Uit Richard Hinckley Allen's : Star Names - Their Lore and Meaning (1889)

Delphinus, the Dolphin,

is Dauphin in France, Delfino in Italy, and Delphin in Germany: all from the Greek Δελφίς and Δελφίν, transcribed by the Latins as Delphis and Delphin. This last continued current through the 17th century, and in our day was resumed by Proctor for his reformed list. Chaucer, in the Hous of Fame, had Delphyn, and later than he it was Dolphyne.

It now is one of the smallest constellations, but originally may have included the stars that Hipparchos set off to form the new Equuleus; and in all astronomical literature has borne its present title and shape, with many and varied stories attached, for its namesake was always regarded the most remarkable of marine creatures.

In Greece it also was Ἵερος Ἰχθύς, the Sacred Fish, the creature being of as much religious significance there as a fish afterwards became among the early Christians; and it was the sky emblem of philanthropy, not only from the classical stories connected with its prototype, but also from the latter's devotion to its young. It should be remembered that our stellar Dolphin is figured as the Common cetacean, Delphinus delphis, of Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, not the tropical Coryphaena that Dorado represents.

Ovid, designating it as clarum sidus, personified it as Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea, because the dolphin induced her to become the wife of Neptune, and for this service, Manilius said, was "rais'd from Seas" to be

From this story the constellation was known as Persuasor Amphitrites, as well as Neptunus and Triton.

With Cicero it appeared as Curvus, an adjective that appropriately has been applied to the creature's apparent form in all ages 1) down to the "bended dolphins" in Milton's picture of the Creation. Bayer's Currus merely is Cicero's word with a typographical error, for he explained it, Ciceroni ob gibbum in dorso; but he also had Smon nautis, and Riccioli Smon barbaris, which seems to be the Simon, Flat-nosed, of old-time mariners, quoted by Pliny for the animal [H. N. IX.23].

Another favorite title was Vector Arionis, from the Greek fable that attributed to the dolphin the rescue of Arion on his voyage from Tarentum to Corinth — a variation of the very much earlier myth of the sun-god Baal Hamon. Hence comes Henry Kirke White's

In continuation of the Greek story of Arion and his Lyre appears Μουσικόν ζώδιον, the Musicum signum of the Latins; or this may come from the fact mentioned in Ovid's Fasti [II.118] that the constellation was supposed to contain nine stars, the number of the Muses, although Ptolemy prosaically catalogued 10; Argelander, 20; and Heis, 31.

Riccioli and La Lande cited Hermippus for Delphinus, and Acetes after the pirate-pilot who protected Bacchus on his voyage to Naxos and Ariadne; while to others it represented Apollo returning to Crissa or piloting Castalius from Crete.

The Hindus, from whom the Greeks are said to have borrowed it, although the reverse of this may have been the case, knew it as Shī-shu-māra, or Sim-shu-māra, changed in later days to Zizumara, a Porpoise, also ascribed to Draco. And they located here the 22d nakshatra, Çravishthā, Most Favorable, also called Dhanishthā, Richest; the Vasus, Bright or Good Ones, being the regents of this asterism, which was figured as a Drum or Tabor; β marking the junction with Catabishaj.

Brown thinks that it may have been the Euphratean Makhar, although Capricorn also claimed this.

Al Bīrūnī, giving the Arabic title AI Ḳaʽūd, the Riding Camel, said that the early Christians — the Melkite 2) and Nestorian sects — considered it the Cross of Jesus transferred to the skies after his crucifixion; but in Kazwini's day the learned of Arabia called α, β, γ and δAl ʽUḳūd, the Pearls or Precious Stones adorning Al Ṣalīb, by which title the common people knew this Cross; the star ε, towards the tail, being Al ʽAmūd al Ṣalīb, the Pillar of the Cross. But the Arabian astronomers adopted the Greek figure as their Dulfīm, which one of their chroniclers described as "a marine animal friendly to man, attendant upon ships to save the drowning sailors."

The Alfonsine Tables of 1545 said of Delphinus, Quae habet stellas quae sapiunt naturam, a generally puzzling expression, but common in the 1551 translation of the Tetrabiblos, where it signifies stars supposed to be cognizant of human births and influential over human character, — naturam. Ptolemy, as is shown in these Four Books, was a believer in the genethliacal influence of certain stars and constellations, of which this seems to have been one specially noted in that respect.

Delphinus lies east of Aquila, on the edge of the Milky Way, occupying, with the adjoining aqueous figures, the portion of the sky that Aratos called the Water. It culminates about the 15th of September.

Caesius placed here the Leviathan of the 104th Psalm; Novidius, the Great Fish that swallowed Jonah; but Julius Schiller knew some of its stars as the Water-pots of Cana. Popularly it now is Job's Coffin, although the date and name of the inventor of this title I have not been able to learn.

The Chinese called the four chief stars and ζ Kwa Chaou, a Gourd.

α, 4, pale yellow; β, Binary, 4 and 6, greenish and dusky.

The strange names Sualocin and Rotanev first appeared for these stars in the Palermo Catalogue of 1814, and long were a mystery to all, and seemingly a great puzzle to Smyth, which he perhaps never solved, although he was very intimate with the staff of the Palermo Observatory. Webb, however, discovered their origin by reversing the component letters, and so reading Nicolaus Venator, the Latinized form of Niccolo Cacciatore, the name of the assistant and successor of Piazzi. But Miss Rolleston, in her singular book Mazzaroth, considered in some quarters as of authority, wrote [2d Part, Scorpio] that they are derived, α from the

and β from the

For no part of this scholarly (!) statement does there seem to be the least foundation. Burritt gave these titles as Scalovin and Rotanen.

α may be variable to the extent of half a magnitude in fourteen days.

β is a very close pair, 0ʺ.68 apart in 1897, at a position angle of 357°, with the rapid orbital period of about twenty-six years. Another companion, purple in color and of the 11th magnitude, 6ʺ away, has lately been discovered by See, and so β may be ternary; while two other stars of the 10th and 13th magnitudes are about 30ʺ away.

γ is a beautiful double of 4th and 5th magnitudes, 11ʺ apart, with a position angle of 270°; but, if binary, their motion is extremely slow. The components are golden and bluish green, and a fine object for small glasses.

ε, a 4th‑magnitude, although lying near the dorsal fin of our present figure, bears the very common name Deneb, from Al Dhanab al Dulfīm, the Dolphin's Tail. But in Arabia it also was Al ʽAmūd al Ṣalīb, as marking the Pillar of the Cross. In China it was Pae Chaou, the Rotten Melon.

The comparative brilliancy of β, γ, δ, and ε has been variously estimated — a fact which the observations of Gould at Albany in 1858, and at Cordoba in 1871‑74, prove to be occasioned by variability, within moderate limits, of all four.

Notes:

1) Huet, in his notes on Manilius, quoted many examples of the use of this term by the Latins, and said Perpetuam hoc Delphinum Epitheton.

2) These Melkites, or Royalists as the name indicates, were of the Greek Church, whose spiritual head now is the Czar, the Royal head of Russia and successor of the Byzantine Church.