The Crow's Work

One necessary but distasteful job of crows and ravens is cleaning up dead bodies. You've seen them  picking at road kill. The Philistine giant referred to this when he said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" David responded in kind, and it was he who triumphed. The Philistine had challenged a Power greater than his own.

Corvus, the crow or raven, is a small constellation south of Virgo. Just west of it is Crater, the cup. The sky map above is reversed because many old sky maps were drawn as though looking toward  earth from above.

Corvus and Crater are situated on the back of Hydra, a water serpent who stretches across one hundred degrees of sky. In Biblical thought the serpent always refers to the evil one. Many representations of the evil one in the sky show him in mortal combat, but this one figure portrays his final destruction, the cup of God's wrath pouring out upon him, the raven devouring his remains. It's not a pretty picture, but it is comforting to those grieved over the state of the world.