Editing Sagitta (section)

==History==
[[File:Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Delphinus, Sagitta, Aquila, and Antinous.jpg|thumb|alt=Drawing of a dolphin, eagle, archer, and arrow overlaid on a medieval star chart|Sagitta can be seen above [[Aquila (constellation)|Aquila]] in this plate from ''[[Urania's Mirror]]'' (1825).]]
The [[classical Greece|ancient Greeks]] called Sagitta {{lang|grc|Oistos}} 'the arrow',<ref name="Kunitzsch"/> and it was one of the 48 constellations described by [[Ptolemy]].<ref name=ridpathsag/> It was regarded as the weapon that [[Hercules]] used to kill the eagle ({{lang|la|Aquila}}) of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]]<!--wouldn't the Greeks have said "Zeus"?--> that perpetually gnawed [[Prometheus]]' liver.<ref name="hyginus_14">{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusAstronomica.html#15 |title=Astronomica |author=Hyginus |translator=Mary Grant |website=Theoi Project |access-date=31 January 2020}}</ref> Sagitta is located beyond the north border of [[Aquila (constellation)|Aquila]], the Eagle. An amateur naturalist, polymath [[Richard Hinckley Allen]] proposed that the constellation could represent the arrow shot by Hercules towards the adjacent [[Stymphalian birds]] (which feature in [[Labours of Hercules|Hercules' sixth labour]]) who had claws, beaks, and wings of iron, and who lived on human flesh in the marshes of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]—denoted in the sky by the constellations Aquila the Eagle, [[Cygnus (constellation)|Cygnus 'the Swan']], and [[Lyra|Lyra 'the Vulture']]—and still lying between them, whence the title [[Herculea]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard Hinckley | last=Allen|title=Star-Names and Their Meanings|pages =349–351 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8V2DY3tQMgC&q=Star-Names+and+Their+Meanings | year=1963 | orig-date=1899 | publisher=Dover Publications |location=New York | isbn=978-0-486-21079-7 }}</ref> Greek scholar [[Eratosthenes]] claimed it as the arrow with which [[Apollo]] exterminated the [[Cyclopes]].<ref name="hyginus_14"/> The Romans named it Sagitta.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Star Atlas Companion: What You Need to Know about the Constellations|last=Bagnall|first= Philip M. |date=2012|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |pages= 386–389 | location=New York | isbn=978-1-4614-0830-7|oclc=794225463}}</ref> In Arabic, it became ''al-sahm'' 'arrow', though this name became ''Sham'' and was transferred to [[Alpha Sagittae]] only. The Greek name has also been mistranslated as {{lang|el-latn|ὁ istos}} 'the loom' and thus in Arabic ''al-nawl''. It was also called ''al-'anaza'' 'pike/javelin'.<ref name="Kunitzsch">{{cite journal |url= http://opar.unior.it/473/1/P._Kunitzsch_pp.19-28_pdf.pdf |title= Albumasariana |journal=Annali dell'Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" |publisher=Rivista del Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici e del Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi |first=Paul |last= Kunitzsch |volume=62 |page=4 |date=2002 |issn=0393-3180 }}</ref>