This constellation is circumpolar and is visible above the horizon at any time. But this constellation is located highest above the horizon on spring and summer nights, when it is best seen. Around it are the constellations Bootes, Canes Venatici, Leo Minor, Lynx and Ursa Minor.

There are seven brightest stars in this constellation, and it is they who form the characteristic figure of this constellation familiar to everyone: a deep ladle with a long curved handle. But only a rich imagination helps to see a huge bear in this figure, as this constellation is drawn in ancient star atlases and on constellation maps.

According to the ancient Greeks, only bears lived in the northernmost part of the Earth. Therefore, in the northern part of the sky the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are located.

The penultimate star in the tail of Ursa Major is called Mizar. The faint star Alcor is visible at an angular distance above it. The names of these stars were given by the Arabs, and they mean “horse” and “rider”, respectively. Using these stars, the Arabs tested the power of vision: those who could see the Alcor star had normal vision.

There are two most in the constellation bright stars- Aliot and Dubhe. By the two outermost stars of this figure you can find the North Star.

There are many legends about the origin of the Big Dipper.

The ancient Greeks associate the Big Dipper with the victim of the love story of the nymph Callisto, the daughter of the Arcadian king Lycaon, who fell in love with Zeus and gave him a son, Arkad, which incurred the wrath of Zeus’s jealous wife, the goddess Hera. She decided to take revenge on the hated homewrecker and deprived her of her feminine beauty, turning her into an ugly bear. Discouraged Arkad, seeing a bear in his house, instantly tried to shoot an arrow at her, not even suspecting that he wanted to kill his own mother. But Zeus, in love, prevented this and saved his beloved, taking her to heaven. However, as in any love story, everything is quite confusing, since according to another legend, it was not Hera who brought the curse down on Callisto. Allegedly, Zeus himself, trying to hide his adventures, placed his mistress in heaven, taking at the same time his son as Ursa Minor, covering up the traces of the crime, so to speak. However, it is quite possible that Zeus, as well as Hera, had nothing to do with what happened.

And Callisto was severely punished for disobedience and loss of virginity by Artemis, whose companion was the future Ursa Major.

There is another legend about the Big Dipper. Once upon a time, a long time ago there lived one person. And he had seven daughters - brave and beautiful girls. Everywhere and everywhere they stayed together. No one remained indifferent to them - everyone admired them.

One day, when the girls were walking at the foot of the mountain, they came across the king of the devas. Without hesitation, they rushed up to the top of the mountain. Dev is behind them. It seemed that he was about to overtake them. But at this time the girls made a desperate leap upward and ascended into the sky. In order not to be separated, they stood close to each other.

So these girls began to glow like seven stars. Since then they have been called “Etegen Yondoz”, which means seven stars (Ursa Major).

The Bashkirs have their own legend. In ancient times, the earth was the size of a spoon, and the sky was the size of a cup. The human race gradually multiplied, there were also more animals, and the earth began to gradually expand. The sky has also increased.

At that time, all people ate from the same pot. But then the Giant (Alyp) came from somewhere and emptied the boiler to the bottom. What to do? We decided to make a larger boiler. And the boiler also needs a ladle. The cauldron was cast from silver, and the ladle from gold. The Giant raised the cauldron and said: “Good.” I put it in place and raised the bucket. “But this one is too light,” said the Giant, and he threw the ladle high, wanting to catch it in flight. But the bucket, spinning, flew straight into the sky, towards the stars, and got stuck between them.

The Giant's Dipper still exists today. It sparkles in the sky like seven stars: four stars seem to form the bottom, three - the handle. In the evening the ladle is upside down, in the morning it turns upside down. And so on all the time.

The beautiful constellation Ursa Major also attracted the attention of the Bulgarian people, who gave it the name Cart. This name is associated with such a legend. One day a young man went into the forest to chop wood. He came to the forest, unharnessed the oxen and let them graze. Suddenly, a bear ran out of the forest and ate one of the ox. The young man was a great brave man, he grabbed the bear and harnessed her to the cart instead of the ox that she had eaten. But the bear could not pull the cart, she twitched from side to side, and therefore in the constellation the cart appears to be twisted.

In the constellation Ursa Major, old people liken individual stars like this: the star η - the Charioteer, the star Mizar ζ - the Ursa, the star ε - the Ox, the star Alcor - a dog that barks at the bear. The remaining stars form the Cart itself.

Because of such geometric shapes in the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Bulgarian people also call the constellation Ursa Minor the Little Carriage.

There is another version of this myth. The eternally young goddess Artemis, dressed in hunting clothes, with a bow, quiver and a sharp spear, wandered through the mountains and forests for a long time in search of good game. Her companions and maids followed her, resounding with laughter and songs across the mountain peaks. The girls were one more beautiful than the other, but the most charming was Callisto. When Zeus saw her, he admired her youth and beauty. But the maids of Artemis were forbidden to marry. To take possession of her, Zeus resorted to cunning. One night, in the form of Artemis, he appeared before Callisto...

From Zeus, Callisto gave birth to a son, Arkad, who quickly grew up and became an unrivaled hunter.

The jealous wife of Zeus, Hera, who learned about her husband's love affair, brought down her anger on Callisto, turning her into an ugly, clumsy bear.

