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Description
Well I am stumped.

Last time I wrote of a member of the four southern birds, namely the Peacock, I alluded to the birds’ connotations with the goddess Hera. I even pointed to how the same stars had, at some point originated in the Argos myth, to be found in Ovids’ Metamorphoses.

Then, I said that this was however probably not the case.
That the constellation had first been introduced by Petrus Plancius, in 1598.
That the whole thing originated in observations made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who had undoubtedly come across the green peacock on their travels, and drawn inspiration from that.
I made it a point to mention how the Peacock, irregardless of possible mythical origins, was probably not made based on any of them. And how that was different.

Well…That was the Peacock
This is the Toucan.
So, take a guess…
Who does the esteemed reader suppose introduced this one?
Did you guess Petrus Plancius?
Well, then, congratulations.
Based on who’s observations do you think?
Again Dirkszoon Keyser and de Houtman make their entrance.

“No related myths”, is the result, when searching for them.
The Toucan is, in other words, a fully “modern” constellation.
A constellation of the enlightenment.
In a way, this also solidifies how the Peacock was probably not based on Argus.
Here is another bird, based on the discovery of a real life species.
And nothing else.
So why should one waste ones time, grasping for mythical origin for the Peacock?

This is where I could make a big point out of asking wether these stars would not already have been charted.
And wether it was really right for these Dutch explorers to rechart them, without checking.
But I have already been down that route, have I not…

If anything should be taken from this, I guess it is how constellations are clearly important to us as a species.
Even in an age of science.

Description
Well I am stumped.

Last time I wrote of a member of the four southern birds, namely the Peacock, I alluded to the birds’ connotations with the goddess Hera. I even pointed to how the same stars had, at some point originated in the Argos myth, to be found in Ovids’ Metamorphoses.

Then, I said that this was however probably not the case.
That the constellation had first been introduced by Petrus Plancius, in 1598.
That the whole thing originated in observations made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who had undoubtedly come across the green peacock on their travels, and drawn inspiration from that.
I made it a point to mention how the Peacock, irregardless of possible mythical origins, was probably not made based on any of them. And how that was different.

Well…That was the Peacock
This is the Toucan.
So, take a guess…
Who does the esteemed reader suppose introduced this one?
Did you guess Petrus Plancius?
Well, then, congratulations.
Based on who’s observations do you think?
Again Dirkszoon Keyser and de Houtman make their entrance.

“No related myths”, is the result, when searching for them.
The Toucan is, in other words, a fully “modern” constellation.
A constellation of the enlightenment.
In a way, this also solidifies how the Peacock was probably not based on Argus.
Here is another bird, based on the discovery of a real life species.
And nothing else.
So why should one waste ones time, grasping for mythical origin for the Peacock?

This is where I could make a big point out of asking wether these stars would not already have been charted.
And wether it was really right for these Dutch explorers to rechart them, without checking.
But I have already been down that route, have I not…

If anything should be taken from this, I guess it is how constellations are clearly important to us as a species.
Even in an age of science.