The Game (13 page)

“See that?” Troy said. “This is what happens now you've pinned Uncle Jolyon to the sky. We can all do what we want to do. At last!”

More than a story © HarperCollins Children's Books 2008

The aunts are
THE PLEIADES
, often known as The Seven Sisters, a star cluster in the general region of The Great Bear. It is possible to count seven of them only out of the corner of your eye. In Ancient Greece, The Pleiades seemed to mingle freely with both mortals and gods, and at least three of them had a love affair with Zeus (Jupiter), chief of the gods of both Greece and Ancient Rome. Uncle Jolyon is
JUPITER
.

MAIA
, whose son by Jupiter is
MERCURY
(Mercer), the messenger of the gods

ELECTRA
, whose children by Jupiter are Harmonia (Harmony) and the man who built and founded the great city of Troy and became its first king

ALCYONE
, known to astronomers as Beta Tauri, who seems to have been too lofty to have a love affair with anyone

TAYGETA
, whose children by Jupiter became the Spartans

CELAENO
, one of the fainter stars, whose children by Jupiter became many of the other peoples of Ancient Greece

ASTEROPE
, very much fainter than her sister stars

MEROPE
, who married
SISYPHUS
, a mortal king in Ancient Greece. Sisyphus was later punished by having to roll a stone eternally up a hill. As soon as he got near the top, the stone would roll back down to the bottom of the hill again.

The parents of the Pleiades are
PLEONE
(known to astronomers as “a shell star”) and
ATLAS
. Atlas was the last of the race of Titans, gigantic beings whom Jupiter defeated when he first came to power as chief of the gods. Some of the Titans were once gods themselves until Jupiter destroyed them. Atlas was spared on condition that he held the world up on his shoulders (although some versions say it was the sky he carries).

In spite of his mighty task, Atlas seems to have had time to fall in love with the nymph Hespera, by whom he had five daughters, known together as the
HESPERIDES
. These ladies guarded the golden apples in the Western Isles.

AUTOLYCUS
(Tollie) is the son of Mercury by a mortal woman. He grew up to be a thief, trickster, cattle rustler and general bad man. Some of the cattle he stole belonged to Sisyphus.

ORION
was a mighty hunter in Ancient Greece, who chased women as often as he chased animals. He seems to have gone after both the Pleiades and the Hesperides, and ended up by being placed in the heavens as a constellation which, to this day, is one of the most notable in the winter skies.

As for
HAYLEY
(Halley's Comet), it seems to me that the child of a star and a mortal king would almost certainly be a comet.

Some of the many stories and myths containing olden apples.

Can you match each person on the left with the correct object on the right?

Answers on page 20.

The planets rotate around the sun on a fixed path or orbit. This diagram is like the picture Grandpa showed Hayley on his computer screen.

	Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is bigger than all the other planets together.
	People used to make up silly sentences (known as mnemonics) using the initial letters of each planet to remember their order from the sun. The most well-known is: Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Under No Protest.
	In 2006 Pluto was reclassified as a minor planet. Unlike the planets, it has an elliptical orbit.
	Halley's Comet is visible from Earth every 76 years. It was last seen in 1986 and will return in 2062.

	Orion is the brightest constellation in the winter sky.
	The three stars across his “belt” are the easiest way to spot this group.
	The stars are not really linked in any way, but ancient civilisations imagined the shape.
	There are many myths about Orion the Hunter. One story says that he perpetually chases the Pleiades across the sky, while Taurus the Bull prevents him from ever reaching them.
	You can find the “horns” of Taurus above and to the right of Orion. The cloudy cluster behind Taurus is the Pleiades.