The call of the stars; a popular introduction to a knowledge of the starry skies with their romance and legend . h with a flash of lightning,and tumbled him headlong from his chariot down intothe great sky-river Eridanus. His three sisters, theHeliades, who had harnessed up the horses to thechariot, bewailed the death of their brother so bitterlyon the banks of the Eridanus, that the gods in compas-sion changed them into poplars, and their tears intoamber. Ovid duly commemorated their grief in thefollowing lines: All the long night their mournful watch they keep,And all the day stand round the
The call of the stars; a popular introduction to a knowledge of the starry skies with their romance and legend . h with a flash of lightning,and tumbled him headlong from his chariot down intothe great sky-river Eridanus. His three sisters, theHeliades, who had harnessed up the horses to thechariot, bewailed the death of their brother so bitterlyon the banks of the Eridanus, that the gods in compas-sion changed them into poplars, and their tears intoamber. Ovid duly commemorated their grief in thefollowing lines: All the long night their mournful watch they keep,And all the day stand round the tomb and weep. In the Hebrew zodiac, Scorpio is allotted to Dan,because it is written, Dan shall be a serpent by theway, an adder in the path (Genesis xlix., 17). Astrologically considered, Scorpio is the house andjoy of Mars. Those bom from October 23d to Novem-ber 226. are said to be ruled by it. It is a femininesign, and is regarded as unfortunate. The ancientssupposed it to be emblematic of fevers and otherdiseases which prevail in the autumn. In Dantes Purgatorio (Longfellows tr.) it is referredto as:. I The Night-Sky of Summer 91 that cold animalWhich with its tail doth smite amain the nations. The most noted star in the constellation is Antaresor Alpha called also Cor Scorpionis or Le Coeur duScorpion, the heart of the Scorpion. It is a nearlyfirst-magnitude star of a fiery red colour situated in theheart of the venomous reptile. It owes its name to itsbeing the reddest bright star in the sky, the rival ofMars, the ruddy planet, in brightness and colour(from the Greek Anti, like, and Ares, Mars). It liessouth of the celestial equator in a long and curving rowof bright stars which mark the body and revertingsting of the scorpion. It is pointed out by a line start-ing at Polaris, and running thence directly south,about half-way between Arcturus and Vega, for adistance of about 116 degrees. Along with Arcturusand Spica it makes up a magnificent right-angledtriangle, Spica
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