May 6: Family Month

According to the ancient Greeks, the Milky Way was unintentionally created by supreme goddess Hera. Her husband Zeus had come up with the idea of granting his illegitimate son Herakles (by the mortal princess Alkmene), divine strength and immortality. While he had no trouble using his magic to accomplish this for Dionysos for example, in Herakles’ case, he opted for a more intricate approach. He ventured to put the child at Hera’s breast when she was asleep, in order to literally make the baby suck up her divine power. But Herakles’ greedy suckling made Hera wake up in pain, and as soon as she noticed the despised child in her arms, she swept it from her body, spilling drops of milk all over the place. And so originated the hazy band of light that we spot on the night sky. Only in the 17th century, Galileo Galilei proved that it consists of a huge number of faint stars, between 100 and 400 billion. And at least that many planets.  That must have been quite a fountain of milk.

Hera suckling Herakles, Squat Lekythos, British Museum, London, UK

The Origin of the Milky Way, Tintoretto, National Gallery, London, UK