So here we have Crow, telling tall tales no doubt... but they must be true - for there he is in the sky!
Fairy tales that feature the Sky? hmmm... not just a space where something else is; like a beanstalk that reaches the sky - or a glass mountain. I have read and discarded a lot of stories this week, none seemed to quite fit.
I started looking for stories about constellations and then my partner (I often refer to him as the in-house critic here) had this faint memory of a picture of animal silhouettes looking up at the sky. I liked that mental image and while I thought about which animals an idea was born!
So here we have Crow, a trickster telling his stories to other trickster figures (Cat, Fox and Rat). I have drawn his silhouette slightly comically to contrast with the 'noble' image of the constellation in the sky.
One of the classic Greek tales of Apollo and Crow.
About to perform a ritual Apollo needs some water and sends Crow - Corvus with a Cup - Crater (the constellation to the right in bolder dots) to fetch some water for the altar. Crow is distracted by a crop of figs and hangs around for the figs to ripen so he can have a snack. In order to distract Apollo on his return, crow brings with him a water snake. Apollo is having none of it and throws all of them up into the sky!
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