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The first on the list of Heracles' labours was the task of killing the Nemean Lion, a giant beast that roamed the hills and the streets of the Peloponnesian villages, devouring whomever it met.
The animal's skin was impervious to iron, bronze, and stone. Heracles'
arrows harmlessly bounced off the lion; his sword bent in two; his
wooden club smashed to pieces. So Heracles wrestled with the beast,
finally choking it to death. He then wrapped the lion's pelt about him;
it would protect him from the next labour: killing the poisonous Hydra.
As the story goes, the lion found its way to the heavens to commemorate
the great battle with Heracles. Yet this isn't all there is to the
story. For even in antiquity, long before the Greeks began telling stories,
the lion was an ancient symbol of power.
Approximately three thousand years before the Christian era carvings
and sculptures showed kings flanked with rampant lions. Indeed, the
archaeological evidence suggests that at about this time the lion had
already replaced an even earlier "sacred" symbol, the bull.
It has been suggested that this transfer of power from a horned animal to
the lion was a change-over from a lunar-based to a solar-based religion.
That is, instead of drawing their inspiration from a night-time symbol
with a monthly cycle--a symbol which dealt with the fecundity of the earth
and of its animals--the new rulers identified with an animal of strength
and power, and with a heavenly body that ruled the day. Thus, as the bull
had been identified with the moon, the lion was now associated with the sun.
To assert this new religion, or new political structure, the lion was
made to kill the bull. Its place in the heavens was therefore critical.
An intriguing theory, put forth thirty years ago by Professor Willy Hartner,
eloquently describes the result. Briefly put, at about 4000 BC, the Lion is
seen chasing the Bull over the horizon, announcing the end of winter and the
beginning of spring. I shall quote Professor Hartner's descriptive words:
Thus Leo, slayer of Taurus, dominated the summer skies, the time that
the sun passed through this constellation. Due to precession, the sun
currently passes through Leo at the end of summer, from mid-August
through mid-September.
Leo is a fairly compact constellation
and, unlike so many other constellations, it is readily recognisable.
Alpha Leonis is named "Regulus" because it was seen as the Heaven's
Guardian, one who regulated all things in the heavens. While the name
Regulus was given us by Copernicus, the star was better known in
antiquity as Cor Leonis, the Lion's Heart.
Gamma Leonis is "Algeiba", Arabic for forehead, but more correctly
named Juba, meaning mane.
Zeta Leonis is "Aldhafera", the meaning is uncertain;
Epsilon Leonis and mu Leonis go under the name of "Al Ashfar",
the eyebrows.
Delta Leonis is "Zosma", a Greek word meaning girdle.
Lambda Leonis is Alterf, apparently meaning "extremity".
It's located right at the tip of the lion's mouth.
Secondly, its colour is an unusually deep red, approaching purple.
Surrounded by a number of white stars (18, 19, 21 Leo.) its own colour
is even more pronounced. Thus R Leonis has become a favourite
subject for many variable star observers.
Leo has five Messier objects: M65, M66, M95,
M96, and M105.
About a degree north, hovering just between M65 and M66, is NGC 3628, a
galaxy seen edge-on. Actually this is larger than either Messier object,
but much dimmer because it is seen edge-on.
Indeed, there are many more galaxies in Leo to explore. Most of them lie
between alpha and beta Leonis, with a smaller group scattered around
gamma Leonis. Most of them are 10-12m, so the larger the telescope the
more favourable the viewing.
The Leonids are meteor showers which appear every 16-17 November, so called because their radiant point is in the Sickle of the Lion.
While Leo is only visible very early in the morning at this time of year, the meteors stream across the west, through Hydra, Canis Minor, and even Orion.
The meteors are debris from the Tempel-Tuttle comet, which orbits the sun every 33 years. While the showers usually bring 10-20 meteors per hour, three times a century the
meteor shower is particularly dense, several hundred per hour with a quick burst of 1000 or more per hour.
These denser showers usually occur in years ending in 33, 66, and 99. The 1966 display was one of the better, with around 5000 meteors in one span of twenty minutes.
By contrast, 1999 saw a very brief burst of around 2000 meteors as recorded by observers in the Middle East, while North American residents would only view several dozen per hour.
For a more detailed appreciation of Leo, visit the Binocular Section.
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