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the Eagle
Altair, bright and white, sits between two fainter stars in a short line. It is the southern corner of the Summer Triangle with Vega and Deneb. The eagle flies along the Milky Way toward the swan.
The eagle carried Zeus's thunderbolts. In East Asian stories Altair is the herdsman and Vega the weaver girl, two lovers kept apart by the Milky Way who meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.
Altair spins so fast, once in about nine hours, that it is flattened, wider at its equator than from pole to pole.
The Greek eagle probably comes from a Babylonian constellation of the Eagle.
Besides carrying thunderbolts, Zeus's eagle was sent to snatch the shepherd boy Ganymede and bring him to Mount Olympus to pour wine for the gods; nearby Aquarius is sometimes said to be…
Altair takes its name from the Arabic al-nasr al-ta'ir, "the flying eagle (or vulture)".
In China, Altair and its two neighbours were also Hegu, the "river drum", a war drum whose beat told an army to attack.
In Hindu tradition the constellation is linked with Garuda, a divine being who is half eagle and half man.
To the Koori people of Victoria, Altair is Bunjil, the wedge-tailed eagle, and its two neighbours are his wives, two black swans.
Inuit people called Altair and Tarazed Aagjuuk.
The Greek eagle probably comes from a Babylonian constellation of the Eagle. The Babylonians and Sumerians called Altair "the eagle star". The historian Gavin White notes that the Babylonian Eagle was drawn carrying another figure, the Dead Man, in its claws.
Besides carrying thunderbolts, Zeus's eagle was sent to snatch the shepherd boy Ganymede and bring him to Mount Olympus to pour wine for the gods; nearby Aquarius is sometimes said to be Ganymede. The Romans also called these stars Vultur volans, "the flying vulture". Under the emperor Hadrian, some of its stars were made into a separate figure, Antinous, which is no longer used.
Altair takes its name from the Arabic al-nasr al-ta'ir, "the flying eagle (or vulture)". Arab sky-watchers saw Altair and its two neighbours as a bird soaring with wings spread. The two neighbours, Alshain and Tarazed, get their names from a Persian phrase meaning "the balance": with Altair they look like the beam of a pair of scales.
In China, Altair and its two neighbours were also Hegu, the "river drum", a war drum whose beat told an army to attack. In the cowherd story, the two side stars are the cowherd's two children, carried with him. In Korea the cowherd is Gyeonu; in Japan Altair is Hikoboshi.
In Hindu tradition the constellation is linked with Garuda, a divine being who is half eagle and half man.
To the Koori people of Victoria, Altair is Bunjil, the wedge-tailed eagle, and its two neighbours are his wives, two black swans. People of the Murray River knew Altair as Totyerguil, a hunter who speared a giant Murray cod; the wounded fish carved out the Murray River before rising into the sky as Delphinus.
Inuit people called Altair and Tarazed Aagjuuk. Its first appearance at dawn after the winter solstice was one of the most important signs of their year. In Micronesia Altair is Mai-lapa, "big (or old) breadfruit", and the Māori call it Poutu-te-rangi, "pillar of heaven". Bugis sailors of Indonesia steered by it, calling it bintoéng timoro, "the eastern star".
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