The Delphinus is a statue, a lump of cold stone, magically transformed into stars. Later, Apollo placed the statue in the sky.Īll these stories seem to end with the great hero or proud animal in the sky, but this one is different. In honor of the dolphins that saved his life, Arion had a small statue of the creature made and placed in a shrine in a temple dedicated to Apollo. When the ship finally arrived, Arion confronted his former servants and had them sentenced to death. When Arion finally did hit the water, the dolphins rescued him and carried him on their backs back to Greece. They robbed him and tossed him overboard.
Apollo was so pleased with Arion’s tribute that he sent a school of dolphins, which jumped playfully (and cunningly) around the ship.Īrion’s retainers were unmoved, however. Arion sang a song in honor of Apollo, the god of the sun and patron of the arts. As his retainers prepared to commit him to the briny deep, Arion begged them to let him sing one last song.įiguring a free concert would do no harm, the servants agreed. On his way back to Greece by ship from a tour of Sicily, his faithless servants plotted to murder him and steal the money he had earned. Like a modern pop star, he went on extensive tours throughout Greece and Italy, where he earned a considerable amount of money singing and accompanying himself on the lyre, a hand-held harp. In gratitude, Neptune lifted the dolphin into the sky, which is how all these stories seem to end.Ī second story rises out of the life of Arion, a real-life poet and troubadour of the seventh century BCE. Using all of its mammalian wiles, the dolphin spoke so eloquently of Poseidon’s love that Amphitrite and Neptune were soon married. Only the dolphin was clever enough to find Amphitrite in her briny hiding place. Neptune figured he required an intermediary, and in a burst of god-like excess, he sent several creatures to look for the nymph. Amphitrite fled in fin-flailing terror from Neptune’s rather rough advances. But he had little experience with females, and the Nereids were shy. Still, he tired of his life of lonely isolation under the waves and decided that he needed a wife.Īt long last, he fell in love with Amphrites, one of the Nereids or Sea Nymphs. As an immortal, Neptune had it made, of course.
In the first tale, the dolphin is the messenger of the sea god, Poseidon. The first century BCE work “Poetic Astronomy” by the Roman writer Hyginus contains the most comprehensive retelling of both stories. Two stories from the ancient Greeks explain how dolphins became denizens of the cosmic deep. If dolphins had been born with opposable thumbs, those ocean-going mammals would be sitting in specially designed swimming pools, munching tasty fishy snacks and watching the antics of the strange bipedal creatures in cages at “Human World.” From early days, we recognized the intelligence and playfulness of the dolphin. Of all the strange creatures and monsters that inhabit this section of the sky, the dolphin fascinates humanity the most. You are on the top edge of the so-called “watery constellations,” a celestial sea rising to the east, including Aquarius, the Water Bearer Pisces, the Fishes Cetus, the Sea Monster and Capricornus, the Sea-Goat. Down and to the right, a fifth star outside the diamond marks the dolphin’s tail. Four faint but equally bright stars in a diamond shape form the body of Delphinus. Look for the dolphin high in the southeast around 11 p.m. Besides, dolphins are so darned cute, you betcha. However, its position near the glow of the summer Milky Way and its distinctive diamond shape make it jump right out of the sky for stargazers in most cultures. As a result, ancient stargazers might easily have ignored it.
Delphinus, the Dolphin, is among the smallest and dimmest of the traditional star groupings.
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