One day, Callisto's son Arkad was wandering through the forest, and suddenly a bear came out of the bushes to meet him. Not knowing that it was his mother, he pulled the bowstring and the arrow flew towards the bear. But Zeus, who vigilantly protected his beloved Callisto, at the last moment retracted the arrow, and it flew past. At the same time, Zeus turned Arkad into a small bear cub. After that, he grabbed the bear and the cub by the tails and carried them to the sky. There he left Callisto to shine as beautiful constellation Ursa Major, and Arcade - in the form of the constellation Ursa Minor.

In the sky, in the form of the constellations Callisto and Arcades, they became even more beautiful than on Earth. Not only people admired them, but also Zeus himself. From the top of Olympus, he often looked at the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor and enjoyed their beauty and continuous movement across the sky.

Hera was unpleasant when she saw her husband admiring his pets. She made a fervent plea to the sea god Poseidon to never allow the Big Dipper to touch the sea. Let her die of thirst! But Poseidon did not heed Hera's pleas. Could he really let the beloved of his brother, the thunderer Zeus, die of thirst?! The Big Dipper continues to circle around the pole, while once a day it descends low over the northern side of the horizon, touches the surface of the sea, quenches its thirst and then rises again, attracting the views of people and gods with its beauty.

Legends associated with the constellation Ursa Major

B Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, as one of the most prominent constellations in the northern sky, have many different names in legends different nations. The Big Dipper is often called the chariot, the cart, or simply the seven bulls. The constellation Ursa Major with its brightest star named Dubhe (Arabic Thar Dubb al Akbar - “back of the Great Bear”) is associated with the following legend. The beautiful Callisto, daughter of King Lycaon, was in the retinue of the hunter goddess Artemis. Under the guise of this goddess, Zeus approached the maiden, and she became the mother of Arcas; jealous Hera immediately turned Callisto into a bear. One day Arkas, who had become a beautiful young man, while hunting in the forests, fell on the trail of a bear. He had already pulled his bow to hit his prey with a deadly arrow, but Zeus did not allow the crime:
turning his son also into a bear, he carried both of them to heaven. In a rhythmic dance they began to circle around the pole, but Hera, becoming enraged, begged her brother Poseidon not to let the hated couple into his kingdom; therefore, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are non-setting constellations in the middle and northern latitudes of our hemisphere. Francesco Petrarch described the Big Dipper in his 33rd sonnet as follows:

The east was already reddened by dawn.
And the light of the star that displeased Juno,
Still shining on the pale horizon
Above the pole, beautiful and distant.

Constellation Ursa Major. Hevelius' Atlas Ursa Major culminates at midnight in March - May, and Ursa Minor in early June. Its brightest star is currently 1.5° from the celestial pole and is called Polaris. The brightest stars of both Ursae form shapes similar to buckets, so they are easy to find in the sky.
There is another legend about the circumpolar constellations. Fearing Kronos, who devoured his children, his wife Rhea hid the newborn Zeus in a cave, where he was fed, in addition to the Malthea goat, by two she-bears - Melissa and Helis, who were subsequently placed in heaven for this. Melissa is sometimes called Kinosura, which means “dog’s tail.” And indeed, bears do not have such long tails as we see in any image of the constellations of the circumpolar region.

In Ancient Rus' this same constellation had different names– Cart, Chariot, Pan, Ladle; the peoples inhabiting the territory of Ukraine called it Cart; in the Volga region it was called Big Bucket, and in Siberia - Losem. And these names are still preserved in some areas of our country.

Dolon eburgen (“seven elders”), Dolon darkhan (“seven blacksmiths”), Dolon burkhan (“seven gods”), in the mythology of the Mongolian peoples, the constellation Ursa Major, its seven stars are sometimes ranked as Tengeri. In shamanic hymns, Dolon eburgen is the giver happy fate (cf. zayachi). In Buryat mythology (in the epic of Geser), the constellation appeared from the skulls of seven black (evil) blacksmiths, the sons of the black blacksmith Khozhori, hostile to people. There are stories (in the Tibeto-Mongolian editions of the collection “The Magic Dead” and in oral stories dating back to them) that connect the origin of the Big Dipper with the myth of a man with a cow’s head, called the “White-faced bull” or “White bull,” as well as Basang (in Tibetan mythology - Masane, a bull-headed character). It was crushed by the iron mallet of the witch-shulmas into seven parts, which made up the constellation; was taken to heaven by Khormusta for defeating a black poros (bull), who fought with a white one, who, according to some versions, was the incarnation of the supreme deity himself (the solar theme of the change of day and night, cf. the myth of Bukhanoyon Babai). According to another version, one of the stars of the Big Dipper, located on her shoulder (option: in the tail), was stolen from Michita (constellation Pleiades), who is chasing the kidnapper.

