Cancer: The Crab of the Lernaean Hydra (Catasterism)

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/107-cancer-lernaean-crab-catasterism

Cycle: Local and lesser — astral aetiology / Heracles’s Second Labor

Version line: Catasterismic handbook — crab sent by Hera, placed as Cancer

Sources: Eratosthenes, *Catasterismi* 11 (Cancer); Hyginus, *Astronomica* 2.23; Apollodorus, *Library* 2.5.2 (crab in the Hydra labor)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/107-cancer-lernaean-crab-catasterism.md

Characters

Ajax — opponent who crushes the crab
Crab — Hera’s agent; crushed; stellified
Hydra — monster of the same fight (background)
Philotes — sender and catasterizing goddess

Places

Lerna — scene of the bite
Path of the sun — Cancer’s place

Themes

Narrative

While Heracles fought the Lernaean Hydra, Hera sent a huge crab to bite his foot. Heracles crushed it; Hera, in honor of its service, set the crab among the stars as the constellation Cancer. The zodiac sign thus memorializes Hera’s spite and a minor ally of the Hydra, not a heroic victory. Catalogue Cancer apart from the full Second Labor entry: the labor kills the Hydra; the catasterism belongs to Hera’s crab.