According to Ovid, Juno changed Callisto into a bear; and when Arcas, in hunting, was about to kill his mother, Jupiter placed both among the stars.
Ursa Minor was also called Phœnice, because the Phœnicians made it their guide in navigation, while the Greeks preferred the Great Bear for that purpose. It was also known as Cynosura (dog’s tail) from its resemblance to the upturned curl of a dog’s tail. The Great Bear was sometimes called Helice (winding), either from its shape or its curved path.
Boötes (the Herdsman) was also called Arctophylax and Arcturus, both of which names mean the guard or keeper of the bear. According to some of the stories, Boötes was Arcas; according to others, he was Icarus, the unfortunate son of Dædalus. The name Arcturus was afterwards given to the chief star of the constellation.
Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, and Pegasus are a group of star-pictures illustrating a single story.
Cepheus and Cassiopeia were the king and queen of Ethiopia, and had a very beautiful daughter, Andromeda. Her mother boasted that the maiden was fairer than the Nereids, who in their anger persuaded Neptune to send a sea-monster to ravage the shores of Ethiopia. To appease the offended deities Andromeda, by the command of an oracle, was exposed to this monster. The hero Perseus rescued her and married her.
Pegasus, the winged horse, sprang from the blood of the frightful Gorgon, Medusa, whom Perseus had slain not long before he rescued Andromeda from the sea-monster. According to the most ancient account, Pegasus became the horse of Jupiter, for whom he carried the thunder and lightning; but he afterward came to be considered the horse of Aurora, and finally of the Muses. Modern poets rarely speak of him except as connected with the Muses.
The Dragon, according to some of the poets, was the one that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides; according to others, the monster sacred to Mars which Cadmus killed in Bœotia.
The Lyre is said to be the one which Apollo gave to Orpheus. After the death of Orpheus, Jupiter placed it among the stars at the intercession of Apollo and the Muses.
The Crown was the bridal gift of Bacchus to Ariadne, transferred to the heavens after her death.
Aquila is probably the eagle into which Merops was changed. It was placed among the stars by Juno. Some, however, make it the Eagle of Jupiter.