Greenlandic Eskimos all talk about Big Dipper the same story, the coincidence of all the details of which for each of the narrators suggests that this is the pure truth, and not at all the idle fiction of walrus hunters bored by the long polar night.
The great hunter Eriulok lived in a snow hut. He lived alone, because he was very proud of the fact that he was a great hunter and did not want to know other Eskimos, also hunters, but not great ones. Eriulok went out alone in a fragile leather boat into the stormy sea and, with a long, heavy harpoon with a sharp bone tip, caught not only walruses and seals, but sometimes even a whale. How one can catch a whole whale alone will be left to the conscience of the Eskimos themselves. After all, that’s why Eriulok was a great hunter. Never in his snowy hut was the seal fat needed in the household, which had long been used to fill Eskimo lamps and lubricate faces and fingers so as not to freeze, used. He had plenty of delicious dried meat on any day, and the ceiling and walls of his snowy home were covered with the best walrus skins that could be found all the way from Greenland to Labrador. Lonely Eriulok was rich, well-fed and contented.
But over time, the great hunter began to be bothered by some anxiety. Apparently, happiness does not lie in hunting alone, since he realized that he no longer wanted to return to his lonely hut, where he would not hear a child’s laughter or words of greetings and gratitude. In short, the great hunter realized that it was time for him to start a family and live like other people. But it's easier to understand than to do. Other Eskimos have long refused to accept an overly proud fellow tribesman, refusing him home once and for all, which sometimes happens in a more civilized world, when someone does a better job than everyone else.
Since no one except the Eskimos lived either nearby or in the farthest distance, the Eskimos were always distinguished by great integrity and a sense of comradeship: as they decided not to deal with a lonely arrogant, they never did. In the end, Eriulok went to the very shore of the Arctic Ocean and turned to the mistress of the sea waters, fish, spirits and animals, to the main Eximos goddess Arnarkuagssak. He told about his problem and asked for help in the hope that the goddess would not refuse such a famous person like him.
The Eskimo goddess really did not refuse and promised to send the local storm of seals and walruses a good bride, and if necessary, two. But, as is usual with gods and goddesses, she appointed a test. It was necessary to go to some distant island, find an ice cave there, defeat or deceive a huge polar bear and steal from him a ladle full of magic berries that bestow youth. The old sea goddess really needed such berries, but she still couldn’t find a madman who would go for them. And just then Eriulok turned up.
In general, the hero reached the island, found a cave, put the bear to sleep and stole a ladle with magic berries. And besides, he safely delivered both the ladle and the berries to their destination. However, he is truly a good hunter.
The most interesting thing is that the sea deity did not deceive the simple-minded hero at the last moment. No, they parted honestly: Eriulok received a silver seal, who immediately turned into a beautiful girl and declared that all her life she had only dreamed of marrying Eriulok. So soon the great hunter of even greater envy of his neighbors also became the father of a large and happy family. The sea goddess, having eaten the magic berries and shed a couple of thousand years, in joy, threw up an empty ladle so that it caught on something and hung above their heads

In Ancient Egypt, the constellation Ursa Major was called Meskhet, “The Thigh that lives in the great Lake of the northern sky” (cf. the idea of ​​the barque Ra).

In Ingush mythology, it is believed that the god-fighter Kuryuko stole sheep, water and reeds from the god of thunder and lightning Sela to give to people for the construction of houses. In this he is helped by the seven sons of Sela, who were supposed to guard the entrance to him. The angry Sela chained Kuryuko to a mountain rock, and hung his sons from the sky as punishment, and they formed the constellation Ursa Major.

In Tibetan folklore, a demoness chases the bull-headed creature Masang, the son of a cow and a man, and throws a cannonball that tears Masang into seven pieces, which become the Big Dipper. In this capacity, this character (like Basang) entered the mythology of the Mongolian peoples.

According to the Armenian myth, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are seven gossips, transformed by an angry god into seven stars.

Among the Sioux Indians Big Dipper associated with Skunk.

In Ancient Mesopotamia this constellation was called “Freight Cart” (Akkadian sambu, eriqqu). The idea of ​​the Big Dipper as a chariot was widespread in Ancient Mesopotamia, among the Hittites, in Ancient Greece, in Phrygia, among the Baltic peoples, in Ancient China(Ursa Major - “chariot pointing to the south”), among the South American Bororo Indians. Names of the constellation Ursa Major similar to this are found among many peoples; there are other variants of the name: Old High German wagan - “chariot”; Ancient Roman Septemtriones - "Seven Stars"; Middle Dutch woenswaghen, woonswaghen - “Wotan’s cart”; Sogdian "nxr-wzn - "circle of the Zodiac"; Mitannian Aryan uasanna - "circle on the hippodrome"; ancient Indian vahana - "animal ridden by the gods" - and ratha - "chariot"; Tocharian A kukal, B kokale - "chariot" ; German Grosser Wagen - "Big Wagon".

In India, the head of the Elk (Ursa Major) faces east.

