Sagitta

Sgr star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg).

One of the 88 IAU constellations. Sagitta, The Arrow, is one the classical Greek constellations. In antiquity, it was considered a harbinger of the light and fertility as it is the carriage of the gods Apollo (light god) and his sister Demeter (goddess of fertility) when they arrive from the distant country of Hyperborea after winter.

Etymology and History

The Greek constellation of Sagitta first occurs in Eudoxus.

Earliest preserved depiction of Sagitta on the Kugel Globe (1st century BCE), next to Cygnus.

Origin of Constellation

Babylonian

It is unknown whether this region was considered part of the asterism of The Pig (ŠAḪ) or any other image (UD.KA.DU₈.A or TE₈^mušen, The Eagle).

Greco-Roman

Eratosthenes

Var. 1: This line is the arrow of a bow which belonged, it is said, to Apollo, and with which, to avenge Asclepius, he killed the Cyclops who had forged the thunderbolt for Zeus. He then hid it in the land of the Hyperboreans, in the place where the sanctuary made of feathers. It is said that first thing he did was to get it back, when Zeus forgave him for his murder and put an end to his servitude with Admetus, mentioned by Euripides in Alcestis. The arrow is said to have returned through the air with Demeter Fructiferous. It was of extraordinary size, according to Heraclides of Pontus in his Pont in his book On Justice. Apollo also placed this feature among the stars, and made it a constellation to fix the memory of the battle he had fought.

The Arrow has a star at the tip, one in the middle, and two in the notch. One of them is particularly visible. In all, four.

Var. 2: This is a bow and arrow, said to have belonged to Apollo, and with which he killed the Cyclops who had made made the thunderbolt for Zeus; he killed them to avenge Asclepius. He hid it [the arrow] in the land of the Hyperboreans, in the place where there is a sanctuary made of feathers. When he put an end ... then the point returned through the air with Demeter Fructiferous. It was of extraordinary size. Heraclides of Pontus says in his book On Justice that a certain Abaris moved while being carried by this arrow. So Apollo made it into a constellation to fix the memory of the battle he had fought.

The arrow has four stars.

(Pamias and Zucker, 2013)

There is a lot of cultural reference in this small text: the people of the Hyperboreans is considered in the far north (as the name suggests), it is considered of happy and pious people, but it is uncertain where it is located. The god Apollo usually resides in Delphi (as considered by the ancient Greeks) but leaves this place in winter for the land of the Hyperboreans. His return through the air, riding on a huge arrow, accompanied by his sister Demeter, is usually celebrated in Delphi.

The contact of the Greeks with peoples in the far north is rather mythological. The tale of Abaris (a wonder man or shaman from the north) gives Eratosthenes's version of a visitor from these far countries. In Heraklides' version of the Abaris tale, the man from the north carries Apollo's arrow around in Greece.

Mythology has it that the temple in Delphi was built multiple times from different material (Sourvinou-Inwood 1979): from laurel, from feathers and wax, from bronce, from stone. The first one probably has a historical background in the temple of Apollo Daphniforos (the laurel bearer) in Eretria which is the most important monument this place. The information on the temple made of feathers probably comes from Heralides (and not Euripides) whose work on this topic is lost.

Almagest Ὀιστὸς

id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
	Ὀιστοῦ ἀστερισμός
1	ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀκίδος μουαχός	The lone star on the arrow-head	gam Sge
2	τῶν ἐν τῷ καλάμῳ τριῶν ὁ ἐπόμενος	Thc rearmost of thc three stars in the shaft	zet Sge
3	ὁ μέσος αὐτῶν	The middle onc	del Dge
4	ὁ προγρούμενος τῶν τριῶν	The most advanced of the three	alf Sge
5	ὁ ἐπ’ ἄκρας τῆς γλυφύδος.	The star on the end of the notch	bet Sge
	ἀστέρες ἐ, ὧν δ’ μεγέθους ἄ, ε 7, ς’ ἄ.	5 stars, l of the fourth magnitude, 3 of the fifth, l of the sixth

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

• 

  Sagitta hitting Cygnus, The Swan, on the Kugel Globe (1st century BCE).

• 

  Sagitta in the claws of The Eagle, pointing northwards, on the Mainz Globe (2nd century CE).

• 

  Sagitta in the Leiden Aratea (830)

• 

  Sagitta in Flamsteed (1776)

• 

  Sagitta in Sidney Hall (1822), Urania's Mirror

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)