The Legend of Ara Ara: this is an extremely ancient constellation in legend. Sailors knew of dangerous weather if it was visible in the southern skies. It is typically identified as an altar. Mesopotamia: at the time of the Sumerians, the constellation's position in the sky probably placed it as the twelfth sign of the zodiac. It was also representative of the seventh month on the Sumerian calendar. Its shape at the time was almost completely circular, a startling resemblance to a Sumerian altar. Altars were used to warn sailors of dangers at sea as early lighthouses and were always lit with fires. The constellation was a representation of this practice.
Another legend from Sumer tells of the great deluge and the heroic Utnapishtim and his wife, later transformed into the biblical story of Noah. Told of the coming flood by the god Ea, Utnapishtim built an ark and filled it with the "seeds of every kind of life." The deluge came and the ark wandered the endless seas until the rains ceased. After twelve days a strip of land was visible in the land of Nisir. He waited seven days before releasing a crow. When the bird didn't return, Utnapishtim knew that he could release the other animals. He made an offering to the gods by burning fragrant reeds, cedar and bark. The gods inhaled the smoke and were pleased. They placed the altar in the southern sky where the Milky Way would represent the smoke rising to them. See the Mesopotamian legends of Argo Navis and the Milky Way.
Greece: with the prediction of death at the hand of his own child, Cronus swallowed his children as soon as his wife, Rhea, gave birth. After losing five children in this way, and finding she was pregnant with another, Rhea hid the child with the aid of her mother, Gaia, giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. Zeus grew to manhood, poisoned his father forcing him to vomit up his siblings and battled his father and the rest of his allies and brothers, the Titans. Zeus and his brothers took as their allies those Titans that Cronus had imprisoned in Tartarus. These allies included the Cyclopes who were masters of metal craft. The Cyclopes built a mighty altar and burnt a sacrifice that produced enough smoke to hide Zeus and his brothers as they beat Cronus and his Titan brothers. In gratitude, Zeus decreed that the altar be placed in the sky at the beginning of the Milky Way so the Milky Way itself would be its heavenly smoke.Back to the Constellations