Illustrated as a wolf captured by the Centaur and south of Libra. Situated so low in the southern hemisphere that only a few stars in the group are visible to us.
According to fable, this constellation is Lycaon, King of Arcadia. He lived about 3,600 years ago and was changed into a wolf by Jupiter because he offered human victims on the altars of the god Pan.
It was said that the sins of mankind had become so great, Jupiter visited the earth to punish its wickedness and impiety. He came to Arcadia where he was announced as a god. The people began to pay proper adoration to his divinity.
Lycaon, however, who used to sacrifice all strangers to his wanton cruelty, laughed at the pious prayers of his subjects. To try the divinity of the god, he served up human flesh at his dinner table. Jupiter was understandably perturbed at what he perceived as a thumbing of the nose, and immediately destroyed the house and changed the sassy Lycaon into a wolf. Lycaon, as Lupus, spends eternity in the grasp of Centaurus.
|
| Symbol | Lup |
| Right Ascension |
03:13
|
| Declination | -43 |
| Diameter (°) | 14 |
| Area (square °) | 334 |
| Opposition |
May 11
|
| Size Rank |
46th
|
| Brightness Rank |
29th
|
| Genitive | Lupi |
|