Lepus

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Doris Vickers, Youla Azkarrula

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Lep star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg).

One of the 88 IAU constellations.

Etymology and History

Orion-Group of constellations on the Kugel Globe, drawing and animated GIF by SMH 2025.

Alongside Andromeda and Perseus, the group around Orion forms the second mythological constellation complex. It is said to depict a hunting scene. The hare is pursued by one or two hounds of Orion. This is how it can be seen in the sky: The hare stands to the west of the constellation of the Great Dog, so it rises before it and runs in front of it the whole time during the night.

Origin of Constellation

Rooster in Babylonian uranography, painting by Jessica Gullberg for Stellarium (2022).

Babylonian

The constellation has no Babylonian origin, because in Mesopotamia there was the constellation of the Rooster (DAR.LUGAL) in this position.

MUL.APIN was copied throughout the -1st millennium, so presumably continued to be used in Babylonian astronomy. It is therefore unclear when and where the transformation from the rooster to the hare took place. It is quite possible that the hare was a separate Greek constellation or originated from another conquered civilisation.

Greco-Roman

Aratus

Under the two feet of Orion the Hare is hunted constantly all the time: Sirius moves for ever behind it as if in pursuit, [341] rises after it and watches it as it sets. (Kidd 1997)

Hipparchus

Rising (Lib II Cap V §10)

The Rising of ...

	east		south
	lam1	lam2	lam1	lam2
star
duration	2 1/8 hours = 127.5 min = 31 7/8 degree

Setting (Lib II Cap VI §10)

	west		south
	lam1	lam2	lam1	lam2
star
duration	2 2/3 hours = 160 min = 40°

Stars Mentioned

	Greek	German	English	ident.	src		lam_culm
					Lib II Cap V §10	rising, east, first
					Lib II Cap V §10	rising, east, last
					Lib II Cap VI §2	setting CrB, south, last	Psc 13.5
					Lib II Cap VI §13	setting Aql, south, first	Ari 2
					Lib III Cap I §9	rising Ori, south, last	Psc 13

Hyginus, Astronomica

The hare is said to be fleeing the dog of the hunter Orion, for when, as was proper, they represented Orion as a hunter, they wanted to indicate what he was hunting, and so they put the fleeing hare at his feet. Some say that it was put there by Mercury, and that it had been given the faculty, beyond other kinds of quadrapeds, of being pregnant with new offspring when giving birth to others. Those who disagree with this reason say that so noble and great a hunter as Orion (we spoke about him in the discussion of Scorpio) shouldn't be represented hunting hares. Callimachus, too, is blamed, because, when he was singing the praises of Diana, he said she delighted in the flesh of hares and hunted them. So they have represented Orion fighting the Bull. The following story of the hare has been recorded. There were no hares on the island of Leros, and a certain young man of the state, led by a liking for the breed, brought in from another country a pregnant female, and watched over her very carefully as she bore her young. When she had borne them, many of the citizens developed an interest, and by acquiring some for money, some as gifts, they all began to raise hares. In no long time such a multitude of hares was produced that the whole island was swarming with them. When men gave them nothing to eat, they made inroads on the grain fields and devoured everything. The inhabitants, faced with disaster because of this, since they were reduced to hunger, by co-operation of the whole state were said at length to have driven them from the island, through with difficulty. So afterwards they put the image of a hare in the stars, that men should remember that there was nothing so desirable in life but that later they might experience more grief than pleasure from it. (Mary Ward 1960)