The pursuit of the heavenly elk is attributed to various heroes in Karelian-Finnish runes. One of them is “the cunning guy Lemminkäinen,” a troubled loser hero. Having made wonderful skis, he boasts that not a single creature in the forests can escape him. His boasts are heard by the evil masters of wild creatures ~ Hiisi and the Yuvttahi spirits. They created the elk Hiisi:
Making the head out of a hummock, making the whole body out of dead wood, making the legs out of stakes, making the ears out of lake flowers, and making the eyes out of swamps.
The spirits send the elk to run north “through the fields of the sons of the Lapps, to the courts of gloomy Pohjela”; there he knocks over a cauldron of fish soup, causing tears of girls and laughter of women. Lemminkäinen perceives this laughter as a mockery of himself and rushes in pursuit of the moose on his skis: The first time he pushed away
And he disappeared from sight on skis.
Pushed off for the second time
And he was no longer heard.
The third time he pushed off -
And he jumped on the back of the elk. The successful hunter had already made a cage to keep his prey there, and began to dream about how good it would be to lay his skin on the wedding bed and caress the maiden on it. It was then that the magical elk escaped from the daydreaming hunter: in a rage, he broke the cage and rushed off. Lemminkäinen started to rush after him, but in his haste he pushed off so hard that he broke both his skis and his poles...
Lemminkäinen's failure is associated with a prohibition that he violated: while hunting, one must not think about marital pleasures - this scares away the prey. In addition, the skin of a sacred animal created by spirits cannot be used for household needs.
It can be assumed that the hunting myth about a giant deer, which turned into a constellation, in a society that already knew cattle breeding, was transformed into a myth about a huge bull that the gods could not slaughter.
The bear was especially revered by the Finns and Karelians, as well as by other Finno-Ugric peoples. He arose from wool thrown from heaven into water; according to other myths, he was born near the celestial bodies in the sky, near the Big Dipper, from where he was lowered on silver straps in a gilded cradle into the forest, where he remained on the silver branches of a pine tree (a similar myth known to the Ob Ugrians will be discussed below). A bear hunt is accompanied by a whole series of conspiracies in which the animal is persuaded that it was not killed by the hunter, but that it itself came to the people’s house “with a copper belly full of honey”: the hut is cleaned for it, as for a dear guest. The bear is a relative of man. He is from the family of Adam and Eve: his father and mother are known - Khongatar (a word related to the name of pine). In some conspiracies, a bear is greeted as a groom, “a beauty in a money coat” - a bed with a gilded feather bed is made (we talked about a bear wedding above). The skull of a killed bear was hung on a pine tree - where the first mythical beast came from: they believed that the spirit of the bear would be reborn again.

The name of these two constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) is very original among the peoples who inhabited the territory of the current Kazakh Republic. Observing the starry sky, they, like other peoples, drew attention to the immobility of the North Star, which at any time of the day invariably occupies the same position above the horizon. It is quite natural that these peoples, whose main source of existence were herds of horses, called the North Star an “iron nail” (“Temir-Kazyk”) driven into the sky, and in the other stars of Ursa Minor they saw a lasso tied to this “nail”, worn on neck of the Horse (constellation Ursa Major). During the day the Horse ran its way around the “nail”. Thus, the ancient Kazakhs combined the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor into one.

The Ob Ugrians believed that celestial origin was attributed to the elk and other cosmic objects: once the elk had six legs and rushed across the sky so fast that no one could catch up with it. Then a certain Son of God or man Mos, the first ancestor of the Ob Ugrians, went hunting on skis made of sacred wood. The hunter managed to drive the deer from the sky to the ground and cut off its extra two legs, but the traces of the heavenly hunt were forever imprinted on the sky. The Milky Way is the hunter's ski track, the Pleiades are the women from his house, the Big Dipper is the elk himself. The heavenly hunter has since settled on earth, where there was an abundance of game. Undoubtedly, this myth was duplicated among many northern peoples.

This is not a complete overview of the ideas of different peoples about the most famous constellation in our sky. But this also makes it clear how diverse the views of our ancestors were on the same phenomenon.

Alexandrova Anastasia, especially for Myth Week.

Use of the material is prohibited without permission from the author or a link to the Mythological Encyclopedia website

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, as one of the most prominent constellations in the northern sky, have many different names in the legends of different peoples. The Big Dipper is often called the chariot, the cart, or simply the seven bulls. The constellation Ursa Major with its brightest star named Dubhe (Arabic Thar Dubb al Akbar - “back of the Great Bear”) is associated with the following legend. The beautiful Callisto, daughter of King Lycaon, was in the retinue of the hunter goddess Artemis. Under the guise of this goddess, Zeus approached the maiden, and she became the mother of Arcas; jealous Hera immediately turned Callisto into a bear.

One day Arkas, who had become a beautiful young man, while hunting in the forests, fell on the trail of a bear. He had already pulled his bow to hit his prey with a deadly arrow, but Zeus did not allow the crime: having turned his son into a bear, he carried both of them to heaven. They began to circle around the pole in a rhythmic dance, but Hera, becoming enraged, begged her brother Poseidon not to let the hated couple into her kingdom; therefore Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are in the middle and northern latitudes our hemisphere by non-setting constellations. Francesco Petrarch described the Big Dipper in his 33rd sonnet as follows:

The east was already reddened by dawn.
And the light of the star that displeased Juno,
Still shining on the pale horizon
Above the pole, beautiful and distant.

Constellation Ursa Major. Atlas of Hevelius. Ursa Major culminates at midnight in March - May, and Ursa Minor in early June. Its brightest star is currently 1.5° from the celestial pole and is called Polaris. The brightest stars of both Ursae form shapes similar to buckets, so they are easy to find in the sky.
There is another legend about the circumpolar constellations. Fearing Kronos, who devoured his children, his wife Rhea hid the newborn Zeus in a cave, where he was fed, in addition to the Malthea goat, by two bears - Melissa and Helis, who were later placed in heaven for this. Melissa is sometimes called Kinosura, which means "dog's tail." And indeed, bears do not have such long tails as we see in any image of the constellations of the circumpolar region.

