus , Gemini , Cancer , and Leo . In the southern sky are Virgo , Libra , Scorpius , Sagittarius , Capricornus , and Aquarius . The zodiac appears directly overhead from latitudes of 23.5° north to 23.5° south, depending on the time of year. In summer, the ecliptic appears higher up in
13299-500: The form of star charts , whose oldest representation appears on the statue known as the Farnese Atlas , based perhaps on the star catalogue of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus . Southern constellations are more modern inventions, sometimes as substitutes for ancient constellations (e.g. Argo Navis ). Some southern constellations had long names that were shortened to more usable forms; e.g. Musca Australis became simply Musca. Some of
13442-608: The formal definition, but are also used by observers to navigate the night sky. Asterisms may be several stars within a constellation, or they may share stars with more than one constellation. Examples of asterisms include the teapot within the constellation Sagittarius , or the big dipper in the constellation of Ursa Major . The word constellation comes from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō , which can be translated as "set of stars"; it came into use in Middle English during
13585-502: The formation of such rays. Cygnus X-2 is another X-ray binary , containing an A-type giant in orbit around a neutron star with a 9.8-day period. The system is interesting due to the rather small mass of the companion star, as most millisecond pulsars have much more massive companions. Another black hole in Cygnus is V404 Cygni , which consists of a K-type star orbiting around a black hole of around 12 solar masses. The black hole, similar to that of Cygnus X-3, has been hypothesized to be
13728-523: The genre debate, Karl Galinsky has opined that "... it would be misguided to pin the label of any genre on the Metamorphoses ". The Metamorphoses is comprehensive in its chronology, recounting the creation of the world to the death of Julius Caesar , which had occurred only a year before Ovid's birth; it has been compared to works of universal history , which became important in the 1st century BCE. In spite of its apparently unbroken chronology, scholar Brooks Otis has identified four divisions in
13871-536: The genre of metamorphosis poetry. Although some of the Metamorphoses derives from earlier treatment of the same myths, Ovid diverged significantly from all of his models. The Metamorphoses is one of the most influential works in Western culture . It has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri , Giovanni Boccaccio , Geoffrey Chaucer , and William Shakespeare . Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in works of sculpture, painting, and music, especially during
14014-430: The key themes of the Metamorphoses . Scholars have found it difficult to place the Metamorphoses in a genre. The poem has been considered as an epic or a type of epic (for example, an anti-epic or mock-epic); a Kollektivgedicht that pulls together a series of examples in miniature form, such as the epyllion ; a sampling of one genre after another; or simply a narrative that refuses categorization. The poem
14157-420: The largest and most luminous A-class stars known. It is located about 2600 light-years away. Its traditional name means "tail" and refers to its position in the constellation. Albireo , designated β Cygni, is a celebrated binary star among amateur astronomers for its contrasting hues. The primary is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 3.1 and the secondary is a blue-green hued star of magnitude 5.1. The system
14300-575: The manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. There are two modern critical editions: William S. Anderson's, first published in 1977 in the Teubner series, and R. J. Tarrant 's, published in 2004 by the Oxford Clarendon Press. The full appearance of the Metamorphoses in English translation (sections had appeared in the works of Chaucer and Gower ) coincides with
14443-487: The mid-1540s: the pages are developed centred around a title, an engraving with an octosyllabic stanza and a neat border. The 178 engravings were not made all at once for the full text, but originate from a reissue of the first two books in 1549. In 1546, Jean de Tournes published a first, non-illustrated version of the first two books of the Metamorphoses , for which Bernard Salomon prepared twenty-two initial engravings. Salomon examined several earlier illustrated editions of
14586-471: The mid-18th century when European explorers began traveling to the Southern Hemisphere . Due to Roman and European transmission, each constellation has a Latin name. In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally accepted the modern list of 88 constellations , and in 1928 adopted official constellation boundaries that together cover the entire celestial sphere. Any given point in
