The world's ancient myths are built on celestial metaphor.
In 1952, H. A. Rey (who, along with his wife Margret, is best known for writing and illustrating the Curious George books) published a system for outlining the constellations in the book entitled The Stars: A New Way to See Them (still in print, in an updated edition available online here or in most bookstores).
Curiously, his system opens the door to seeing the connections between the myths and the stars. And, as this video shows, it appears that artists down through the millennia (and around the globe) were using a very similar system for outlining the constellations -- and for encoding the constellations in artwork about the myths!
This new video uses the outlines suggested by H. A. Rey (with some slight modifications in a few instances) to illustrate the direct connections between ancient artwork and specific constellations and their distinctive outlines and features. Some less-ancient artwork depicting scenes from what are often referred to as the Old and New Testaments is included as well, along with star-charts illustrating their connections to the stars.
