Editing Constellation (section)

=== Classical antiquity ===
{{See also||Egyptian astronomy|Ancient Greek astronomy}}
[[File:Astronomical Ceiling, Tomb of Senenmut MET DT207429.jpg|upright|thumb|Egyptian star chart and decanal clock, from the ceiling of [[Astronomical ceiling of Senenmut's Tomb|Senenmut's tomb]], {{Circa|1473 BC}}]]

There is only limited information on ancient Greek constellations, with some fragmentary evidence being found in the ''[[Works and Days]]'' of the Greek poet [[Hesiod]], who mentioned the "heavenly bodies".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Stars and Constellations in Homer and Hesiod |journal=The Annual of the British School at Athens |volume=46 |pages=86–101 |date=1951|doi=10.1017/S0068245400018359 |last1=Lorimer |first1=H. L. |s2cid=192976174 }}</ref> Greek astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in the [[Hellenistic era]],{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} first introduced to Greece by [[Eudoxus of Cnidus]] in the 4th century BC. The original work of Eudoxus is lost, but it survives as a versification by [[Aratus]], dating to the 3rd century BC. The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by the Hellenistic writer termed [[pseudo-Eratosthenes]] and an early Roman writer styled pseudo-[[De astronomia|Hyginus]]. The basis of Western astronomy as taught during [[Late Antiquity]] and until the [[Early Modern period]] is the ''[[Almagest]]'' by [[Ptolemy]], written in the 2nd century.

In the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]], [[Egyptian astronomy|native Egyptian]] tradition of anthropomorphic figures represented the planets, stars, and various constellations.<ref name="Marshall Clagett 1995, p. 111">{{cite book|author=Marshall Clagett|title=Ancient Egyptian Science: Calendars, clocks, and astronomy|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC|year=1989|publisher=American Philosophical Society|isbn=978-0-87169-214-6}}</ref> Some of these were combined with Greek and Babylonian astronomical systems culminating in the [[Dendera zodiac|Zodiac of Dendera]], the oldest known depiction of the zodiac showing all the now familiar constellations, along with some original Egyptian constellations, [[decans]], and [[planets]].<ref name="Rogers" /><ref>{{cite book|author=Denderah|title=Zodiac of Dendera, epitome. (Exhib., Leic. square)|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xznqw5EkOCMC |year=1825}}</ref> It remains unclear when this occurred, but most were placed during the Roman period between 2nd to 4th centuries AD. Ptolemy's ''Almagest'' remained the standard definition of constellations in the medieval period both in Europe and in [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Islamic astronomy]].