THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458673.5
"You ought-ta-see how I declaim Homer!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Tuesday, July 10, 2019
Bull in the Morning!
Taurus the Bull has returned! Although we are blissfully mired in the sultry heat of a still youthful summer, the winter sky herald is now ascending in the eastern pre-dawn sky: a harbinger of a winter that, though inevitable, is still not imminent. Every so often, it behooves us sky watchers to veer away from the evening sky to observe the patterns adoring the morning sky. In so doing, we remind ourselves that no matter the time, we're always looking out somewhere into the cosmos. So, today, we return to a part of the brilliant sky that will once again cap our crystalline snow scapes.
Consisting of a v-shaped face topped by two horns, Taurus' history is quite a storied one, even by celestial mythology standards. Recognized since antiquity as a bull, Taurus assumes a prominent role in many legends. The Greco-Roman tradition assigned him two specific roles, actually. One as father; the other as son. Though the details are complex and the plot somewhat convoluted (welcome to celestial mythology), the gist is as follows.
King Minos was, like many selfish people, not always of sound judgment. A perfect example of his somewhat-less-than-wise nature pertained to a beautiful white bull that Neptune offered him with the expectation that Minos, himself, would eventually sacrifice the bull back to him. A strange, but not uncommon, stipulation the gods would often attach to such offerings. Well, King Minos loved the bull so ardently that he did not perform the sacrifice, preferring instead to keep the animal for himself. As one could imagine, this action (or lack of action) infuriated Neptune. However, unlike his thunder-bolt happy brother Jupiter, Neptune avenged this disobedience in a more creative and somewhat disturbing manner. Since the King loved the bull, Neptune decided that the Queen should be similarly enamored of it; the one difference being that whereas the King loved the bull as one would love as treasured pet, the Queen's love would assume a more carnal character. Neptune cast a spell on the Queen that caused her to fall desperately in love with the White Bull. So powerful did her obsession become that she begged Daedalus, the King's gifted craftsman, to fashion her a cow disguise. Now, without putting too sharp a point on it, we can tell you that Daedalus constructed the outfit, which the Queen used to seduce the bull. From this tryst was born the Minotaur; a hybrid creature with the features of both a man and a bull.
Daedalus
As repulsed as Minos was by this creature. he realized that Neptune ordained its birth and did not have it exposed.*
Instead, he ordered Daedalus to enclose it in a complex labyrinth from which it could not escape. There it spent its life in misery and isolation. It fed on the humans that Minos conveyed into the labyrinth. Some of these humans were seven young boys and seven young girls that Athens was compelled to deliver to Minos every year. The Athenians, having suffered a crushing defeat by the Minotians in a recent war, had to offer these children as a peace condition. Theseus, son of the Athenian King, offered himself as one of the fourteen tributes. Theseus entered the labyrinth , guided by a skein of thread he secretly attached to the entrance. He encountered the creature and slew him after a brutal fight. Theseus then guided the other thirteen youths out of the maze and to safety.
Theseus
Neptune was said to have placed the White Bull in the night sky as a celebration of its beauty; others say that Neptune set the Minotaur in the sky just to the south of Perseus. This placement was not as much to honor the Minotaur as it was to rebuke Theseus, a violent, reckless youth who presumed to claim Neptune as his true father. Driven by a lust for the fame and adoration that Athens had bestowed on Hercules and Perseus, Theseus coveted the previously dark sky region below Perseus as a place he wanted his own constellation to one day occupy. By granting this spot to the Minotaur, Theseus' foe, Neptune offered Theseus the ultimate insult. (To be fair, Theseus was much more popular in Athens than he was on Mount Olympus)