Ancient Astronomy
Ancient Greece is perhaps the best example of ancient astronomy practices. The Greeks saw the majestic figures in the sky and took them to be the gods that control the universe. Each constellation was given both a name and a back-story that tried to explain why this figure is now in the sky. Most of the constellations that they refer to today are actually the same ones that the Greeks revered and worshiped in ancient astronomy. Orion was a hunter who was punished and forced to stay up in the sky, never to rest below the horizon. This is why the constellation is always visible in the night sky.
The constellations they know of as the Big Dipper and Little Dipper were to the Greeks the Great Bear and the Lesser Bear. They even keep the original Greek names: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The star Polaris, which is the last star on the handle of the Big Dipper, was to the Greeks a person who was always chasing the Great Bear around the night sky. This is why you always see it following the Dippers as they move along, according to the Greeks ancient astronomy. The Egyptians also saw the constellations as Gods. The same constellation the Greeks took as Orion was known to the Egyptians as Osiris. This was their god of death and rebirth.
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