The ancient Greeks called constellations “katasterismoi”, meaning “placings of the stars” — placed by the gods. The Greeks believed the Olympians put those people, animals and objects in the heavens for a reason: to serve as unmistakable lessons of proper behavior. Often, entire stories play out across the sky, traced from one constellation to the next. As a primarily oral civilization, the ancient Greeks had many versions of the constellation myths, so there’s never one “correct” story. What we do know comes from rare and often fragmentary written sources.