In Ancient Rus', the same constellation had different names - Cart, Chariot, Pan, Ladle; the peoples inhabiting the territory of Ukraine called it Cart; in the Volga region it was called the Big Dipper, and in Siberia it was called the Elk. And these names are still preserved in some areas of our country.

Dolon eburgen (“seven elders”), Dolon darkhan (“seven blacksmiths”), Dolon burkhan (“seven gods”), in the mythology of the Mongolian peoples, the constellation Ursa Major, its seven stars are sometimes classified as Tengeri. In the shamanic hymns, Dolon eburgen is the giver of a happy fate (cf. dzayachi). In Buryat mythology (in the epic of Geser), the constellation appeared from the skulls of seven black (evil) blacksmiths, the sons of the black blacksmith Khozhori, hostile to people. There are stories (in the Tibeto-Mongolian editions of the collection “The Magic Dead” and in oral stories dating back to them) that connect the origin of the Big Dipper with the myth of a man with a cow’s head, called the “White-faced bull” or “White bull,” as well as Basang (in Tibetan mythology - Masane, a bull-headed character). It was crushed by the iron mallet of the witch-shulmas into seven parts, which made up the constellation; was taken to heaven by Khormusta for defeating a black poros (bull), who fought with a white one, who, according to some versions, was the incarnation of the supreme deity himself (the solar theme of the change of day and night, cf. the myth of Bukhanoyon Babai). According to another version, one of the stars of the Big Dipper, located on her shoulder (option: in the tail), was stolen from Michita (constellation Pleiades), who is chasing the kidnapper.

The Greenlandic Eskimos all tell the same story about the Big Dipper, the coincidence of all the details of which in each of the storytellers suggests that this is the pure truth, and not at all the idle fiction of walrus hunters bored by the long polar night.

The great hunter Eriulok lived in a snow hut. He lived alone, because he was very proud of the fact that he was a great hunter and did not want to know other Eskimos, also hunters, but not great ones. Eriulok went out alone in a fragile leather boat into the stormy sea and, with a long, heavy harpoon with a sharp bone tip, caught not only walruses and seals, but sometimes even a whale. How one can catch a whole whale alone will be left to the conscience of the Eskimos themselves. After all, that’s why Eriulok was a great hunter. Never in his snowy hut was the seal fat needed in the household, which had long been used to fill Eskimo lamps and lubricate faces and fingers so as not to freeze, used. He had plenty of delicious dried meat on any day, and the ceiling and walls of his snowy home were covered with the best walrus skins that could be found all the way from Greenland to Labrador. Lonely Eriulok was rich, well-fed and contented.

But over time, the great hunter began to be bothered by some anxiety. Apparently, happiness does not lie in hunting alone, since he realized that he no longer wanted to return to his lonely hut, where he would not hear a child’s laughter or words of greetings and gratitude. In short, the great hunter realized that it was time for him to start a family and live like other people. But it's easier to understand than to do. Other Eskimos have long refused to accept an overly proud fellow tribesman, refusing him home once and for all, which sometimes happens in a more civilized world, when someone does a better job than everyone else.

Since no one except the Eskimos lived either nearby or in the farthest distance, the Eskimos were always distinguished by great integrity and a sense of comradeship: as they decided not to deal with a lonely arrogant, they never did. In the end, Eriulok went to the very shore of the Arctic Ocean and turned to the mistress of the sea waters, fish, spirits and animals, to the main Eskimo goddess Arnarkuagssak. He told about his problem and asked for help in the hope that the goddess would not refuse such a famous person like him.
The Eskimo goddess really did not refuse and promised to send the local storm of seals and walruses a good bride, and if necessary, two. But, as is usual with gods and goddesses, she appointed a test. It was necessary to go to some distant island, find an ice cave there, defeat or deceive a huge polar bear and steal from him a ladle full of magic berries that bestow youth. The old sea goddess really needed such berries, but she still couldn’t find a madman who would go for them. And just then Eriulok turned up.

In general, the hero reached the island, found a cave, put the bear to sleep and stole a ladle with magic berries. And besides, he safely delivered both the ladle and the berries to their destination. However, he is truly a good hunter.

The most interesting thing is that the sea deity did not deceive the simple-minded hero at the last moment. No, they parted honestly: Eriulok received a silver seal, who immediately turned into a beautiful girl and declared that all her life she had only dreamed of marrying Eriulok. So soon the great hunter of even greater envy of his neighbors also became the father of a large and happy family. The sea goddess, having eaten the magic berries and shed a couple of thousand years, in joy, threw up an empty ladle so that it caught on something and hung above their heads

In Ancient Egypt, the constellation Ursa Major was called Meskhet, “The Thigh that lives in the great Lake of the northern sky” (cf. the idea of ​​the barque Ra).

