Saturday, May 20, 2006

Saturday Trivia

There's only one piece of trivia today. This is to be found in a meteorology piece about the constellation Coma Berenices, and contains the piece of trivia knowledge that Coma Berenices is the only constellation named after a real person, and supplies the story: "Coma Berenices is the only constellation named after an actual person. Queen Berenices was the wife of Ptolemy III, a famous Egyptian pharaoh who lived around 200 B.C. According to the story, Pharaoh was leading his troops into a fierce war. Queen Berenices was a devoted spouse and prayed for his safe return. She was so desperate to see him again she promised to cut off her beautiful hair if her husband returned safe and sound. So, about a year later, when Ptolemy returned victorious, the queen cut off all of her hair and dedicated it to the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. But just days later, some souvenir-seeking scoundrels swiped Berenices' hair from the temple."
The rest of the myth can be found on the above page.

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