The Corona Borealis is constituted by a bow of seven stars to which in
precedence was assigned a variety of names : Crown of Arianna, Crown of
Volcano, Cretica Crown, the Garland of Flowers, the Daughter of Minoi,
as Dante it describes in the Heaven, while Virgilio called it
"the cnosia adorns of the radiant Crown", where "cnosia" it means
"of the gentleman of Cnosso", or of Minosse.
According to the myth, the crown that shines in sky would have been that
worn by Arianna, that fell in love of Teseo and that helped him to complete
its extraordinary enterprise.
As tells us Arato, Teseo killed the Minotauro,creature half man and half
bull, fruit of the clandestine union between Pasifae, wife of Minosse
(the King of Creta) and a bull of the reoyal stables.
To hide the iniquity the King Minosse imprisoned the monster in a labyrinth
that was built by the genial Dedalo: a tangled jail from which anybody,
enclosed the Minotauro, had been never able to go out.
One day the strong and fearless Teseo introduced him to the court of
Minosse to challenge the Minotauro and conquered the heart of Arianna,
legitimate daughter of the sovereign bad sister of the same Minotauro.
This, spoken with with Dedalo, helped his beloved furnishing him a skein
of string that, unrolled along the run of the labyrinth, it was essential
to Teseo to reach the terrible creature, killed by him barehanded, and to
find again the way of the return.
Completed the enterprise, the hero abandoned Creta with the princess
that had wanted to follow him. Arrived to the island of Nasso, Teseo
cruelly abandoned her. The deep desperation of the woman persisted until
she know Dioniso, that became her husband: Afrodite gave to Arianna as
nuptial gift a crown of jewels, that Dioniso for the enthusiasm after
the ceremony launched to the sky, where it remained for the eternity.
The brightest star is Gemma ("jewel" in Latin) or Alphecca:this last name
derives from the Arabic word that means "the bright one of the bowl",
from the moment that the Arabs saw the whole constellation as a bowl.