In Ingush mythology, it is believed that the god-fighter Kuryuko stole sheep, water and reeds from the god of thunder and lightning Sela to give to people for the construction of houses. In this he is helped by the seven sons of Sela, who were supposed to guard the entrance to him. The angry Sela chained Kuryuko to a mountain rock, and hung his sons from the sky as punishment, and they formed the constellation Ursa Major.

In Tibetan folklore, a demoness chases the bull-headed creature Masang, the son of a cow and a man, and throws a cannonball that tears Masang into seven pieces, which become the Big Dipper. In this capacity, this character (like Basang) entered the mythology of the Mongolian peoples.

According to the Armenian myth, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are seven gossips, transformed by an angry god into seven stars.

Among the Sioux Indians, the Big Dipper was associated with the Skunk.

In Ancient Mesopotamia this constellation was called “Freight Cart” (Akkadian sambu, eriqqu). The idea of ​​the Big Dipper as a chariot was widespread in Ancient Mesopotamia, among the Hittites, in Ancient Greece, in Phrygia, among the Baltic peoples, in Ancient China (the Big Dipper is a “chariot pointing to the south”), and among the South American Bororo Indians. Names of the constellation Ursa Major similar to this are found among many peoples; there are other variants of the name: Old High German wagan - “chariot”; Ancient Roman Septemtriones - "Seven Stars"; Middle Dutch woenswaghen, woonswaghen - “Wotan’s cart”; Sogdian "nxr-wzn - "circle of the Zodiac"; Mitannian Aryan uasanna - "circle on the hippodrome"; ancient Indian vahana - "animal ridden by the gods" - and ratha - "chariot"; Tocharian A kukal, B kokale - "chariot" ; German Grosser Wagen - "Big Wagon".

In India, the head of the Elk (Ursa Major) faces east.

The pursuit of the heavenly elk is attributed to various heroes in Karelian-Finnish runes. One of them is “the cunning guy Lemminkäinen,” a troubled loser hero. Having made wonderful skis, he boasts that not a single creature in the forests can escape him. His boasts are heard by the evil masters of wild creatures ~ Hiisi and the Yuvttahi spirits. They created the elk Hiisi:

Making the head out of a hummock, making the whole body out of dead wood, making the legs out of stakes, making the ears out of lake flowers, and making the eyes out of swamps.
The spirits send the elk to run north “through the fields of the sons of the Lapps, to the courts of gloomy Pohjela”; there he knocks over a cauldron of soup, causing tears of girls and laughter of women. Lemminkäinen perceives this laughter as a mockery of himself and rushes in pursuit of the moose on his skis:

The first time he pushed away
And he disappeared from sight on skis.
Pushed off for the second time
And he was no longer heard.
The third time he pushed off -
And he jumped on the back of the elk.

The successful hunter had already made a cage to keep his prey there, and began to dream about how good it would be to lay his skin on the wedding bed and caress the maiden on it. It was then that the magical elk escaped from the daydreaming hunter: in a rage, he broke the cage and rushed off. Lemminkäinen started to rush after him, but in his haste he pushed off so hard that he broke both his skis and his poles...
Lemminkäinen's failure is associated with a prohibition that he violated: while hunting, one must not think about marital pleasures - this scares away the prey. In addition, the skin of a sacred animal created by spirits cannot be used for household needs.
It can be assumed that the hunting myth about a giant deer, which turned into a constellation, in a society that already knew cattle breeding, was transformed into a myth about a huge bull that the gods could not slaughter.

The bear was especially revered by the Finns and Karelians, as well as by other Finno-Ugric peoples. He arose from wool thrown from heaven into water; according to other myths, he was born near the celestial bodies in the sky, near the Big Dipper, from where he was lowered on silver straps in a gilded cradle into the forest, where he remained on the silver branches of a pine tree (a similar myth known to the Ob Ugrians will be discussed below). A bear hunt is accompanied by a whole series of conspiracies in which the animal is persuaded that he was not killed by the hunter, but that he himself came to the people’s house “with a copper belly from honey”: the hut is cleaned for him, as for a dear guest. The bear is a relative of man. He is from the family of Adam and Eve: his father and mother are known - Khongatar (a word related to the name of pine). In some conspiracies, the bear is greeted as a groom, “a handsome man in a monetary fur coat” - a bed with a gilded feather bed is made (we talked about a bear wedding above). The skull of a killed bear was hung on a pine tree - where the first mythical beast came from: they believed that the spirit of the bear would be reborn again.

The name of these two constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) is very original among the peoples who inhabited the territory of the current Kazakh Republic. Observing the starry sky, they, like other peoples, drew attention to the immobility of the North Star, which at any time of the day invariably occupies the same position above the horizon. It is quite natural that these peoples, whose main source of existence were herds of horses, called the North Star an “iron nail” (“Temir-Kazyk”) driven into the sky, and in the other stars of Ursa Minor they saw a lasso tied to this “nail”, put on neck of the Horse (constellation Ursa Major). During the day the Horse ran its way around the “nail”. Thus, the ancient Kazakhs combined the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor into one.

