The Northern Crown really looks like a crown. Its outline is easily traced, although its stars are delicate with the exception of one which is much larger and brighter than the others. It closely follows Arcturus and is best seen during the early evenings of July when it is floating high in the dome of the heavens, a most fascinating star figure.
Long ago, in some of the old countries, people saw in this "Crown" the likeness to a broken plate held out by a beggar to receive alms; the Pawnee Indians imagined it a camp circle of warriors sitting in council around their camp fire and that the bright star was a servant preparing a feast over the fire; the Australian natives called it the "boomerang," but in Greek mythology this is the crown which Bacchus gave the beautiful Ariadne after she had been deserted by Theseus, King of Athens, on the island of Naxos which lay far out to sea.
According to a later legend, from which the Crown obtained its name, a yearly tribute of seven youths and maidens was exacted from the Athenians by the tyrant Minos, King of the Island of Crete. These Athenian captives were then rowed over from Greece to Crete and confined in a labyrinth as a feast for a ferocious Minotaur. This labyrinth had been constructed by Dædalus, a most ingenious artist and artificer, who had so perfected the intricate maze of passageways that neither the Minotaur, nor any of his victims, could possibly escape.
Theseus, son of Ægeus, the king of Athens, grieved deeply at the fate of so many innocent sufferers, and thinking that he might be able to overcome the monster, bravely offered himself as one of the seven youths. When Ariadne, daughter of the wicked King Minos, saw the handsome Prince arrive among those to be sacrificed, she was filled with love and pity and risked her own life by secretly furnishing him with a strong sword and a long thread. Theseus then attacked the Minotaur and slew him, afterwards extricating himself from the difficult windings of the labyrinth by means of the thread. He and Ariadne then slipped down to his vessel which had remained anchored in the harbor and set sail for Athens.
On his homeward journey the goddess Minerva appeared to Theseus and told him that he must leave Ariadne at Naxos, an island celebrated for its vineyards, for the Fates had decreed that she should not go with him to Athens. Such barbarous conduct on the part of Theseus must have been past all understanding to poor Ariadne. Ræ has painted a very beautiful picture of her as she sits by the rocks on the sea-shore sadly gazing out to sea, for she was a very sweet girl and not at all like her wicked father. But Theseus suffered also for his seemingly heartless desertion, for he had promised his father, Ægeus, that if he succeeded in subduing the Minotaur he would exchange his black sail for a white one. With one thing and another happening, Theseus forgot to change his sail, and the poor old man watching the black wing loom in the distance, supposed his son to be lost, and threw himself into the sea. This sea was henceforth called the Ægean Sea in memory of the tragic fate of Ægeus. In the meantime Bacchus, the God of the Vineyards, came along decked in ivy and vine leaves, and discovered the forsaken Ariadne asleep on a rock, worn out with sorrow and weeping.
The god was so captivated by the beauty of the Cretan maid that he did everything in his power to make her forget her unhappiness, even marrying her and promising at her death to give her a place among the gods. He then suspended her wedding crown in the sky, where it still hangs, although its jewels have grown so large that they resemble stars. These stars are now called the "Northern Crown" though they are really
"A brilliant sign of the lost Ariadne."
—Aratus.
Spenser pointing them out in his Faerie Queene says