Almagest Λαγωός

id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
	Λαγωοῦ ἀστερισμός	constellation of the Hare
1	τοῦ κατὰ τῶν ὤτων τετραπλεύρου τῆς ἠγουμένης πλευρᾶς ὁ βόρειος.	The quadrilateral just over the ears: the northcrn star an the advance side	iot Lep
2	ὁ νότιος τῆς ἠγουμένης πλευρᾶς	The quadrilateral just over the ears: the southern star on the advance side	kap Lep
3	τῆς ἐπομένης πλευρᾶς ὁ βόρειος	The quadrilateral just over the ears: the northern star on the rear side	nu Lep
4	ὁ φότιος τῆς ἐπομένης πλευρᾶς	The quadrilateral just over the ears: the southern star on the rear side	lam Lep
5	ὁ ἐῃ τῷ γερείῳ.	The star in the cheek	mu Lep
6	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐμπροσθίου ἀριστεροῦ ἀκρόποδος	The star on the left front foot	eps Lep
7	ὁ ἐν μέσῳ τῷ σώματι	The star in the middle of the body	alf Lep
8	ὁ ὑπὸ τὴν κοιλίαυ	The star under thc bellv	bet Lep
9	τῶν ἐν τοῦς ὀπισθίοις ποσὶο β ὁ βορειότερος	The northernmost of th~ 2 stars in the hind legs	del Lep
10	ὁ νοτιώτερος αὐτῶν	Thc southcrnmost of them	gam Lep
11	ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς ὀσφύος.	The star on the rump	zet Lep
12	ὁ ἐπ’ ἄκρας τῆς οὐρᾶς	The star on the tip of the tail	eta Lep
all	ἀστέρες ἰβ, ὧν γ μεγέθους β, δ’s, ε' δ	{12 stars, 2 of the third magnitude, 6 of the fourth, 4 of the fifth}

Convex Hull for the stars inside Lagos (CC BY Youla Azkarrula).

Stars within the Constellation Area

id	Label	IAU design.	description	Vmag
1	Arneb	HIP 25985	Inside the hull	2.57
2	Nihal	HIP 25606	Constellation lines	2.84
3	ϵ Leporis	HIP 23685	Constellation lines (Vertex)	3.18
4	μ Leporis	HIP 24305	Constellation lines	3.29
5	ζ Leporis	HIP 27288	Constellation lines	3.525
6	γ Leporis	HIP 27072	Constellation lines (Vertex)	3.6
7	η Leporis	HIP 28103	Constellation lines (Vertex)	3.72
8	δ Leporis	HIP 27654	Constellation lines (Vertex)	3.85
9	λ Leporis	HIP 24845	Constellation lines	4.29
10	κ Leporis	HIP 24327	Constellation lines	4.44
11	ι Leporis	HIP 24244	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.45
12	-	HIP 24927	Constellation lines	4.729
13	17 Lep	HIP 28816	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.93
14	8 Lep	HIP 25202	Inside the hull	5.229
15	ν Leporis	HIP 24873	Constellation lines	5.284
16	-	HIP 24679	Inside the hull	5.488
17	-	HIP 27517	Constellation lines	5.49
18	10 Lep	HIP 25853	Inside the hull	5.525
19	-	HR 2021	Inside the hull	5.58
20	-	HIP 25280	Inside the hull	5.636
21	-	HIP 26966	Inside the hull	5.727
22	-	HIP 25397	Inside the hull	5.817
23	12 Lep	HIP 26865	Inside the hull	5.89
24	-	HIP 24786	Constellation lines	5.96
25	-	HIP 25532	Inside the hull	6.065
26	-	HIP 26866	Inside the hull	6.144
27	V* AK Lep	HR 1982	Inside the hull	6.15
28	-	HIP 27308	Inside the hull	6.157
29	-	HIP 26821	Inside the hull	6.2
30	-	HIP 24394	Inside the hull	6.21
31	-	HIP 27075	Inside the hull	6.341
32	-	HIP 24825	Inside the hull	6.39
33	-	HIP 25059	Inside the hull	6.47

Mythology

Greek

Eratosthenes explains the hare in relation to the hunting scene mentioned above. Hares were popular prey, and according to Pliny, popular belief held that hare meat made the body more beautiful for nine days.

Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is said to have placed the hare among the stars: both hares and the messenger of the gods are popularly regarded as particularly fast and skilled travellers, even beyond roads and well-trodden paths. They are therefore also considered particularly clever: Mercury/Hermes is also the god responsible for quick thinking.

Eratosthenes, however, limits himself to stating the biological characteristics of the hare, so that there was probably no real myth here, but rather the constellation was simply given a meaning for didactic purposes.

In particular, he reports that the hare is the only quadruped that can be pregnant with several young at the same time, some of which it keeps in its belly while others are born. Here he alludes to the fact that female hares can be pregnant by different hares at the same time. This so-called superfecundation can lead to a time lag between births, meaning that even foetuses from the same cycle are not born at the same time. What Eratosthenes and his source Aristotle did not know is that this is also possible in other animals – even in humans, which is reported in the tabloid media due to its rarity.

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)