The Ob Ugrians believed that celestial origin was attributed to the elk and other cosmic objects: once the elk had six legs and rushed across the sky so fast that no one could catch up with it. Then a certain Son of God or man Mos, the first ancestor of the Ob Ugrians, went hunting on skis made of sacred wood. The hunter managed to drive the deer from the sky to the ground and cut off its extra two legs, but the traces of the heavenly hunt were forever imprinted on the sky. The Milky Way is the hunter's ski track, the Pleiades are the women from his home, the Big Dipper is the elk himself. The heavenly hunter has since settled on earth, where there was an abundance of game. Undoubtedly, this myth was duplicated among many northern peoples.

This is not a complete overview of the ideas of different peoples about the most famous constellation in our sky. But this also makes it clear how diverse the views of our ancestors were on the same phenomenon.

Initially, among the ancient Greeks, the constellation personified a person kneeling, and under the name “Kneeling” it was included in the famous catalog “Almagest” by Claudius Ptolemy. But in parallel, from approximately the 5th century BC. e. The Greeks began to call the constellation Hercules.

The soothsayer Pythia called him Hercules, and the Romans called him Hercules, and in this form this name was preserved in astronomy.

The ancient Greeks came up with their own legend about the appearance of Hercules.

The Spartan queen Alcmene gave birth to a boy of strong build, who also grew by leaps and bounds. He was called Alcides, that is, the strongest: he was the son of Zeus and was supposed to have intelligence and strength on a par with the gods.

Jealous Hera found out about his birth and immediately began to pursue the child. She launched two poisonous snakes into the baby's cradle. Imagine Alcmene’s surprise when in the morning she found her first-born in the cradle with two reptiles strangled by him. Since then, Alcides has acquired the nickname Hercules, which means “pursued Hero.” The hero was raised by the centaur Chiron, and Hercules turned out to be the best and strongest of all the earthly children of Zeus.

The mighty Hercules performed the first twelve labors in his early youth, doomed through the fault of Hera to be a servant of the weak and cowardly king of Mycenae Eurystheus.

The hero struck the Lernaean hydra with his heavy club, shot copper birds with a bow and destroyed a ferocious boar that killed animals and people with its tusks, brought the gloomy three-headed monster, the dog Cerberus, out of the kingdom of Hades - and all this for the benefit of the people of Arcadia and the Peloponnese.

There is another legend about the immortality of Hercules.

When Hercules was in the kingdom of Hades, he promised his friend Meleager to take his sister Deianira as his wife. Returning from the kingdom of shadows, Hercules went to the city of Calydon to King Oineus and told him about the meeting with the shadow of Meleager, the king’s son, and the promise he made to him. But it turned out that many other men and young men also sought Deianira’s hand, and among them the river god Aheloy. It was difficult for Oineus to decide who to give his beloved daughter to. Finally, he announced that Deianira would become the wife of the one who wins the fight. Hearing this, all the other contenders for Deianira's hand refused the fight, because they saw no chance of winning over Achelous. Only Hercules remained. The rivals went to a wide clearing and stood opposite each other. Wasting no time, Hercules rushed at the huge Achelous and grabbed him with his with powerful hands. But no matter how hard Hercules strained his muscles, he could not topple his opponent, who stood unshakable like a huge rock. The fight became more and more brutal. Hercules had already pressed Achelous to the ground three times, but only the fourth time he managed to grab him in such a way that victory seemed to be close. At this moment, Ahelous resorted to cunning. He turned into a snake and slipped out of the hero's hands. Undeterred, Hercules grabbed the snake and squeezed its head so tightly that the snake’s tail could no longer curl into tight coils. But the snake slipped out of the hands of Hercules and instantly turned into a ferocious bull, which furiously attacked the son of Zeus. The hero grabbed the bull by the horns and twisted his head so hard that he broke one horn and knocked him half-dead to the ground. Left without strength, the god Aheloy fled and disappeared into the stormy waters of the river.

Oeneus gave Deianira as his wife to the winner, and the wedding was magnificent and fun. After the wedding, Hercules and Dejanira went to Tiryns - the homeland of Hercules. The road led them to the stormy and high-water Even River, the water was dragging huge stones, and it seemed impossible to get to the other side - there was no ford or bridge. The centaur Nessus carried travelers across this river. Hercules called him and asked him to take Deianira to the other side. The centaur agreed, and Dejanira sat down on his broad back. Hercules threw his club, bow, spear and quiver of arrows to the other bank, and he himself rushed into the stormy waters of the river and swam across it. As soon as he came ashore, he heard the frightened cry of Deianira. Nessus, admiring the beauty of Deianira, wanted to kidnap her. Hercules grabbed his trusty bow, and a whistling arrow overtook the fleeing Nessus and pierced his heart. The mortally wounded centaur gave Deianira treacherous advice - to collect his poisoned blood, telling her: “Oh, daughter of Oeneus! You were the last one I carried across the stormy waters of Even. I'm dying. I give you my blood as a souvenir. It has a wonderful property: if Hercules ever stops loving you and another woman becomes dearer to him than you, at least rub this blood on his clothes. So you will return his love, and no mortal woman or goddess will be dearer to him than you.”

Dejanira believed the words of the dying Nessus. She collected his blood and hid it. Together with Hercules, they continued their journey to Tiryns. There they lived happily, and their children grew up carefree and delighted their parents.

