Camelopardalis: Difference between revisions

"The Egyptians used a hieroglyph in the shape of a giraffe to indicate 'to prophecy', 'to foretell', which has been taken as evidence of its keen eyesight. Ancient Arabic words include saraphah, gyrapha,gyraffa, and zirafa. The Persians called it ushturgao ("camel-cow"). To the Chaldeans it was deba, andana, which may be related to nabun, used by Pliny. The encyclopedist Vincent de Beauvais, in his Speculum Naturale (1225), described it under three different names (anabulla, camelopardo, andorasius), apparently without realizing it. Albertus Magnus repeated the mistake in his thirteenth-century De Animalibus, using anabula, camelopardulus, and oraflus. Anabula probably comes from the Ethiopians, who called it nabin; and orafle was used in Old French. In Afrikaans it is called kameelperd. and in Zulu indlulamethi.  [Tall Blondes, Lynn Sherr, p.19.] <ref>[http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Camelopardalis.htm Constellations of Words]</ref>

The nape of the neck of the Giraffe of this constellation, Camelopardalis, is very close to the Pole-star, Polaris, at the North Pole (in the Urania's Mirror picture above the star, Polaris, is named Alruccababh, the Polar Star). Atlas owned the Garden of Hesperides and in this garden he had the responsibility of holding up the heavens, and there the dragon (Draco) named Ladon guards the tree from which the Golden Apples grow (Newton discovered gravity from seeing an apple fall from a tree, it was Atlas who went and picked the apples for Hercules). The tree is also the Pole, Polaris or Ursa Minor which is enclosed on three sides by the coils of Draco. Atlas is said to have reigned in Arcadia. The adjacent constellation, Ursa Minor, is identified with Arcas the eponym of Arcadia.<ref>[http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Camelopardalis.htm Constellations of Words]</ref>