Argo navis -The ship in the sky

 Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, was a large constellation in the southern sky. 

The genitive was "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". 

Flamsteed and other early modern astronomers called it Navis (the Ship), genitive "Navis", abbreviated "Nav".

Almost in all mythologies,it's a  ship which survived through a high flood.

It indicates that there might be a catastrophe a long long time ago. 

The constellation proved to be of unwieldy size, as it was 28% larger than the next largest constellation and had more than 160 easily visible stars. 

In 1723 Argo Navis is no longer an officially recognized constellation, it has been split up into three constellations; 

Carina the Keel, Vela the Sails, Puppis the Stern, plus a subordinate division of Argo now called Pyxis Nautica, the Nautical Box or Mariner’s Compass, and which used to be called Malus, the Mast. 

Argo derived from the ship Argo in Greek mythology, sailed by Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece.

 Some stars of Puppis and Vela can be seen from Mediterranean latitudes in winter and spring, the ship appearing to skim along the "river of the Milky Way."

 Due to precession of the equinoxes, the position of the stars from Earth's viewpoint has shifted southward, and though most of the constellation was visible in Classical times, the constellation is now not easily visible from most of the northern hemisphere.

All the stars of Argo Navis are easily visible from the tropics southward, and pass near zenith from southern temperate latitudes. 

The brightest of these is Canopus (α Carinae), the second-brightest night-time star, now assigned to Carina.

The Argo was built by the shipwright Argos or Argus. 

Ancient authors were divided about the origin of the name of the ship. 

Some ascribed it to the name of the person who built it, Argus, son of Phrixus; others to the Greek word argos, ‘swift’, as being a light sailor; others to the city of Argos, where they suppose it was built; yet others to the Argives, who went on board it.

The –naut of argonaut and the Navis of Argo Navis come from the same indo-European root *náu ‘Boat or ship.

Argo has been identified with a number of arks.

“Egyptian story said that it was the ark that saved Isis and Osiris over the severe flood; 

while the Hindus thought that it performed the same for their equivalent Isi and Iswara. 

And their prehistoric tradition made it the ship Argha for their wandering sun, steered by Agastya, the alpha star of Carina, Canopus. 

Plutarch says:

“Moreover, they give to Osiris the title of general, and the title of pilot to Canopus, from whom they say that the star derives its name;

 also that the vessel which the Greeks call Argo, in form like the ship of Osiris, has been set among the constellations in his honour,

 and its course lies not far from that of Orion and the Dog-star; 

of these the Egyptians believe that one is sacred to Horus and the other to Isis.”

Christian legend identifies the constellation as Noah’s Ark.

The argonauts are a group of pelagic octopuses, the Nautilus, Argonaut, or sailor-fish, a shell-fish found in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean, and usually at the bottom of the sea, yet is able to rise to the surface, which it is fond of doing in calm weather. 

The shell is so thin that it is called the paper Nautilus. 

It lies on its back floating on the water. 

It employs some of its arms as oars to make progress, but if a gentle breeze arises it raises two of them upright, and extending them, spreads the membrane between them into a sail, which catches the wind ; its other arms hang out as a rudder to steer it the way it wishes.

 Female argonauts produce a laterally-compressed calcareous eggcase in which they reside.

 This “shell” has a double keel fringed by two rows of alternating tubercles.

Constellation Argo Navis the Ship, is a southern constellation below constellation Hydra and above constellation Columba, with constellation Canis Major to the west and constellation Centaurus to the east. 

Argo spans 120 degrees of the Zodiac from the Signs of Cancer to Scorpio, and contains 18 named fixed stars. 

The constellation is noticeable in lower latitudes not only from its great extent and the splendor of Canopus, but also from possessing the remarkable variable eta (eta Carina, Foramen) and its enclosing nebula

In Greek Mythology Argo Navis represents the Ship used by Jason and fifty Argonauts to sail to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis (Iolcus) in the Black Sea. 

This fleece, incidentally, came from the ram that is now represented by the constellation Aries.

Jason was the rightful successor to the throne of Iolcus in eastern Greece.

 But the throne had been seized by his arrogant uncle Pelias while Jason was still a child and there seemed no chance that Jason would inherit it. 

When Jason had grown into a man, Pelias deceitfully offered to relinquish the throne if Jason could bring back the golden fleece from Colchis. 

It was a round trip of over 2,000 miles, and Pelias secretly hoped that Jason would perish along the way.

First, he needed a ship capable of such an epic voyage. 

Jason entrusted its construction to Argus, after whom it was named. 

Argus built the ship under supervision of the goddess Athene at the port of Pagasae (the modern Volos), using timber from nearby Mount Pelion.

Into the prow Athene fitted an oak beam from the oracle of Zeus at Dodona in north-western Greece. 

This area, like the island of Corfu nearby, was once noted for its forests of oak, before later shipbuilders stripped them bare. 

Being part of an oracle, this oak beam could speak and it was crying out for action by the time the Argo left harbour.

Jason took with him 50 of the greatest Greek heroes, including the twins Castor and Polluxs, the musician Orpheus, as well as Argus, the ship’s builder. 

Even Heracles interrupted his labours to join the crew.

Apollonius of Rhodes, who wrote the epic story of the ship’s voyage to Colchis and back, described Argo as the finest ship that ever braved the sea with oars. 

Even in the roughest of seas the bolts of Argo held her planks together safely, and she ran as sweetly when the crew were pulling at the oars as she did before the wind.

 Isaac Newton thought the voyage of the Argo was commemorated in the 12 signs of the zodiac, although the connections are hard to see.

Among the greatest dangers the Argonauts faced en route were the Clashing Rocks, or Symplegades, which guarded the entrance to the Black Sea like a pair of sliding doors, crushing ships between them.

 As the Argonauts rowed along the Bosporus, they could hear the terrifying clash of the Rocks and the thunder of surf. 

The Argonauts released a dove and watched it fly ahead of them.

 The Rocks converged on the dove, nipping off its tail feathers, but the bird got through. 

Then, as the Rocks separated, the Argonauts rowed with all their might.

 A well-timed push from the divine hand of Athene helped the ship through the Rocks just as they slammed together again, shearing off the mascot from Argo’s stern. 

Argo had become the first ship to run the gauntlet of the Rocks and survive. Thereafter the Clashing Rocks remained rooted apart.

Once safely into the Black Sea, Jason and the Argonauts headed for Colchis. 

There they stole the golden fleece from King Aeëtes, and made off with it back to Greece by a roundabout route. 

After their return, Jason left the Argo beached at Corinth, where he dedicated it to Poseidon, the sea god.

Eratosthenes said that the constellation represents the first ocean-going ship ever built, and the Roman writer Manilius concurred.

 However, this attribution must be wrong because the first ship was actually built by Danaus, father of the 50 Danaids, again with the help of Athene, and he sailed it with his daughters from Libya to Argos.

Argo in the sky

Only the stern of Argo is shown in the sky. 

Map makers attempted to account for this truncation either by depicting its prow vanishing into a bank of mist, as Aratus described it, or by passing between the Clashing Rocks, as shown on Bayer’s atlas. 

Robert Graves recounts the explanation that Jason in his old age returned to Corinth where he sat beneath the rotting hulk of Argo, contemplating past events. 

Just at that moment the rotten beams of the prow fell off and killed him. 

Poseidon then placed the rest of the ship among the stars.

 Hyginus, though, says that Athene placed Argo among the stars from steering oars to sail when the ship was first launched, but says nothing about what happened to the prow.

I have cut a big story in small, still it is big.

In another post I will tell the full story & in yet another post the Indian  version of it.

Till then goodbye. 

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