"Four Heroes of the Night Sky"

The Bible tells us that in the days before the Great Flood, there were giants on the earth who were mighty men, men of renown. We are not told much more than that, probably because the message of the Bible is that we are to reverence God alone. In other cultures, heroes were exalted to the status of gods.

Some hero names and myths are attached to constellations. Drawings of hero figures on star maps include props from the myths.

• Perseus carries the severed head of the horrible monster, Medusa, whose hair was of snakes and whose direct stare turned anything to stone.

• Hercules wears the skin of a lion he has slain and grasps the heads of the multi-headed Hydra.

• Ophiuchus wrestles the giant serpent.

• Orion holds aloft a lion's head and skin.

Of course, the names and myths are not consistent around the world. This is expected because these thousands of years witnessed the development of many languages and the rise of many cultures. Yet the themes are consistent:

• a dread enemy
• an enslaved victim
• a self-sacrificing hero
• a conquering hero

These themes are also consistent with the message of the Bible. Satan is the dread enemy; we are/were his enslaved victims. Messiah is both the self-sacrificing and the conquering hero.

"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." Colossians 1:13