Myths about the Milky Way

Star Lore

Part 1 - Europe, Middle East, Asia

In Egyptian mythology, the Milky Way was seen as a pool of cow's milk related to the fertility cow-goddess Bat.

Bat was depicted as a female human face with cow ears and horns. Other depictions showed her as a human woman.

Bat is one of the oldest Egyptian deities, dating back to the the earliest records of the religious practices in ancient Egypt. Later, by the time of the Middle Kingdom, her identity and attributes were subsumed within that of the goddess Hathor.

Bat as a woman
Brooklyn Museum

Bat as a cow; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Γαλαξίας (Galaxias), the Greek name for the Milky Way is derived from γάλα (gala), the Greek word for milk. In Greek mythology, there are two legends about how the Milky Way was created. Both stories are centered around Heracles, a mortal son of Zeus, and Hera, Zeus' wife.

In the first story, as told by Wikipedia, Heracles was born of the mortal woman Alcmene. In order to endow his mortal son with godlike qualities, Zeus let him suckle on his divine wife Hera's milk when she was asleep. When Hera woke up, she pushed Heracles away and the spurting milk became the Milky Way.

Migratory Birds use the Milky Way as a guide to travel south. Long ago, the Finns observed that phenomenon. In Finnish mythology, the birds were traveling along the Milky Way to Lintukoto the home of birds - a warm region at the edges of Earth , where the birds lived during the winter.

Elia Mervi tells a Finnish legend, in which the birds were guided by a white bird with the head of a maiden who chases them to find their way. She was the goddess Lindu, the queen of the birds and daughter of the god of the sky, Uko.

After rejecting the suits of the sun and the moon for being too predictable in their movements and the Pole Star for being fixed, she fell in love with the light of the North for her beauty. They compromised, but the unpredictable and wild Northern Light soon left. Lindu's tears fell in her veil, becoming the milky way while her father took her to the sky where she could reign by his side and thus guide the migration of the birds, following the star path of Lindu's veil.

Lindu's astral veil
� Katherine Makoyana

In Hungarian Mythology, the Milky Way is called Hadak �tja - The Road of the Warriors. The stars are interpreted as sparks from the horseshoes of the horses of Prince Csaba an his warriors.

In Hungarian legends, Csaba, the mythical son of Attila the Hun is the ancestor of the Hungarians. Wikipedia tells us, that after Csaba's death, the Huns had no one to take his place. Seizing their chance, the enemies of the Huns launched an assault on the Hun kingdom.

Prince Csaba and his warriors on the Milky Way
by Bertalan Sz�kely; Source: maghon.weebly.com

In Irish Mythology, there are several different names and several different legends associated with the Milky Way.

The most common name is Bealach na B� Finne � Way of the White Cow. It is also called M�r-Chuing Argait � the Great Silver Yoke, which refers to the sacred River Boyne and Earball na L�rach B�ine - the White Mare's Tail or Smir Find Fedlimthi - the White Marrow of Fedlimid.

Fedlimid mac Daill was the bard of King Conchobar mac Nessa in the Ulster Cycle of Irish Mythology. His daughter Deirdre and her lover Naoise fled from Conchobar to Scotland.

Eventually Conchobar had Naoise and his brothers killed. When they were to be buried, Deirdre threw herself into their grave. Angered, Conchobar exhumed the bodies and buried them separately, but a tree grew from each grave and the branches entwined. Again, Conchobar had them dug up and buried on opposite sides of a lake; but then, a great cluster of stars appeared across the sky, connecting the two graves.

The band of stars was called Sgr�ob Chlann Uisnich - The Track of the children of Uisneach, after Naoise and his brothers Ardan and Ainnle.

Deirdre's lament
Painting by J. H. F. Bacon
Charles Squire: Celtic Myths & Legends, Poetry & Romance

In several European cultures, the Milky Way is related to routs taken by christian pilgrims.

On the Iberian Peninsula, the Milky Way is called The Road to Santiago (Cam� de Sant Jaume in Catalan, Camiño de Santiago in Galician, Estrada de Santiago in Portuguese and Camino de Santiago in Spanish), referring to the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the 9th century with the final destination being the Shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.

In return, the pilgimage route is sometimes called La Voje Ladee, which is Spanish for Milky Way.

One of the titles used for the Milky Way in England is Walsingham Way, referring to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, a popular pilgrimage site in Walsingham, Norfolk, England. The Milky Way was a guide to the pilgrims. It also represents the pilgrims who flock at the shrine.

In Slovenia, the Milky Way is called Rimska Cesta, the Roman Road as it was used as a guide by pilgrims on their way to Rome.

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Source: Wikipedia

National Pilgrimage to Walsingham
Source: Wikipedia

In Armenia, the Milky Way is called Հարդագողի ճանապարհ (pronounced hardagoghi chanaparh), the "Way of a Man who had stolen the Straw".

In Armenian Mythology, during a very cold winter, Vahagn, the Armenian god of fire and thunder stole straw from the Assyrian king Barsham and brought it to Armenia to aid his people. When Vahagn fled across the heavens, some of the straw was spilled along the way.

The Straw-Thief myth spread from Armenia to Mongolia in the east and North Africa in the southwest. The Milky Way is called the route of scattered straw in Chechen, Godfather's straw in Croatian, Straw Thief in Kurdish, Straw-drawing in Persian, the Way of Straw in Sardinian, Road of Thieves in Syriac and Road of Straw in Turkish.

Statue of Vahagn in Yerevan
Source: Wikipedia

In Chinese, the Milky Way is called Tianhe, written 天 河, meaning Celestial River or River of Heaven.

Where the Milky Way crosses the constellation Cygnus, the Great Rift, is a group of dark dust clouds, significantly obscuring parts of the Milky Way for observers on Earth relates to a Chinese asterism called Tiānjīn (天 津), the Celestial Ford.

The dark patches are seen as a particularly shallow ford across the Celestial River.

Creation of the Milky Way, Guo Xu, 1503
Sources: Shanghai Museum, localiiz.com

Another translation for Tianhe is "Joining of the Heavens."

For that reason, the name was chosen for the core module of the planned Chinese Modular Space Station.

The core model was launched on April 29, 2021. Eventually, it will connect two space station modules, a manned spacecraft and a cargo spacecraft.

Artist's concept of the Chinese modular space station
Sources: Asia Times