Star Lore Of All Ages/The Minor Constellations/Argo Navis

by William Tyler Olcott

Argo Navis

Argo Navis
The Ship Argo

Against the tail of the Great Dog is dragged
Sternward the Argo, with no usual course
But motion contrary.
·······
So sternward labours the Jasonian Argo
Obscure in parts and starless, as from prow
To mast, but other portions blaze with light.
Frothingham's Aratos. 

Argo can hardly be called a minor constellation, and owes its place under such a heading to the fact that in these latitudes but a very small part of it is visible, so that only a brief reference to it is necessary.

The Ship, or Argo as it is generally called, lies entirely in the southern hemisphere, east of Canis Major and south of the Unicorn and Hydra. Only the few stars representing the stern of the ship can be seen in the latitude of New York City.

The Ship is figured without a prow, one of the best evidences that chance had no part in the invention of the constellation.

According to mythology Argo was built either by Glaucus, Jason, Argos, or Hercules. It was famous as the first craft that ever ventured to sea, and as the one that bore the Argonautic expedition to Colchis on its quest of the Golden Fleece.

To the Egyptians it represented the ark that bore Osiris and Isis over the Deluge.

Sir Isaac Newton fixed the date of the building of this celebrated craft as 936 b.c.

With the Romans it was generally "Argo," or "Navis," nd the Arabs called it "a Ship." To the Biblical school it represented Noah's Ark.

The lucida of the constellation, never seen in these latitudes, is the first magnitude star Canopus.