Canopus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Canopus or Canobus (Ancient Greek: Κάνωβος) was the pilot of the ship of King Menelaus of Sparta during the Trojan War.
Mythology
Canopus is described as a handsome young man who was loved by the Egyptian prophetess, Theonoe, but never reciprocated her feelings.
According to legend, while visiting the Egyptian coast, Canopus was bitten by a serpent and died. His master, Menelaus, erected a monument to him at one of the mouths of the River Nile, around which the town of Canopus later developed.[1][2]
Legacy
Also named for Canopus is Canopus, the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (the keel of the ship Argo), and the second-brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius.
Notes
- Conon, Narrations, 8
- Strabo, Geographica 17.1.17
References
- Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.