March 19: Father's Day (Belgium)

Greek mythology isn’t short of monsters, and the Stymphalian birds were of the most blood thirsty kind. They would be the daughters of king Stymphalos of Arkadia and a certain Ornis, which means “bird”. They terrorised the region and unalived people with their feathers, that they could shoot like arrows. It was Herakles sixth task to vanquish them, but as they retreated in a swamp, he couldn’t get near. He would still stand there today, screaming and cursing, if not for Athena, goddess of wisdom. She commissioned a bronze rattle with divine smith Hephaistos and instructed Herakles to shake it with all his might. The birds couldn’t endure the horrendous noise and flew up in fear. It was then child’s play for Herakles to shoot them out of the sky, one by one. Athena kept the score, and when the last one was felled, she didn’t hesitate to inform Zeus of his son’s accomplishment. Like a proud father, who puts his child’s drawing on the fridge, Zeus put one of Herakles’ arrows in the sky. It’s still there, as the constellation Sagitta.

Greek archer in colour, Metropolitan Museum New York

Sagitta Constellation, Johann Bayer