The strawberry moon, which is also designated as a supermoon, is shining in the night sky this week.
The moon, which is the full moon for the month of June, is called a supermoon, as it appears much larger and brighter in the night sky than other full moons due to the fact that it’s at the closest point to Earth in its orbit.
The strawberry moon has been visible in the night sky since Sunday but is expected to reach its peak tonight, Tuesday.
While the strawberry moon is likely to appear reddish, particularly to people in Europe, its name is actually not derived from the color but from the Native American Algonquin tribe, which named the moon after strawberries because its appearance coincided with the time that the fruit was ripe and ready for picking.
In Europe, the moon was given a number of names, such as the honey, rose, or mead moon.
Greeks across the country will surely appreciate the beauty of the full moon, which will be particularly impressive at ancient sites such as the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio and the Parthenon in Athens.
Ancient Greek astronomers led the way in the understanding of space
Our solar system was always a source of fascination for the ancient Greeks, and outer space features prominently across the scientific, philosophical, and mythological output of ancient Greek society.
Ancient Greeks referred to constellations as “katasterismoi,” which translates to “placings of the stars.” The Greeks used “placing” specifically because they believed that the stars were placed there by the gods.
The crux of ancient Greek mythology is the belief that the Olympian gods placed every living being in the universe intentionally so that they may all play a role in the events that transpire in the world and the lessons learned from them. This belief is perhaps most famously memorialized in Homer’s epic poems the Iliad and The Odyssey.
In many ways, the galaxy is a stage on which the myths of the ancient Greeks are performed. The zodiac, which is derived from the Greek “zodiakos kuklos,” which means “circle of animals,” is filled with creatures that fought Heracles as part of his labors, including Taurus the Cretan bull and the Nemean lion, Leo.
Ancient Greek astronomers were some of the first people to gather knowledge about space exploration.
As civilized societies were just learning to use the wheel on earth, the ancient Greeks were aiming at the sky and the stars, contemplating outer space and how to measure it.
Even the science of the study of the sky and the stars, astronomy, finds its root in the ancient Greek word “Astronomia.”
It was under Greek skies that ancient astronomers began to develop theories about the planets overhead, theories that are now proven. Christopher Columbus may or may not have set out to prove that the earth was spherical, but it was the ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus who initiated the theory that the universe is heliocentric and that the planets are round.
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