This constellation is of Greek origin, and it is gravely asserted by their ancient historians that this bird was originally of the purest white, but was changed, for tale-bearing, to its present color.
"The raven once in snowy plumes was drest,
White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast,
Fair as the guardian of the capitol,
Soft as the swan, a fair and lovely fowl;
His tongue, his prating tongue, had changed him quite
To sooty blackness from the purest white."
Apollo, becoming jealous of Coronis, sent a crow to watch her movements. The bird discovered her partiality for Ischys, and immediately acquainted the god with it, which so fired his indignation: that
"The color left his look,
The wreath his head, the harp his hand forsook;