The Two Bears

A new version of an old story.

The Story of Ursa Major; The Big Bear

And Ursa Minor; The little Bear

Long ago, about three hundred years before the time of Jesus, and around the time when Ptolemy was studying the heavens, there lived in the skies two bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

According to Greek Mythology, the story goes something like this.

Living atop Mt. Olympus was a god named Zeus who was the king of all gods.

Also living on Mt. Olympus was Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera.

One day Zeus and Hera fought, and yelled, and screamed. Zeus, in order to get away from Hera, went down from Mt. Olympus into a beautiful forest. Here he found peace and quiet, a place where he could clear his mind and think things over.

While strolling through the forest he came across the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Her name was Callisto which means, “the most beautiful.”

She lived and roamed the forest, taking care of it and making sure no harm came to this place.

Zeus was struck by her beauty and fell instantaneously in love with her.

Callisto, however, could never return his love. The reason for this was, as a child, she had vowed to the goddess Artemis that she would never give her love to a man. Her only love would be for that of her home, the forest in which she lived.

She knew and feared that if she ever broke this vow things would go bad for her.

Zeus was persistent, however, and pursued her relentlessly.

Eventually her will was broken and she gave in to Zeus' advances.

The two fell hopelessly in love and were married.

This act presented a great deal of trouble for the two of them.

First off, because of Zeus' infatuation with Callisto, he completely forgot he was already married to the goddess Hera.

As unbelievable as it sounds, it was true, Zeus had forgotten about Hera.

In the meantime, Callisto and Zeus had a child, a boy they named Arcus.

They lived happily there for some time until Hera, Zeus' wife, came down from the mountain. She was curious about Zeus' long absence.

“What had happened to her husband?” she wondered.

Much to her shock, she found the two together, but their son Arcus was not with them. He had gone off into the woods hunting and would not return until the next day.

Hera's anger and jealousy drove her mad and she vowed vengeance against Zeus.

She waved her hand overhead and turned Callisto into a slobbering bear.

By this time Zeus' memory had returned and he feared for Callisto and their son Arcus.

Before she could exact anymore vengeance he intervened and convinced her to return with him to Mt Olympus before anymore damage could be done.

On their voyage back, Zeus told Hera of Arcus. In the beginning she was angry, but through Zeus' persuasive skills, her heart softened and she agreed to allow Zeus to travel to the forest once each week to be a father to the boy.

This arrangement lasted until the day Zeus was wondered through the forest in search of his son.

He found the boy about to release an arrow aimed directly at the heart of a great bear. He had grown into quite the hunter and was more than capable of bringing down this beast.

Zeus saw what was happening and recognized the bear as Callisto, Arcus' mother.

He stepped between the boy and the mother and stopped him from making the kill.

Arcus did not know at this time that his mother was a bear.

Zeus, fearing for the safety of both Callisto and Arcus, decided the best thing to do was to sling them into the sky where they would become like stars in the heavenly night.

“There,” he thought, “They will be safe.”

Through time they became known as Ursa Major, the Big Bear, and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.

If you go out on a clear night you will see them there in the northern skies.

If you are observant you may notice that both bears have long tails.

Everyone knows bears have short tails.

The explanation for this is quite simple.

To sling Arcus and Callisto into the heavens he had to grab them by their tails and sling them around and around until he released them into the sky. The action of slinging them by their tails caused them to stretch and become long.

And thus, the explanation is complete.

The heavens, they are full of stories, all you need is an imagination and a great love for the stars.

Author's Note

A new twist on an old story.

Reviews

[Moonie]

Most of the problems in Greek stories occur because Zeus couldn't stay loyal to his wife lol. I like this take on the two constellations. I think the ancients were definitely creative seeing that they saw random shapes in the skies and made up these amazing stories to explain them.