Cerberus
This constellation was invented in Early Modern Time; it first occurs in Hevelius (1690).
Etymology and History
The Greek mythology derived "Kerberos" Κέρβερος (the Daemon of the Pit)) probably from a Babylonian original, perhaps the MUŠ-dragon that is depicted in the sky in constellation Hydra. This creature was a dog-headed snake with front feed and wings. Still, there was no Greek or Roman constellation "Kerberos" or "Cerberus". It was introduced in Early Modern time in Europe and formed part of the constellation Hercules.
Origin of Constellation
Ian Ridpath writes:[1]
Hevelius’s Cerberus replaced another figure, the branch from the tree of the golden apples, that Johann Bayer had previously depicted in the hand of Hercules. Bayer’s elaborate apple branch consisted of 10 stars. R. H. Allen in his book Star Names says that Bayer called the apple branch Ramus Pomifer, but I can find no mention of it in Bayer’s Uranometria; in fact he left it unnamed. Rather, the name Ramus Pomifer seems to have arisen with Alexander Jamieson on Plate 8 of his Celestial Atlas of 1822. Further modifications were to come after Hevelius. In or around 1721 the English cartographer and engraver John Senex (1678–1740), a friend of Edmond Halley, combined Cerberus with Bayer’s apple branch to produce what he labelled Ramus Cerberus. This combined figure first appeared on Senex’s chart of the northern celestial hemisphere, Stellarum Fixarum Hemisphaerium Boreale, which he produced from Halley’s pirate edition of Flamsteed’s unfinished star catalogue. Johann Bode subsequently showed them on his Uranographia atlas of 1801 under the name Cerberus et Ramus (see illustration below). However, Flamsteed’s own chart of Hercules, published in his Atlas Coelestis of 1729, includes neither Cerberus nor Ramus; instead, Hercules is drawn grasping thin air.
Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation
Cerberus in Hevelius (1690)
Cerberus in Hevelius (1690)
Cerberus in Bode (1801)
Cerberus in Bode (1801)
Cerberus in Jamieson (1822)
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Mythology
Ian Ridpath writes:[1]
[Kerberos] was the triple-headed monster that guarded the gates of Hades, the realm of the dead, preventing the living from entering and the dead from leaving. As the last and most dangerous of his 12 labours Hercules was sent to the Underworld to capture this fearsome beast. He wrestled the creature into submission with his bare hands and dragged it, writhing and resisting, from the darkness of the Underworld to the unaccustomed brightness of the surface where its triple barking filled the air.
