Callisto
A moon of Jupiter named after Callisto, the nymph companion of Artemis who was transformed into a bear and placed among the stars as the constellation Ursa Major
The Meaning of Callisto
Callisto is the second-largest of Jupiter's Galilean moons and the third-largest moon in the solar system. It was named after Callisto, a nymph and hunting companion of the virgin goddess Artemis. Zeus seduced Callisto, and when her pregnancy was discovered during a bath, Artemis expelled her from the hunting band. Hera, furious at yet another of Zeus's affairs, transformed Callisto into a bear. For years, the former nymph wandered the forests of Arcadia in her animal form. When her son Arcas, now a young hunter, encountered the bear and raised his spear, Zeus intervened to prevent matricide. He swept both mother and son into the sky, placing Callisto as the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and Arcas as Ursa Minor (the Little Bear) or the star Arcturus (Bear-Guardian). Hera, still unsatisfied, persuaded Oceanus and Tethys never to let the bear constellations set below the horizon — which is why Ursa Major is circumpolar and never dips below the horizon at northern latitudes. The moon Callisto has the oldest and most heavily cratered surface of any body in the solar system.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Callisto has the oldest surface of any body in the solar system — its craters have remained virtually unchanged for over four billion years
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