One day Ifit came to visit them. Hercules received his friend cordially. Having celebrated the joyful meeting and talked, the friends went for a walk to the Tiryns fortress, standing on a high rock. From the walls of the fortress below, a terrible deep abyss was visible. Standing on the wall, Hercules and Iphit looked into the darkness of the gorge. And at that moment the goddess Hera, whose hatred for Hercules flared up more and more, instilled anger and madness in him. Unable to control himself, Hercules grabbed Iphitus and threw him into the abyss. With this involuntary murder, Hercules greatly angered his father, almighty Zeus, since he unwittingly violated the sacred customs of hospitality. As punishment, Zeus sent a serious illness to his son, from which Hercules suffered for a long time. No drugs could ease his pain and suffering. Finally, he went to Delphi. There, the soothsayer of the god Apollo, Pythia, told him that he would recover only on the condition that he was sold into slavery for three years, and the money received for him would be given to Iphitus's father Eurytus.

Hercules was sold into slavery to the Lydian queen Omphale, who subjected him to painful humiliations. She dressed the famous hero in women's clothing and forced him to spin and weave along with her maids. And at this time Omphale herself threw on herself a lion’s skin, which served as Hercules’s cloak, took his club, which she could hardly tear off the ground, and girded herself with his sword. She proudly walked past Hercules and mocked him. The hero's heart was filled with anger, but he could not do anything - after all, he was a slave of Omphale: she bought him and could do whatever she wanted with him. Three years of slavery to Omphale were difficult for Hercules. During this time he never sent any news to Deianira, and she fell into despair because she did not know whether her husband was alive. But one day a messenger brought her good news: Hercules is alive and well, his messenger Lichas should soon arrive, who will tell her in detail how Hercules took possession of the city of Oikhalia and destroyed it.

Finally, Lichas arrived. He brought captives with him, among whom was the royal daughter Iola. Lichas told about the victory of Hercules and pleased Deianira, saying that Hercules should soon return. In the crowd of captives Dejanira noticed beautiful girl, whose mournful appearance attracted attention, and asked Likhasa about her. But he didn't answer her.

Dejanira ordered the prisoners to be taken to the room reserved for them. As soon as Likhas left, a servant approached her and quietly whispered: “Glorious lady! Lichas did not want to tell you the truth about this grieving slave. Listen to me, lady! This is Iola, daughter of King Eurytus. Hercules did not send her here as a slave. As soon as he returns, he will marry her...” Dejanira heard this, and the pangs of jealousy began to torment her soul. The thought that after the return of Hercules she would be abandoned and expelled depressed her more and more. In despair, she remembered the advice of the centaur Nessus. She rubbed the blood of Nessus on the cloak that she had sewn for Hercules, wrapped it and gave it to Lichas, saying to him: “Lichas, quickly take this cloak to Hercules and tell him to immediately put it on and make sacrifices to the gods. But no mortal should wear this cloak before him. Even the rays of Helios must not touch the cloak before Hercules puts it on. Hurry up, Likhas!”

The messenger immediately set off. Dejanira returned to the room and saw with horror that the wool with which she had rubbed the cloak with the blood of the centaur had turned to ashes as soon as the rays of Helios fell on it. And in the place where the wool lay, poisonous foam appeared. Only now did Dejanira understand the insidious deception of the dying Nessus, but it was too late: Lichas handed the cloak to Hercules. Hercules threw on his cloak and sacrificed twelve bulls to his father Zeus and the other gods. From the heat of the burning altar, the cloak stuck to Hercules' body, and he began to writhe in terrible convulsions from unbearable pain. His son Gill, who was with him at the time, carried his father to the ship, and he hurried to his mother to tell him what she had done. When Gill told his mother about the inhuman suffering of his father, Dejanira, without saying a word, went to her chambers, locked herself there and pierced herself with a double-edged sword. They brought the dying Hercules. He experienced even greater torment when he learned that Deianira had killed herself and he could not take revenge on her. The poison burned his body, and he no longer had the strength to endure this pain. He ordered his son to burn him on the funeral pyre and thereby save him from further torment. Gill and his relatives fulfilled his father's wishes. Hercules was carried and placed on the fire, but no one wanted to light it, no matter how Hercules begged to do so. At this time Philoctetes arrived, and Hercules persuaded him to light a fire and promised to leave him his bow and arrows as a reward. Philoctetes fulfilled his wish. Huge tongues of flame engulfed the body of Hercules, but the lightning thrown by the great Zeus flashed brighter than the fire, and the thunder seemed to tear the sky apart. Pallas Athena and Hermes rushed in on a golden chariot. They raised the famous hero and beloved son of Zeus to Olympus. There the gods granted Hercules immortality, and he, as an equal among equals, began to live among them. Hera herself, forgetting her hatred, joyfully met Hercules and gave him her daughter, the beautiful and eternally young goddess Hebe, as his wife. The gods rewarded Hercules for all the heroic deeds, suffering and torment he endured on Earth, for the fact that he saved people from monsters that caused them terrible disasters. The Lord of Heaven and Earth Zeus turned his beloved son into the constellation Hercules. It appears high above the horizon in summer months. In the sky, this constellation is surrounded by the constellations Leo, Hydra, Taurus, Dragon and others, reminding people of the great deeds of the hero.