Catasterisms

The Catasterisms (Greek Katasterismoi, 'constellations' or 'placings among the stars') is a lost work by Eratosthenes of Cyrene. It was a comprehensive compendium of astral mythology, including origin myths of the stars and constellations. Only a summary survives, the Epitome Catasterismorum, written by an unknown author sometimes called Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and dated to around the 1st century BCE or CE.

The Epitome records the mature development of a long process: the Greeks' assimilation of a Mesopotamian zodiac, transmitted through Persian interpreters and translated and harmonized with the known terms of Greek mythology. A key step was applying Greek mythic names to individual stars, to asterisms such as the Pleiades and Hyades, and to constellations. It covers forty-three of the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations, along with the five planets and the Milky Way.

The work was overshadowed during the Renaissance by Hyginus, the only other ancient catalogue of catasterisms. The first illustrated edition appeared in Venice in 1482. Some modern translations are considered unreliable.