Up to the XIX century the astronomers used to draw in this portion of sky two figures,
that of the eagle and that of Antinoo; each of them had own myth. The eagle
represents the animal into which Zeus turned to abduct the young Ganimede, while
Antinoo was emperor Adriano's young friend.
You narrates that Zeus one day saw the young shepherd Ganimede while he drove to
the pasture the livestock on the mountains of the Ida. In to see he judged him
the most beautiful youth of the Earth and decided to abduct to do him
the coppiere of the gods; so the divine sovereign, turned him into a majestic
eagle and descents in beaten by the peaks of the Olimpo.
Not seeing to get back home Ganimede, Troo, his father, began to despair, but
quickly a herald of the father of the gods came from him to explain him
what happened and to reassure him on the destiny of Ganimede. The herald also said
that Zeus, to compensate Troo of the subtraction of his first-born, would have
assured to his and to his descent the dominion on the earth that he lived (what from
him taken the name of Troade) and huge wealths. It needs then to remember that the
figure of the eagle was one of the symbols of Zeus and for this reason it shows
up in a big number of myths.

With regard to the history of Antinoo, an oracle had afore said that the emperor Adriano
would be found in a moment of extreme difficulty and only the person that he mostly
loved would have been able to save him with his own sacrifice; the facts showed
the truthfulness of the response. During a trip to Egypt the young pupil of Adriano
threw him in fact in the Nile to the place of the sovereign saving his life;
the ruling one was very touched of it that, subsequently he ordered to a proper
astronomer of court to find a place among the constellations to be able to give
perpetual memory to his heroic friend. In the 800 however the German astronomer
Argelander eliminated this character from the celestial panoramas decreeing the
superiority of the divine eagle.