To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe) of Tama-rereti. Hera used to be in conflict with the semi-god and hero Heracles, since he happened to be the son of her husband Zeus and a mortal woman. For example, African Bushmen believed the Milky Way was made of campfire ashes, Polynesians believed it was a long, blue shark that ate clouds, and the Greeks believed it was the scorched path along which the Sun once moved across the sky. The Creation of the Milky Way in Greek Mythology The Milky Way is the galaxy in which our own planet and solar system resides. A story told by the Roman Hyginus in the Poeticon astronomicon (ultimately based on Greek myth) says that the milk came from the goddess Ops (Greek Rhea), the wife of Saturn (Greek Cronus). Saturn swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Ops conceived a plan to save her newborn son Jupiter (Greek Zeus): She wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to Saturn to swallow. Older Greek mythology associates the Milky Way with a herd of dairy cows/cattle, where each cow is a star and whose milk gives the blue glow.Template:Fact As such, it is intimately associated with legends concerning the constellation of Gemini, with which it is in contact. According to legend, the god Vahagn stole some straw from the Assyrian king Barsham and brought it to Armenia during a cold winter. So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe along the river that emptied into the heavens (to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles from the lakeshore into the sky. But the Navajo and Chinese had more developed stories. One legend explains how the Milky Way was created by Heracles when he was a baby. [2] His father, Zeus, was fond of his son, who was born of the mortal woman Alcmene. According to legend, when Tama-rereti took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself far from home as night was falling. It was regarded as a heavenly reflection of the sacred River Boyne, which is described as "the Great Silver Yoke" and the "White Marrow of Fedlimid," names which could equally apply to the Milky Way. In the Babylonian epic poem Enûma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. The Milky Way is thus called Gili Ulisvsdanvyi "The Way the Dog Ran Away".[3]. [8], The slight bulge of the Milky Way around Scorpius is also sometimes pictured as a whale. For the novel, see, This article is about mythology related to the Milky Way Galaxy. Moreover, Aboriginal Groups from the Cape York region of Queensland see the band of light as termites that had been blown into the sky by the ancestral hero Burbuk Boon. According to Chinese mythology, when the king of the sky was creating the heavens, he asked his daughter, the seventh princess of heaven, to help him by weaving the clouds and mists. In Estonian folklore it is believed that the birds are led by a white bird with the head of a maiden who chases birds of prey away. In the Babylonian epic poem Enûma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. According to legend, the god Vahagnstole some straw from the Assyrian king Barsham and brought it to Armenia during a cold winter.