14729-794: The moralizing of the Metamorphoses had been with the aspirations of the 14th and 15th centuries". The work was republished in French in 1564 and 1583, although it had already been published in Italian by Gabriel Simeoni in 1559 with some additional engravings. Some copies from 1557 are today held in public collections, namely the National Library of France , the Municipal Library of Lyon, the Brandeis University Library in Waltham (MA) and
14872-527: The much-explored opposition between the hunter and the hunted and the thematic tension between art and nature. There is a great variety among the types of transformations that take place: from human to inanimate objects (Nileus), constellations (Ariadne's Crown), animals (Perdix), and plants (Daphne, Baucis and Philemon); from animals (ants) and fungi (mushrooms) to human; from one sex to another (hyenas); and from one colour to another (pebbles). The metamorphoses themselves are often located metatextually within
15015-411: The myths in his own way. — Karl Galinsky Ovid's decision to make myth the primary subject of the Metamorphoses was influenced by Alexandrian poetry . In that tradition myth functioned as a vehicle for moral reflection or insight, yet Ovid approached it as an "object of play and artful manipulation". The model for a collection of metamorphosis myths was found in the metamorphosis poetry of
15158-453: The narrative: Ovid works his way through his subject matter, often in an apparently arbitrary fashion, by jumping from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central events in the world of Greek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions. It begins with the ritual "invocation of the muse ", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions . But instead of following and extolling
15301-489: The night sky, Cygnus ranks 16th of the 88 constellations in size. Cygnus culminates at midnight on 29 June, and is most visible in the evening from the early summer to mid-autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Normally, Cygnus is depicted with Delta and Epsilon Cygni as its wings. Deneb , the brightest in the constellation is at its tail, and Albireo as the tip of its beak. There are several asterisms in Cygnus. In
15444-449: The northeast, while Cassiopeia is the northwest. To the west are Pisces (above the horizon) and Aries. To the southwest Cetus is near the horizon. Up high and to the south are Orion and Taurus. To the southeast above the horizon is Canis Major . Appearing above and to the east of Orion is Gemini : also in the east (and progressively closer to the horizon) are Cancer and Leo. In addition to Taurus, Perseus and Auriga appear overhead. From
15587-580: The numerous Sumerian names in these catalogues suggest that they built on older, but otherwise unattested, Sumerian traditions of the Early Bronze Age . The classical Zodiac is a revision of Neo-Babylonian constellations from the 6th century BC. The Greeks adopted the Babylonian constellations in the 4th century BC. Twenty Ptolemaic constellations are from the Ancient Near East. Another ten have
15730-534: The parts of the southern sky unknown to Ptolemy) by Petrus Plancius (1592, 1597/98 and 1613), Johannes Hevelius (1690) and Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1763), who introduced fourteen new constellations. Lacaille studied the stars of the southern hemisphere from 1751 until 1752 from the Cape of Good Hope , when he was said to have observed more than 10,000 stars using a refracting telescope with an aperture of 0.5 inches (13 mm). In 1922, Henry Norris Russell produced
15873-454: The phrase Dhanab ad-Dajājah , which means "the tail of the hen". In Greek mythology , Cygnus has been identified with several different legendary swans. Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce Leda , Spartan king Tyndareus 's wife, who gave birth to the Gemini , Helen of Troy , and Clytemnestra ; Orpheus was transformed into a swan after his murder, and was said to have been placed in
16016-453: The poem was an influence on Giovanni Boccaccio (the story of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in his poem L'Amorosa Fiammetta ) and Dante . During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, mythological subjects were frequently depicted in art. The Metamorphoses was the greatest source of these narratives, such that the term "Ovidian" in this context is synonymous for mythological, in spite of some frequently represented myths not being found in
