why are conselations often named after mythological creatures?
456160
personally, i favor discarding the use of constellations because they are unnatural.  humans took the pattern of stars they saw and designed figures from it.
569415
My great-aunt once wrote an entire book about Greek mythology in a sort of story-telling form. It was a very informative book, and it helped me stay aware of Greek and Roman references more often. People (including me) often speak of the weather as being "hotter than Hades" as a more polite way of saying "hotter than hell." Hades was the Greek god of the underworld, which would be compared to a Christian concept of hell. Companies still use these references even today in shoes (like Nike), sporting equipment, technological equipment, flowers (think FTD Florist using Hermes as their symbol), and cleaning supplies (think Ajax). As an English major, I wrote at least two poems with mythological references. I love the musical "My Fair Lady" which is related to "Pygmalion" and the old myth of the man who created his ideal woman. If you watch Disney's "Monsters Inc." there is one part where the little one-eyed monster Mike is contemplating how to smuggle the little girl Boo back into the company, and he uses a Greek reference to the Trojan horse, but dismisses it as "Too Greek!" Children would probably not understand what he said, but those of us who have studied mythology would. I do not use mythology as a replacement for religion, but it helps to understand historical references and symbolism around us.
382019
No.  A lot of animals look up to humans as if they were Gods.  \n\nOtherwise, I see an awful lot of Taoists in nature.  Like birds - I think they are all Taoists.  The only exception when it comes to birds is hens, because they are obviously "Hendus."
179248
Because they're names.
1081039
I've already done this kind of project for myself, so I like to think I know what I'm doing and that I'm correct in my mythology, I love mythology. By the time I'm done, this answer will be quite long and will read both as the social pages and genealogical survey of the Ancient Gods. I have to say, unfortunately, that several of the answers previous to my own are incorrect. Allow me to offer the proper "translations" for you and I hope you find them helpful.\n\nSun = In some myths, Helios is the sun itself, Apollo is the god of the sun, drawing the sun behind his chariot across the Daytime sky. (Oddly enough, Apollo is both Greek and Roman)\n\nMercury = Hermes, the male messenger of the gods. His counterpart, Hebe, a daughter of Zeus and Hera, served as female messenger, cupbearer, or handmaiden to Hera, depending on the myth.\nMercury has no known satelites.\n\nVenus = Aphrodite, the goddess of love.\nVenus has no satelites.\n\nEarth = Gaia, the original mother; a Titan goddess.\nEarth's satelite = The Moon: In some myths, Selene is the moon itself, and sister to Helios. The twin sister of Apollo, Artemis, is the goddess of the moon, and draws the moon behind her chariot across the Nighttime sky. (Artemis is called Diana in Roman myths)\n\nMars = Ares, the god of war. \nMars's satelites = Phobos and Deimos: sons by Aphrodite are Fear and Panic.\n\nJupiter = Zeus, seemingly god of most everything else that isn't designated to another deity.\nJupiter's satelites = Metis, goddess of Wisdom, mother of Athena; Adrastea, goddess of reward, punishment and divine retribution, daughter of Ananke; Amalthea, in some myths, the nymph or her goat who nursed the infant Zeus; Thebe, a nymph; Io, a mortal maiden; Europa, a mortal princess, the mother of Minos; Ganymede, a mortal boy, whom Zeus incorporated as male cupbearer to the gods; Callisto, a maid attending Artemis, the mother of Arcas. Through circumstances, Callisto and Arcas were transformed into the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; Leda, the mortal mother of 2 sets of twins...by Zeus, Pollux and Helen (of Troy), by her husband, Castor and Clytemnestra. Castor and Pollux are the constellation Gemini; Himalia, a nymph; Lysithea, daughter of Oceanus; Elara, the mother of a giant; Ananke, goddess of Destiny, mother of Adrastea and the Fates; Carme, goddess of grain, mother of Britomartis; Pasiphae, the wife of Minos and mother of the Minotaur; Sinope, a mortal woman.\n\nSaturn = Cronos, the god of agriculture, father of Zeus (along with Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon).\nSaturn's satelites = Pan, a faun (part human, part goat) god of the woods; Atlas, a Titan, who bears the heavens on his shoulder, brother to Prometheus and Epimetheus; Prometheus, the one who brought fire to mankind, and paid for it; Pandora, the one who opened her infamous Box, wife to Epimetheus; Epimetheus, mythologically, he made the animals of the world, a task so wonderful his brother Prometheus tried to beat his efforts; Janus, the god of gates and doorways, with a face pointing in 2 directions; Mimas, a Titan slain by Heracles*; Enceladus, a Titan supposedly buried under Mt. Etna; Tethys, a Titan goddess of the Sea; Telesto, a sea nymph, daughter of Tethys; Calypso, goddess of Silence, Dione, depending on the myth, she and Zeus are the parents of Aphrodite (in other myths, Aphrodite was born of the foam of the sea where it churned the dismembered parts of Uranus); Helene, an Amazon; Rhea, wife of Saturn, mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus; Titan, giant children of Gaia and Uranus; Hyperion, a Titan, father of Helios and Selene; Iapetus, a Titan, father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Atlas; Phoebe, grandmother to Apollo and Artemis.\n\nUranus = Ouranos, god of the heavens.\nUranus's satelites (don't seem to be steeping in mythological context, but in Shakespeare) = Cordelia, "King Lear"; Ophelia, "Ham
131844
Why is this question in the mythology section?\n\nI recomend a search engine.
