There he made the earth and there the sky and the sea and the inexhaustible blazing sun and the moon rounding full and there, the constellations, all that crown the heavens, the Pleiades and the Hyades

There he made the earth and there the sky and the sea
and the inexhaustible blazing sun and the moon rounding full
and there, the constellations, all that crown the heavens,
the Pleiades and the Hyades. Orion in all his power too
and the Great Bear that mankind also calls the Wagon:
she wheels on her axis always fixed, watching the Hunter,
and she alone is denied a plunge in the Ocean’s baths.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 565-571. The scene at the epicenter of the huge shield which Hephaestus makes for Achilles is an extended metaphor for the earth and its heavenly environment, with the sun, moon and stars. Included are depictions of major constellations like Orion and the Bear.

Homer Quotes