16159-425: The poem, through grammatical or narratorial transformations. At other times, transformations are developed into humour or absurdity, such that, slowly, "the reader realizes he is being had", or the very nature of transformation is questioned or subverted. This phenomenon is merely one aspect of Ovid's extensive use of illusion and disguise. No work from classical antiquity, either Greek or Roman , has exerted such
16302-455: The pole star include Chamaeleon , Apus and Triangulum Australe (near Centaurus), Pavo , Hydrus , and Mensa . Sigma Octantis is the closest star approximating a southern pole star, but is faint in the night sky. Thus, the pole can be triangulated using the constellation Crux as well as the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri (about 30° counterclockwise from Crux) of the constellation Centaurus (arching over Crux). It has been suggested that
16445-476: The poles. The jets' interaction with the interstellar medium creates radio lobes, one source of radio emissions. Cygnus is also the apparent source of the WIMP -wind due to the orientation of the solar system's rotation through the galactic halo. The local Orion-Cygnus Arm and the distant Cygnus Arm are two minor galactic arms named after Cygnus for lying in its background. Constellation Four views of
16588-461: The primary is of magnitude 5.2 and the secondary is of magnitude 6.1. 61 Cygni is significant because Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel determined its parallax in 1838, the first star to have a known parallax. Located near η Cygni is the X-ray source Cygnus X-1 , which is now thought to be caused by a black hole accreting matter in a binary star system. This was the first X-ray source widely believed to be
16731-628: The same latitude, in July, Cassiopeia (low in the sky) and Cepheus appear to the northeast. Ursa Major is now in the northwest. Boötes is high up in the west. Virgo is to the west, with Libra southwest and Scorpius south. Sagittarius and Capricorn are southeast. Cygnus (containing the Northern Cross ) is to the east. Hercules is high in the sky along with Corona Borealis . January constellations include Pictor and Reticulum (near Hydrus and Mensa, respectively). In July, Ara (adjacent to Triangulum Australe) and Scorpius can be seen. Constellations near
16874-524: The same myths. This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness; while some of it was "finely worked", in other cases Ovid may have been working from limited material. In the case of an oft-used myth such as that of Io in Book I, which was the subject of literary adaptation as early as the 5th century BCE, and as recently as a generation prior to his own, Ovid reorganises and innovates existing material in order to foreground his favoured topics and to embody
17017-817: The same stars but different names. Biblical scholar E. W. Bullinger interpreted some of the creatures mentioned in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation as the middle signs of the four-quarters of the Zodiac, with the Lion as Leo , the Bull as Taurus , the Man representing Aquarius , and the Eagle standing in for Scorpio . The biblical Book of Job also makes reference to a number of constellations, including עיש ‘Ayish "bier", כסיל chesil "fool" and כימה chimah "heap" (Job 9:9, 38:31–32), rendered as "Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades" by
17160-401: The sky next to his lyre ( Lyra ); and a man named Cygnus (Greek for swan ) was transformed into his namesake. Later Romans also associated this constellation with the tragic story of Phaethon , the son of Helios the sun god, who demanded to ride his father's sun chariot for a day. Phaethon, however, was unable to control the reins, forcing Zeus to destroy the chariot (and Phaethon) with
17303-566: The sky, but they usually lie at a variety of distances away from the Earth. Since each star has its own independent motion, all constellations will change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, familiar outlines will become unrecognizable. Astronomers can predict the past or future constellation outlines by measuring common proper motions of individual stars by accurate astrometry and their radial velocities by astronomical spectroscopy . The 88 constellations recognized by
17446-560: The sky. Today they now follow officially accepted designated lines of right ascension and declination based on those defined by Benjamin Gould in epoch 1875.0 in his star catalogue Uranometria Argentina . The 1603 star atlas " Uranometria " of Johann Bayer assigned stars to individual constellations and formalized the division by assigning a series of Greek and Latin letters to the stars within each constellation. These are known today as Bayer designations . Subsequent star atlases led to