293554
It is when one being (animal, fish or insect) that is not deadly mimics a being (animal, fish or insect) in behavior or appearance to try to prevent itself from being eating or attacked. I am not sure why this field of research would be considered important.
1035811
The answer fits into your scheme and curiously mirrors their “question.” While a group (let’s call them pro-science) has evolved past accepting mythological explanations, some other groups of the original (pre-scientific) species have not evolved. I hope my answer doesn’t drive them bananas.
1106152
It does. It is often called by it's greek name "Luna".
918505
Heh.  Depending on who you ask, it HASN'T changed.  Let's break it down:\n\nThe names given in Latin for animals are usually just the most specific part of their scientific classification.  Now originally the whole classification system was just set up so you could tell animal A from animal B, so it involved a bunch of branching questions you might ask and then refer to the animal to see in which classification it belonged.  This was a pretty good idea at the time, because with only one name for each type of animal and a systematic way of determining such things, everyone could talk about the same things.\n\nA wrinkle was introduced as biology developed as a science.  With the advent of evolution, and confirmed with DNA sequencing and the like, it was discovered that the classification system that was (almost) haphazardly put together just to sort animals was actually pretty descriptive of common ancestry.  Animals that had a lot in common probably shared recent common ancestors, and animals with less in common were more distantly related.  This eureka of how an accidental classification system could correspond so closely to molecular evidence is still one of the most compelling justifications for the evolutionary theory today.\n\nThe problem is that the correspondance wasn't perfect, and that even now new connections are be found and old ones are being discredited.  So while the old chart was (more or less) static, scientific classifications these days not only change, but are argued about, changed back, and sometimes just not accepted by some experts.\n\nThis is the case we have with the family 'Sulidae'.  This family includes all the birds that are generally referred to as gannets and boobies.  About this, at least, there is no argument.\n\nNow, it used to be thought that pretty much all existing species of Sulidae came from just one group of ancestors.  The Sula.  You see this kind of similar naming crop up a lot in taxonomy, especially when the groups are small but distinct.  In addition to the still-living Sula, there were also any number of extinct fossil groupings which did not survive.  All these groups which made up the family of Sulidae are each called a 'genus', and their names are the first part of the Latin name that animals are commonly referred to.\n\nThis old model of how things happened is now (largely) superceded by a new one.  There are now thought to be THREE living genuses:  Morus (all the gannets), Sula (almost all the boobies), and Papasula (which has just one species - Abbot's Booby).  So basically most biologists have decided from the evidence that three of the ancient groups survived instead of just one, and they did so probably on the basis of fossils that have been found, DNA evidence, and the like.\n\nBut some do not agree with this decision, so you'll actually still see references to both 'Sula bassana' and 'Morus bassanus'.  The second name, that of the species, is really the same name... it's only different between the two because of the rules of Latin grammar.\n\nHope that helps!
100051
Ancient people gave their own names. For instance the Greec names differ from the Egyptian ones. The Inca names were also completely different.\nThe international astronomical sociaty choose scientific names.
58283
After looking through countless references I can only give you a vague answer to your question. Orion was named by the ancient Greeks; according to their mythology he was a giant hunter and one of the few male friends of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Depending on what version of the story you hear, Orion gets killed by a giant scorpion (Scorpius). Artemis mourns his death and places him in the sky to commemorate him. \n\nThe origins of the names "Big Dipper" and "Little Dipper" are even more difficult to come by. The Big Dipper seems to just be the common name for the asterism because that's what it looks like. The Big Dipper has been called everything from "the Plow", to "the Weasel" to "the Drinking Gourd" and of course is also part of the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) again from Greek Mythology. \n\nI can only guess that Ursa Minor, (the Little Bear) was named the Little Dipper because it too kind of looks like one, but also because the two patterns of stars are associated with each other from Greek Mythology. So when the Great Bear was called "the Big Dipper" it just made sense to call the Little Bear the "Little Dipper". But really Tom, your guess is as good as mine. \n\nCheck out http://www.csulb.edu/~gordon/constel.html for a list of origin stories for other constellations and asterisms.
