"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

The Kneeler

From the beginning, the constellation Hercules was figured as a man kneeling on one knee with his right foot planted on the head of the great serpent Draco. The Romans called him Hercules after the Greek’s Herakles, but long before that he was known only as the Kneeler, and it was understood that he knelt as a burden-bearer, a laborer.

In the stories, Hercules always works against evil:
• the lion of Nemea which no weapons could wound
• the nine-headed Hydra which grew two more heads wherever one was cut off
• the filth of thousands of animals many years in the Augean stables
• Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Hades.

Do any of these evils sound familiar?
Do you know of one “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”?
Have you struggled against behaviors that when one seems conquered more spring up?
Have you discovered a buildup of junk in the closet of your past?
Do you struggle with the fear of death?

The Kneeler pictures the One who went about doing good. Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me,” John 9:4.

Hercules pictures the promised One who would crush the serpent’s head—through it brought himself to his knees, Genesis 3:15. Jesus knelt in agonized prayer before His greatest work. And He completed that work,

“Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it,” Colossians 2:14-15.

Jesus defeated death:

“Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him,” Romans 6:9.

And the fear of death:

“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:54-55.

Although the Greeks named Herakles, claimed him as their greatest hero-god, and told many stories of his feats, they admitted ignorance about the original figure. The poet Aratus wrote of it:

“An image none knows certainly to name,
Nor what he labors for.”

But for us, can there be any doubt that the ancient sky-figure was a prophetic representation of the promised Redeemer?

Who Gets the Crown?

This month between 9 and 10 PM—high in the sky from the northern hemisphere, low on the horizon from the southern—you will find west of Vega the four stars forming the trapezoid of Hercules. A little further west is the lovely semicircle of seven stars known as Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

Only the Deliverer deserves this crown—He who will someday be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Below the crown, however, and eagerly stretching toward it, lies Serpens. A small triangle marks his evil head. His snaky body connects to Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder, who grasps it firmly.

The serpent’s kingdom on earth began when Adam stepped out of his position as ruler under God. Thus, the serpent’s kingdom depends on covetousness, disbelief and rebellion—hardly a dependable foundation. His kingdom cannot endure and he will never wear the crown.

The kingdom of God, on the other hand, is “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” Romans 14:17.

“Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this,” Isaiah 9:7.

Animated Sky Map

Heads and Feet

“Heads or tails?”
“Head of the class”
“Put your foot down”
“Head of the table”
“Foot of the bed”
“Heads up!”
“Best foot forward”
“Good head for figures”
“Foot the bill”
“Use your head!”
“Head over heels in love”
“Put his foot in his mouth”
“Head of state”
“Underfoot”
“Dig in your heels”
Head and tail of a comet

We use heads and feet in more expressions than any other part of the anatomy except possibly the heart. This is not unique to English nor to this millennium. In fact, it is as old as astronomy itself.

There we see the foot of Hercules on the head of Draco; the foot of Ophiuchus on the head of Scorpius; the foot of Auriga on the horn of Taurus; the foot of Perseus on the neck of Taurus; the foot of Orion on the head of the beast.

These images reflect God’s great promise to mankind which He delivered as a curse to the serpent:

“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:15.

They portray the primordial dealings of God with man, the determined final solution for the Great Rebellion, God’s supreme will memorialized on the dome of our sky.