17589-478: The southern hemisphere of the sky based on the knowledge of Western star charts; with this improvement, the Chinese Sky was integrated with the World astronomy. Historically, the origins of the constellations of the northern and southern skies are distinctly different. Most northern constellations date to antiquity, with names based mostly on Classical Greek legends. Evidence of these constellations has survived in
17732-577: The southern sky, which did not depict the traditional stars recorded by ancient Chinese astronomers. Further improvements were made during the later part of the Ming dynasty by Xu Guangqi and Johann Adam Schall von Bell , the German Jesuit and was recorded in Chongzhen Lishu (Calendrical Treatise of Chongzhen period , 1628). Traditional Chinese star maps incorporated 23 new constellations with 125 stars of
17875-412: The star 4 Cygni (HD 183056): an approximately fan-shaped glowing region of several arcminutes' diameter, to the south and west of the fifth-magnitude star. It was first discovered visually near San Jose, California and publicly reported by amateur astronomer Stephen Waldee in 2007, and was confirmed photographically by Al Howard in 2010. California amateur astronomer Dana Patchick also says he detected it on
18018-569: The star, the nebula appears to fade away. Less than one degree from the Blinking Planetary is the double star 16 Cygni. The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) is one of the most well-known nebulae in Cygnus, because it is visible to the unaided eye under dark skies, as a bright patch in the Milky Way. However, its characteristic shape is only visible in long-exposure photographs – it is difficult to observe in telescopes because of its low surface brightness . It has low surface brightness because it
18161-478: The stars of this association, NML Cygni , is one of the largest stars currently known . The constellation is also home to Cygnus X-1 , a distant X-ray binary containing a supergiant and unseen massive companion that was the first object widely held to be a black hole . Many star systems in Cygnus have known planets as a result of the Kepler Mission observing one patch of the sky, an area around Cygnus. Most of
18304-451: The stories from this work are treated in the Metamorphoses . However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, Ovid diverged significantly from his models. The Metamorphoses was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths (Nicander's work consisted of probably four or five books) and positioned itself within a historical framework. Some of the Metamorphoses derives from earlier literary and poetic treatment of
18447-409: The story of Pyramus and Thisbe ( Metamorphoses Book IV); and, in A Midsummer Night's Dream , a band of amateur actors performs a play about Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare's early erotic poem Venus and Adonis expands on the myth in Book X of the Metamorphoses . In Titus Andronicus , the story of Lavinia's rape is drawn from Tereus ' rape of Philomela , and the text of the Metamorphoses
18590-479: The system was found to be emitting muons , likely caused by neutrinos . While the compact object is thought to be a neutron star or possibly a black hole, it is possible that the object is instead a more exotic stellar remnant, possibly the first discovered quark star , hypothesized due to its production of cosmic rays that cannot be explained if the object is a normal neutron star. The system also emits cosmic rays and gamma rays , and has helped shed insight on to
18733-546: The tragedy of Diana and Actaeon have been produced by French-based collective LFKs and his film/theatre director, writer and visual artist Jean-Michel Bruyere, including the interactive 360° audiovisual installation Si poteris narrare, licet ("if you are able to speak of it, then you may do so") in 2002, 600 shorts and "medium" film from which 22,000 sequences have been used in the 3D 360° audiovisual installation La Dispersion du Fils from 2008 to 2016 as well as an outdoor performance, "Une Brutalité pastorale" (2000). In spite of
18876-419: The truth at all), I'll live. The different genres and divisions in the narrative allow the Metamorphoses to display a wide range of themes. Scholar Stephen M. Wheeler notes that "metamorphosis, mutability, love, violence, artistry, and power are just some of the unifying themes that critics have proposed over the years". In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora; Metamorphosis or transformation
