Once upon a time there were two bears: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. They weren’t always in the sky. Plus, they weren’t always bears.Ancient Greek mythology tells us that they used to be Callisto (Ursa Major) and Arcas (Ursa Minor). Callisto was a nymph (a relatively minor female nature deity) who was closely associated with the
huntress-goddess Artemis (later Diana). Artemis was big on virginity, and all of her nymphs had to abide by that vow. Callisto, who was quite taken with Artemis, willingly did.
Therefore, there was more than one big problem when married Zeus decided he just had to “have” Callisto (perhaps he couldn’t help himself - for the name “Callisto” means “most beautiful”). In order to sneak past his wife, Hera – and, in order to fool Callisto herself, Zeus cleverly disguised himself as Artemis.
This would have been the stuff that romance is made of had Callisto welcomed these advances. It was instead the stuff that sensationalism is made of. Zeus forced himself upon Callisto, which resulted in a pregnancy. The numerous storylines that then follow do not improve things any.
Some say that Artemis discovered Callisto’s pregnancy while Callisto was bathing - and then wrathfully turned Callisto into a bear. Callisto therefore gave birth to a baby bear – Arcas. It just wouldn’t do for the king of gods to have two bosom bear buddies on the loose, so he turned them into barely-there sky bears.
Others say that Callisto was able to give birth to a human son. The young lad, Arcas, therefore grew up with a bear of a mother. He became an ace hunter (hmmm…), and wound up shooting Callisto as she ran past him in the woods.
How they both wound up in the sky is anyone’s guess (Zeus is again a prime suspect), but perhaps the Ursid showers are the angry sparks that still fly between this ill-fated mother and son.
Resources
http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/ursids.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisto_(mythology)
Copyright December 21, 2010 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment