The Legend of Milky Way Milky Way: first seen to be individual stars by Galileo in 1609 when he used a telescope. The full splendor of the Milky Way can be viewed on a clear, moonless night. The dim light of a far off city will obliterate much of the galaxy. Ancient astronomers were at wits end trying to explain this apparent, dim circle that had nothing to do with the positions of the equinoxes or other important celestial guides. Anaxagoras saw it as a collection of stars whose light was partially obscured by the shadow of the Earth. Pythagoras said it was thousands of suns that were extremely far from the Earth and not very bright. Aristotle thought it was a great mass of luminous vapor higher than the ether but lower than the planets. Metrodorus claimed it marked the former path of the sun and Theophrastus thought it was the seam in the sky where the two hemispheres of the celestial vault didn't quite fit together. The light was that of the celestial beyond peaking through the ill fitting seam. Many peoples saw it as a river, others as heavenly smoke.
Mesopotamia: the most prevalent description of the Milky Way is that of smoke rising to the gods from sacrificial offerings. The oldest known reference is that of the sacrifice of Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, after the ark was stranded on Mount Ararat following the deluge. See the Mesopotamian legend of Ara.
Egypt: the River Nile into which the goddess Isis fled to escape the monster Typhon. She threw stalks of grain behind her and these became the stars of the Milky Way.
Greece: classical Greek mythology describes the Milky Way in a number of colorful stories. One story described it as a smear of milk left after the infant Hercules suckled milk from Hera to gain her wisdom. When she realized that the child was the bastard son of Zeus and another woman, she pushed the baby away and the spurting milk became the Milky Way. An earlier story dates to the birth of Zeus whose father Cronus swallowed his children to protect his position as sky god. Rhea, the earth, not wanting to lose yet another child to her husband's jealousy, wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to her husband to swallow. Cronus asked her to nurse the child one more time before he swallowed it. Pressing the hard rock against her nipple, the spurting milk became the Milky Way. Another explanation says the Milky Way is the burned scar across the sky formed when Phaëthon inexpertly drove the sun chariot. See the Greek legend of Eridanus.
India: depending on the part of the country you were traveling, it was known as the Bed of the Ganges in the south and in the north as the Path of the Serpent.
Australian aborigines: the smoke of an ancient people's sacrifices.
China: heavenly river where the mothers of the sun and moon bathe their children before they enter the sky.
Eskimos: the snowy path of the Great Raven
European Catholics: a guide to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Lapland: the path of migrating birds.
Legend: St. James appeared to Charlemagne within the Milky Way and used it to show the way to his burial place in Spain.
Muslims: the direction followed by pilgrims to Mecca.
Tartars of Caucasus: the path of a thief who stole straw and dropped it behind him as he tried to escape.
Tribe in Botswana: it is the spine of a great beast whose body makes up the sky.
Volga: path of wild geese.
Worldwide belief: it is the path that souls take on their way to the afterlife.Back to the Constellations