19019-513: The unaided eye under dark skies. It is loose, with about 30 stars arranged over a wide area; their conformation appears triangular. The brightest stars of M39 are of the 7th magnitude. Another open cluster in Cygnus is NGC 6910 , also called the Rocking Horse Cluster, possessing 16 stars with a diameter of 5 arcminutes visible in a small amateur instrument; it is of magnitude 7.4. The brightest of these are two gold-hued stars, which represent
19162-408: The work. Many of the stories from the Metamorphoses have been the subject of paintings and sculptures, particularly during this period. Some of the most well-known paintings by Titian depict scenes from the poem, including Diana and Callisto , Diana and Actaeon , and Death of Actaeon . These works form part of Titian's " poesie " , a collection of seven paintings derived in part from
19305-409: The year due to night on Earth occurring at gradually different portions of its orbit around the Sun. As Earth rotates toward the east, the celestial sphere appears to rotate west, with stars circling counterclockwise around the northern pole star and clockwise around the southern pole star. Because of Earth's 23.5° axial tilt , the zodiac is distributed equally across hemispheres (along
19448-451: The years and centuries to come. The constellations have no official symbols, though those of the ecliptic may take the signs of the zodiac. Symbols for the other modern constellations, as well as older ones that still occur in modern nomenclature, have occasionally been published. The Great Rift, a series of dark patches in the Milky Way, is most visible in the southern sky. Some cultures have discerned shapes in these patches. Members of
19591-514: The zodiac and 36 more (now 38, following the division of Argo Navis into three constellations) are listed by Ptolemy , a Greco-Roman astronomer from Alexandria , Egypt, in his Almagest . The formation of constellations was the subject of extensive mythology , most notably in the Metamorphoses of the Latin poet Ovid . Constellations in the far southern sky were added from the 15th century until
19734-461: Was attached to the Quadrantid meteor shower), but is now divided between Boötes and Draco . A list of 88 constellations was produced for the IAU in 1922. It is roughly based on the traditional Greek constellations listed by Ptolemy in his Almagest in the 2nd century and Aratus ' work Phenomena , with early modern modifications and additions (most importantly introducing constellations covering
19877-625: Was exalted. The literary context of the time, marked by the birth of the Pléiade , is indicative of this taste for the beauty of poetry. "The disappearance of the Ars Amatoria and the Remedia amoris marks the end of a Gothic era in Ovidian publishing, just as the publication in 1557 of the Métamorphose figurée marks the appropriation by the Renaissance of a work that is as much in line with its tastes as
20020-498: Was finally published in 1930. Where possible, these modern constellations usually share the names of their Graeco-Roman predecessors, such as Orion, Leo, or Scorpius. The aim of this system is area-mapping, i.e. the division of the celestial sphere into contiguous fields. Out of the 88 modern constellations, 36 lie predominantly in the northern sky, and the other 52 predominantly in the southern. The boundaries developed by Delporte used data that originated back to epoch B1875.0 , which
20163-661: Was preserved as part of the Dunhuang Manuscripts . Native Chinese astronomy flourished during the Song dynasty , and during the Yuan dynasty became increasingly influenced by medieval Islamic astronomy (see Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era ). As maps were prepared during this period on more scientific lines, they were considered as more reliable. A well-known map from the Song period
20306-406: Was when Benjamin A. Gould first made his proposal to designate boundaries for the celestial sphere, a suggestion on which Delporte based his work. The consequence of this early date is that because of the precession of the equinoxes , the borders on a modern star map, such as epoch J2000 , are already somewhat skewed and no longer perfectly vertical or horizontal. This effect will increase over
20449-625: Was written in rhyming couplets of iambic heptameter . The next significant translation was by George Sandys , produced from 1621 to 1626, which set the poem in heroic couplets , a metre that would subsequently become dominant in vernacular English epic and in English translations. In 1717, a translation appeared from Samuel Garth bringing together work "by the most eminent hands": primarily John Dryden , but several stories by Joseph Addison , one by Alexander Pope , and contributions from Tate , Gay , Congreve , and Rowe , as well as those of eleven others including Garth himself. Translation of
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