There certainly would seem to be a significance attached to Crater in Egyptian star lore, as Hydra, so intimately connected with Crater, has been regarded as the inhabitant of the Nile, and in fact its representative. In all probability, evidence connecting this constellation with Egyptian astronomy will come to light in the near future, as the work of excavation is rapidly going on in that rich land of buried treasure.
In early Arabia this constellation was known as "the Stall," a figure much resembling the Manger in the constellation Cancer. Hewitt connects the Cup with the Soma Cup of prehistoric India. It has also been identified with the cup that Joseph found in Benjamin's sack, with Noah's wine cup, and the cup of Christ's Passion. Dr. Seiss regarded it as the Cup of Wrath of the Revelations.[1]
The constellation contains no stars of special interest.
Inasmuch as Crater was regarded in ancient times as the symbol of the vault of heaven, it may be well to remark here an interesting fact, often lost sight of, concerning the stars in their relation to our planet, which a recent writer has pointed out.
To the individual, the heavens resemble nothing so much as "the inverted Bowl" of which Omar sings, with its rim resting on the hills, and other irregular surface features that limit our view of the horizon, but it is obvious that the sky is much more extended, as it covers half the earth, and is not bounded by the individual's horizon.
Therefore, when we look at the stars, some of them are twinkling above the billows of the mighty oceans, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian. Others look down on the lofty Andes, with their snow peaks, and pierce the gloom of the tropical forest in the valley of the Amazon. Still other suns glitter above the bergs and field ice of the frozen polar seas, on scenes of frigid desolation, and some of the
- ↑ Early Christians believed that the constellations Corvus and Crater represented the Ark of the Covenant.
