Latin 3 Everyday: Sagittarius

The constellation “Sagittarius” was named after the mythological figure of the same namesake. There are three myths about Sagittarius. The first one is that Sagittarius is actually the centaur Chiron, who was killed by Hercules. The other one is that Sagittarius is a completely different centaur entirely, and was killed by a scorpion sent to kill Orion. The Babylonians associate the centaur with one of their gods, Pabilsag, who had 2 heads, wings, and a bull for a body instead of a horse.

The constellation is visible to the naked eye and in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy. The 8 stars form a teapot looking shape, but it is actually Sagittarius drawing his bow. The constellation was first referred to as a bowman by Babylonian astronomers as early as the 11th century BC.

Personally, I don’t see the connection between the stars and Sagittarius. To me it looks more like a teapot, but I don’t know if they even had teapots back then. To the ancient Greeks and Babylonians, they probably would’ve wanted all the constellations to be somewhat mythological. Then it would make sense for the archer to look like a centaur, because centaurs are commonly depicted with bows and there is also a scorpion constellation. As one of the brightest and biggest constellations in the Galaxy, the Babylonians would’ve wanted to name the constellation after one of their gods. Maybe they could give it a more modern name, like with the Big Dipper. In that case, I would recommend "The Teapot".