It is visible as a group of starlets that together form a nebulous
stain situated near the tail of the Leo. It was considered the
typical lock of hair that is found to the extremity of the tails
of the Leo, until the Dutch cartographer Gerardus Mercator it make
independent in his known stellar catalog of the 1551.
In the Almagesto, work written by Tolomeo in the 150 d.C.,it
is described as a curl of hair. Eratostene saw it instead in two
ways: if considered belonging to the constellation of the Corona
Borealis, it was the hair of Arianna, if considered belonging to
the Leo it was the hair of the Regina of Egypt Berenice II of Cirene.
She married her brother Tolomeo III Euergete, as from diffused custom
in the Egyptian royal family, and she distinguished for her abilities
of horsewoman.
According to the stories of Igino, when Tolomeo was busy in the war
against Seleuco, king of Syria, Berenice promised to cut the hair
if her husband had returned alive. Tolomeo returned healthy and except
and his wife kept the promise deposing her head of hair in the
temple devoted to the mother Arsinoe (then identified with the goddess
Venus). The day later, however, the braids disappeared and of them lost
every trace: only Colone of Samo, a mathematician and astronomer
that lived in Alexandria, told the king that they had moved
to sky together with the constellations.