Tales of the Constellations: The Myths and Legends of the Night Sky

by Marianne McDonald

Tales of the The Myths and Legends of the Night Sky

Genres: Nonfiction

120 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[Aprilleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a little surprised that so few have rated this book (seven total prior to my review, and only one on Amazon), but I can't say I'm too surprised by the overall rating.

The book is beautifully illustrated, and the author has clearly done a lot of research to bring together legends and myths from various cultures. The entries cover far more than just the typical Greco-Roman constellation tales. One thing I noticed as I was reading through the various entries is the author has a noticeable Freudian bent, to the point that it was a detractor. She tries to apply relatively modern psychology to ancient mythology in ways that ring false. I wasn't surprised to find Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams in her bibliography.

There are major constellations missing from the book, and not just modern constellations that weren't recognized in ancient times. Among the more grievous omissions with a rich mythology are Aquarius, Aries, Auriga, Cepheus, Leo, Taurus, and Virgo. At the same time, it includes Argo Navis, a huge constellation that has been divided in modern times into three separate constellations (Carina, Puppis, and Vela) without ever mentioning its modern form, and Coma Berenices which wasn't formally established as a constellation until 1536 when it was split from Leo (here the author nods to the origin by noting that "the Arabs called it the lion's tail").

The material is extensive, but the way it's assembled leaves a lot to be desired. I can only assume she was attempting to stay under a specific word count, because most of the problems could have been eliminated with a little more explanation. In one place, she tells us to "(see Pleiades)" with no indication where we would find that. A check of the index gave three pages, none of which gave any addidtional information other than what she had already stated. I suspect some of the omissions were originally included until the book became too expensive to print.

Probably the most interesting tidbits of information were the Chinese tales, which are very different from the rest (except the occasional Native American sky legend). The author's final section discusses the similarities and differences among the various cultures and provides very plausible explanations for why they exist.

It was an interesting read, but it could have been so much better. Sadly, the one reviewer on Amazon, who said you could find more information on Wikipedia, was not far off the mark.

[Anders · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a funny kind of book. Essentially its a coffee table book. But it also has a fair amount of explanations. The intro goes through a large swath of literary and critical theorists and their ideas on mythology. At first I thought it might be more accessible to children, and often a chapter on a constellation will tell a story...but then with the theory stuff and lots of other extraneous "well the Chinese call it this and the Arabs call it that" it ends up being rather bland. However it does have some nice pictures of art and paintings and gives you the basics of the constellations contained within.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun, interesting read. I loved all of the beautiful pictures and well-done explanations of them. The stuff about Hercules and his related constellations were especially interesting. This is a good introduction to mythology as the author does a great job explaining why it's an important subject.

[Florinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing to find that diferente cultures have similar myths to the constelations.
Very informative.