Prismtect › Constellations › Lyra
the Lyre
Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky and blue-white, is the easy start. A small parallelogram of fainter stars hangs beside it: the body of the lyre. Vega is one corner of the Summer Triangle with Deneb and Altair.
The lyre belonged to Orpheus, whose music could charm animals, trees and even stones. After his death the Muses asked that his lyre be set among the stars.
Around the year 14,000 the slow wobble of Earth's axis will make Vega the pole star, as it was about 12,000 years ago.
In Greek story the god Hermes made the first lyre from a tortoise shell, and the star Sulafat still carries the Arabic word for "the tortoise".
Old names for Vega include the Assyrian Dayan-same, "Judge of Heaven", and the Akkadian Tir-anna, "Life of Heaven".
To the Arabs, Vega and two small neighbouring stars were an eagle or vulture diving with folded wings: al-nasr al-waqi', "the swooping eagle", the origin of the name Vega.
In China Vega is Zhinü, the weaving girl, granddaughter of the celestial emperor, who wove silks for the gods.
In Wales, Lyra is Talyn Arthur, King Arthur's Harp.
For the Boorong people of north-western Victoria, Lyra is the Malleefowl, and Vega is Neilloan, "the flying loan".
The Incas knew Lyra as Urcuchillay and worshipped it as an animal deity.
In Hindu astronomy Vega is the nakshatra Abhijit.
In Greek story the god Hermes made the first lyre from a tortoise shell, and the star Sulafat still carries the Arabic word for "the tortoise". Orpheus played it to calm the Sirens' song when he sailed with Jason and the Argonauts. Another Roman source said the lyre belonged to the hero Theseus. The Romans also marked the start of autumn by the hour at which Vega set.
Old names for Vega include the Assyrian Dayan-same, "Judge of Heaven", and the Akkadian Tir-anna, "Life of Heaven".
To the Arabs, Vega and two small neighbouring stars were an eagle or vulture diving with folded wings: al-nasr al-waqi', "the swooping eagle", the origin of the name Vega. Another bird, the soaring eagle, was Altair. Sheliak comes from the Arabic for "harp".
In China Vega is Zhinü, the weaving girl, granddaughter of the celestial emperor, who wove silks for the gods. She fell in love with a cowherd (Altair) and was parted from him by the Milky Way. In Korea she is Jiknyeo, and in Japan Orihime.
In Wales, Lyra is Talyn Arthur, King Arthur's Harp.
For the Boorong people of north-western Victoria, Lyra is the Malleefowl, and Vega is Neilloan, "the flying loan".
The Incas knew Lyra as Urcuchillay and worshipped it as an animal deity. Among northern Polynesian peoples Vega was the "year star", whetu o te tau.
In Hindu astronomy Vega is the nakshatra Abhijit. In the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna says that among the nakshatras he is Abhijit.
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