Its ancient name is Al Phard (Arabic), which means the separated, put away. The brightest star, α (in the heart of the Serpent), is sometimes called by the moderns Cor Hydrae on that account. It is composed of 60 stars one of the 2nd magnitude, three of the 3rd, twelve of the 4th, etc. Hydra has the significant meaning, he is abhorred! It is an immense constellation extending for above 100 degrees from east to west, beneath the Virgin, the Lion, and the Crab. It is pictured as the female serpent (Hydra), the mother and author of all evil. Conrad Gesner, the 16th-century naturalist, gave an illustration of this in its apparently successful attack upon the ship Argo. Theon said that the Egyptians considered it the sky representative of the Nile, and gave it their name for that river.Īfter Al Sufi’s day, in our 10th century, the figure was much lengthened, and now stretches for nearly 95° in a winding course from Cancer to Scorpius this well agreeing with the fable of its immense marine prototype, the Scandinavian Kraken. Certain stars near, or perhaps in the tip of Hydra’s tail and in Libra, seem to have been the Akkadian En-te-na-mas-luv, or En-te-na-mas-mur, the Assyrian Etsen-tsiri, the Tail-tip. Hydra is supposed to be the snake shown on a uranographic stone from the Euphrates, of 1200 B.C., “identified with the source of the fountains of the great deep,” and one of the several sky symbols of the great dragon Tiamat. The Hydra of Lerna with its multiple heads represents the Water-snake which Hercules encountered and combated in his second labor… Its stars are now well defined under this single title, but anciently were described, with their riders Corvus and Crater… If culminating, improved health, fame by help of superiors.) If rising, good-tempered, healthy, gain by industry and marriage. According to Ptolemy, the bright stars are like Saturn and Venus (slovenly, very immoral, shameless, revolting, mean, sorrows in love. In the sky, however, it is depicted with only one head.Īccording to another myth, Hydra is the water snake in the tale of the crow and the cup, Corvus and Crater.Constellation Hydra is said to give an emotional and passionate nature, threatened by great troubles, and to cause some interest in shipping. However, Hercules’ nephew, Iolaus, seared the necks with a torch to prevent them from growing back and thus enabled Hercules to overcome the Hydra. According to legend, if one of the Hydra’s heads was cut off, two more would grow in its place. It is also associated with the monster Hydra, with its many heads, killed by Hercules, represented in another constellation. One myth associates it with a water snake that a crow served Apollo in a cup when it was sent to fetch water Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky. The shape of Hydra resembles a twisting snake, and features as such in some Greek myths. It is one of two Babylonian “serpent” constellations a mythological hybrid of serpent, lion and bird. The Greek constellation of Hydra is an adaptation of a Babylonian constellation which includes a “serpent” constellation that loosely corresponds to Hydra. It is home to a few bright deep sky objects, including the open cluster M48, the galaxy M83 and the globular cluster M68. The snake traces a path roughly parallel to the plane of the Milky Way and roughly 20° to its north. The angular distance between the head and tail of the snake is 85°.ĭespite its large size, Hydra is a faint constellation with only one star brighter than third magnitude. Named after a water snake, Hydra is a long thin constellation, whose head lies slightly north of the celestial equator, but whose tail dips below a declination of 30°S. It was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy. Hydra is the largest of all the constellations, visible in a equatorial and southern evening sky in the months around January and February.
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