Lupus

IAU Lupus chart (CC BY, IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine: Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg)

One of the 88 modern IAU constellations. Lupus forms part of the super-constellation Centaurus-Lupus-Ara which mythologically belong together.

Etymology and History

Impression of Cylinder Seal with a central creature that is half man, half lion. Provenance unknown, Middle Assyrian, mid-late 13th century, rose quartz. (Padget 2003, 131-133 and Carter 2019). Possibly a template for the later Greek super-constellation?

The Greek constellation Θηρίον (Therion, i.e. 'the Beast') is in the same position as the Mesopotamian constellation UR.IDIM, the Mad Dog. The Mesopotamian constellation might depict a rabid dog or wolf: the wording is can refer to both. However, Greek uranology took over the Mesopotamian constellation, it was transferred to an animal sacrificed to the gods. An image of the Babylonian Urmahlullu-daemon that was discovered in 2019 on a seal suggests some potential that the Greek image of a centaur-like creature who sacrificed the animal may (or may not) be based on one of the ancient Mesopotamian interpretations of Urmahlullu holding a dead animal. Together with Centaurus and Ara, Lupus forms a super-constellation.

Babylonian

Kugel Globe, 1st century BCE: Centaurus sacrifices Lupus on Ara (drawing by SMH 2024).

Kugel Globe: two centaurs in Cen and Sgr with Lup+Ara in between (drawing by SMH 2024).

Almagest

	Θηρίου ἀστερισμός	Beast
id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
1	ὁ ἐπ’ ἄκρου τοῦ ὀπισθίου ποδὸς πρὸς τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ Κενταύρου.	The star at the end of the hind leg, by the [right] hand of Centaurus
2	ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγκύλης τοῦ αὐτοῦ ποδός	The star on the bend in the same leg
3	τῶν κατὰ τῆς ὡμοπλάτης β’ ὁ ἠγούμενος	The more advanccd of the 2 stars just over the shoulder-blade
4	ὁ ἐπόμενος αὐτῶν	The rearmost of them
5	ὁ ἐν μέσῳ τῷ σώματι τοῦ Θηρίου	The star in the middle of the body of Lupus
6	ὁ ἐκ τῇ κοιλίᾳ ὑπὸ τὴν λαγόυα	The star in the belly, under the flank
	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ μηροῦ	The star an the thigh
	τῶν πρὸς τῇ ἐκφύσει τοῦ μηροῦ β’ ὁ βορειότερος	The northernmost of the 2 stars near the place where the thigh joins [the body]
	ὁ φοτιώτερος αὐτῶν	The southernmost of them
	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἄκρου τῆς ὀσφύος	The star on the end of the rump
	τῶν ἐν τῷ ἄκρῳ τῆς οὐρᾶς γ’ ὁ νότιος	The southernmost of the 3 stars in the end of the tail
	ὁ μέσος τῶν τριῶν	The middle one of the three
	βόρειος αὐτῶν	The northernmost of them
	τῶν ἐν τῷ αὐχένι β ὁ φοτιώτερος	The southernmost of the 2 stars in the neck
	βορειότερος αὐτῶν	The northernmost of them
	τῶν ἐν τῷ ῥύγχει ὁ ὁ προηγούμενος	The more advanced of the 2 stars in the snout
	ὁ ἐπόμενος αὐτῶν	The rearmost of them
	τῶν ἐν τῷ ἐμπροσθίῳ ποδὶ β ὁ νοτιώτερος	The southernmost of the 2 stars in the front leg
	τῶν ἐν τῷ ἐμπροσθίῳ ποδὶ β ὁ νοτιώτερος	The southernmost of the 2 stars in the front leg
all	ἀστέρες ἰ3, ὥν γ’ μεγέθους β, δ’ ἱα, ε ς	{ 19 stars, 2 of the third magnitude, 11 of the fourth, 6 of the fifth}

Transformation of Images

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  Jessica Gullberg's impression of the Babylonian constellation UR.IDIM (The Mad Dog) in Stellarium 2021.

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  Centaurus et Lupus on the ancient Greek Kugel Globe, drawing by SMH 2021.

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  Centaurus et Lupus on the ancient Greco-Roman Farnese Globe, drawing by SMH 2017.

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  Centaurus et Lupus on the ancient Roman Mainz Globe, drawing by SMH 2021.

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  Cen+Lup at Dürer 1515

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  Cen+Lup at Mercator 1551

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  Centaurus and Lupus constellations from the Mercator celestial globe 1551 (CC0).

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  Cen+Lup at Plancius 1598, first time with Crux

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  Centaurus as drawn by Joh. Bayer (1603) and Lupus drawn by the user of this exemplar of the atlas (extra map for Bayer).

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  Cen+Lup+Crux in Habrecht 1621

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  Cen+Lup and Crux in Royer 1679

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  Centaurus et Lupus at Planisferio celeste (Carlos Simón 1894)

Mythology

The figure of السبع al-Sabuᶜ grasped by قنطورس Qanṭūris, according to an edition of the treatise of ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī, 1606, St-Peterburg (CC BY Roland E. Laffitte 2023)

In Babylonian mythology, the centaur-like lion-man called Urmahlullu was considered a monster, a door keeper (Wiggerman 1992, 52), which makes this creature a protective spirit, a benevolent creature (cf. Krebernik in UR.IDIM).

The mythographers of antiquity do not agree on what is depicted here: Hyginus referred to the animal as simply ‘a victim’, while Germanicus Caesar said that the centaur was either carrying game from the woods, or was bringing gifts to the altar. On the marble globe of the Atlas Farnese, the centaur holds a sacrificial animal in his right hand, which he brings to the censer (Ara). Originally, the sacrificed creature was not specified, but it was called ‘the beast’. Only later was it renamed Lupus (Latin: The Wolf).

The association of the dead beast with a wine-skin, also recorded by Eratosthenes, appears as a logical consequence of the sacrificed animal, as the skin of slaughtered animals can be used as a drinking vessel. Some Saharan nomads still use this today. It is therefore clear that in Greek uranography the beast belongs to the centaur called ‘Cheiron’ who is regarded as the only wise centaur. He was the teacher of numerous Greek heroes, and his image in the sky also symbolizes cultivated behavior and religion as he sacrifices the beast on the altar.

IAU Star Names

There are no classical star names in Lupus. In 2023, it was suggested to use the original Babylonian name of the UR.IDIM as name for the brightest star of the (later Greek, Greco-Roman and modern) constellation.