240081
There are many reasons for this, but most are Christian seeing as magic users are thought to be in league with the devil and the serpent also represents the devil. Another one is that in Asia Minor, snakes are associated with prophecy, which most cultures would take to be something dealing with magic or wizards and witches.
602111
In Greek mythology, the Vulture is the descendant of the Griffin.  It was a very Buddhist-like, Zen-like symbol of the non-dual oneness of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, good and evil, guardian and avenger.  The Vulture is the avenger of nature spirits.    Ancient Assyrians believed the Vulture was, like Nagarjuna's middle way, Sunyata, the encompassing overall non-separated union between the day and night.\n\nIn Egyptian mythology, Nephthys (spelt Nebet-het, and Nebt-het, in transliteration from hieroglyphs) is one of the Ennead of Heliopolis, a daughter of Nuit and Geb, and the wife of Set. \n\nShe was banished to the desert.  As she was also seen as a bird, she gradually became seen as a vulture, which the egyptians believed never had children due to being believed to all be female (they thought vultures were spontaneously created from air). Although vultures were seen in a positive light, their feeding behaviour nevertheless lead them to be associated also with decay and death, and so Nephthys too gradually became a goddess of death and decay.
663337
because they were named by the greeks and romans. The Egyptians had names for them too, but since english is based on latin, we get most of our "stuff" from the Latin speaking Romans.
684685
The various figures now called dragons probably have no single origin, but were spontaneously envisioned in several different cultures around the world, based loosely on the appearance of a snake and possibly fossilized dinosaur and Tertiary mammal megafauna remains.\n\n \nNazi propaganda poster of a dragon being crushed by the logo of the nazi S.S.They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing long, typically scaly, bodies; dragons are often (but not always) portrayed with wings and a fiery breath.\n\nAlthough dragons (or dragon-like creatures) occur commonly in legends around the world, different cultures have perceived them differently. Chinese dragons (Simplified Chinese: 龙; Traditional Chinese: 龍; Pinyin: lóng), and Eastern dragons generally, are usually seen as benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent (there are of course exceptions to these rules). Malevolent dragons also occur in Persian mythology (see Azhi Dahaka) and other cultures.\n\nDragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many oriental cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature and the universe. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power. In some cultures, they are said to be capable of human speech.\n\nDragons are very popular characters in fantasy literature and video games today, especially in role-playing games. The term dragoon, for infantry that move around by horse, yet still fight as foot soldiers, is derived from their early firearm, the "dragon", a wide-bore musket that spit flame when it fired, and was thus named for the mythical beast.\n\n[edit]\nSymbolism\nIn medieval symbolism, dragons were often symbolic of apostasy and treachery, but also of anger and envy, and eventually symbolised great calamity. Several heads were symbolic of decadence and oppression, and also of heresy. They also served as symbols for independence, leadership and strength. Many dragons also represent wisdom; slaying a dragon not only gave access to its treasure hoard, but meant the hero had bested the most cunning of all creatures. In some cultures, especially Chinese, or around the Himalayas, dragons are considered to represent good luck.\n\n \nSaint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c.1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.[edit]\nIn Christianity\nThe Latin word for a dragon, draco (genitive: draconis), actually means snake or serpent, emphasising the European association of dragons with snakes. The Biblical identification of the Devil and the serpent thus gave a snake-like dragon connotations of evil. The demonic opponents of God, Christ, or good Christians have commonly been portrayed as dragons.\n\nIn the Book of Job Chapter 41, the sea monster Leviathan, which has some dragon-like characteristics, is described as God talks about the "king of beasts" that lived upon the Earth at a former time.\n\nIn Revelation 12:3, an enormous red beast with seven heads is described, whose tail sweeps one third of the stars from heaven down to earth (held to be symbolic of the fall of the angels). In some translations, the word "dragon" is used to describe the beast.\n\nIn iconography, some Christian saints are depicted in the act of killing a dragon. This is one of the common aspects of Saint George in Egyptian Coptic iconography [1], on the coat of arms of Moscow, and in English and Aragonese legend. In Italy, Saint Mercurialis, first bishop of the city of Forlì, is also depicted slaying a dragon.[2]\n\n[edit]\nHistory and Origin of Dragons\nA fellow editor requested that someone provide references or some sources for the information in this section.\nSome believe that the dragon may have had a real-
792488
Creation should be referred to as a myth - it's not even pseudoscience - it will never be a theory - and that's not a put-down. The value of the mythos is unparalleled. Unfortunately people many people are so caught up in literal interpretation that they miss the underlying meaning and value of mythic symbolism.