The constellation Puppis

The constellation Puppis

Puppis is a constellation of the southern hemisphere. Until the 18th century, it belonged to the constellation of the mighty ship Argo. In 1756, Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille divided it on a star chart into three parts: the keel (Carina), the afterdeck (Puppis) and the sails (Vela) of the ship. The division was finally fixed in 1763 in his star catalogue.

Mythology

The ship Argo and the Argonauts (part 1) – Jason was a Greek demigod, a heros (Greek for hero). His grandfather was Cretheus, the founder of Iolcus, an ancient city in Thessaly in Greece (today Volos). Cretheus and his wife Tyro had three sons, Aeson, Pheres and Amythaon. As the first-born, Aeson was the rightful heir to the throne. With his wife Polymede (a granddaughter of the god Hermes and the daughter of Autolycus, a master thief in Greek mythology), Aeson had a son named Jason. Before her marriage, however, Aeson's mortal mother Tyro had had a love affair with Poseidon (god of the sea and brother of Zeus). From it came the twins Pelias and Neleus, the uncles of Jason. Pelias was obsessed with power and wanted to rule Thessaly alone. After the death of Cretheus, Pelias pushed Aeson off the throne and locked him in a cave. Afterwards, an oracle warned him to beware of a local man from Iolcus with only one shoe. Meanwhile, Jason was in the Pelion mountains, where he was raised and trained by the centaur Chiron. When Pelias called the people together for a sacrifice to his father Poseidon, Jason also set off to claim his right to the throne. On the way, he met the goddess Hera (wife of Zeus) in the form of an old woman, who asked him to carry her across a river. While doing so, Jason lost a shoe. Pelias recognised in him the man of the oracle's prophecy. He offered Jason the throne if he brought him the Golden Fleece (see the legend of the constellation Aries). Pelias believed that he would never see his nephew again, because the fleece was in Colchis (a region between the Caucasus mountains and the eastern shore of the Black Sea) and was guarded by a dragon. For the voyage across the Black Sea, Jason needed the fastest ship that the world had ever seen. He gave Argus, the son of Phrixus, the task of building the ship, which was named after him. Phrixus had once fled from his father on the back of the golden ram (constellation Aries), the bearer of the Golden Fleece.

The second part of the myth is told in the constellation Carina.