Callisto was a young woman training to be a hunter with Diana (Artemis, Cynthia). Zeus (Jupiter) saw her and fell in love with her. One day she became separated from her hunting group and Zeus saw his chance. He disguised himself as Diana in order to get close to the unsuspecting Callisto. A while later she was sent away from the hunting class in disgrace and had her son in the forest. She raised Arcas to be a hunter.
Eventually Zeus' jealous wife Hera (Juno) found Callisto and turned her into a bear. She set the bear in front of Arcas when he was out hunting, so that he would shoot his mother in ignorance. However, Zeus snatched the big bear (Ursa Major) away and placed her among the stars. Arcas was also changed into a little bear (Ursa Minor) and put into the sky. Hera was very angry and persuaded the god of the sea to forbid the bears to ever wash. They circle the north pole of the sky but never set below the horizon.
by Mary Lou West
Reference: Edith Hamilton, "Mythology", New York, Mentor Books, 1940, p 290
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Long ago there were five wolf brothers who were friends with Coyote. One evening the wolves looked up and saw two animals far above them. Coyote thought of a way to visit them. He gathered a large number of arrows and shot one into the sky where it stuck. Then he shot the next arrow into the end of that arrow and another into the end of that one until there was a ladder reaching down to earth. The five wolf brothers, their dog, and Coyote climbed for many days and nights until they reached the sky. They found that the two animals were grizzly bears. The wolves sat down and looked at the bears, but Coyote didn't trust them and climbed back down again. He took out the arrows as he went so that no one could return, saying, "They all look pretty good sitting there like that."
You can still see the grizzly bears (the pointer stars, farthest from the handle), and the wolves with their dog sitting next to the oldest wolf in the middle of the handle. When Coyote saw how good this looked he put all the rest of the stars in the sky in various pictures.
by Mary Lou West
Reference: Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, "American Indian Myths and Legends", Pantheon Books, New York, 1984, p 171
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Last updated: September, 2000
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