Curious George Co-Creator Hans Rey Drew Gemini as Hand Holding Twins

Summary: Curious George co-creator Hans Rey drew Gemini as hand holding twins, not as the seated or strolling duo outlined in traditional depictions.

Curious George co-creator H.A. Rey’s redrawn Gemini the Twins constellation: AugPi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Curious George co-creator Hans Rey drew Gemini as hand holding twins whose brotherly love is conveyed by clasped hands rather than by the close sitting or arm-in-arm strolling in traditional visualizations.

German-born American author and illustrator Hans Augusto “H.A. Rey” Reyersbach (Sept. 16, 1898-Aug. 26, 1977) created seven Curious George stories with his wife, Margarete “Margret” Elisabethe Waldstein Rey (May 16, 1906-Dec. 21, 1996). The husband-and-wife team produced the series of children’s picture books between 1941 and 1966.

Hans Rey included his interest in astronomy in his illustrations and writings. Rey felt that constellation guides were unhelpful in familiarizing constellations during his stargazing. He considered that the shapes yielded by traditional connections between stars difficultly and inaccurately suggested the constellations.

Rey’s dissatisfaction led him to revise a number of the 88 modern constellations. His intentions included enlivening the constellations and restoring enjoyment to starry observations.

Rey first presented his revised outlines in 1952 in The Stars: A New Way to See Them. He revisited his revisions in 1954 in Find the Constellations.

Rey found that constellation guides shape constellations allegorically or geometrically. Allegorical figures are decorative but confusing and unhelpful. His example of an allegorical drawing of Gemini fleshes out the constituent stars to depict strolling twins with their elbows interlocked. Geometrical figures may appear “at least rational” but fail to suggest the subject and pose difficulties in reconstructing their involved shapes in the nighttime sky. Rey’s example of a geometrical drawing of Gemini depicts a matchstick figure with connecting lines angling incomprehensibly.

Gemini the Twins constellation concerns Greek and Roman mythology’s twin half-brothers, Castor and Pollux. The twins have mythological associations with events precipitating the Bronze Age’s Trojan War and with the dichotomy of death and immortality.

The twins’ mythological profiles vary in the absence or presence of the gift of immortality. In some stories, Castor and Pollux share in the gift. In some stories, Pollux is mortal while Castor is immortal. In other stories, mortality is suggested for both of them.

If immortality is bestowed on only one, then that recipient is Pollux. One such story explains Gemini as emblemizing Pollux’s sharing his immortality with dying, mortal Castor.

The two brightest stars in Gemini the Twins constellation bear the traditional names of Castor and Pollux. First magnitude Pollux (Beta Geminorum, β Geminorum; Beta Gem, β Gem) shines as the constellation’s brightest star. Castor (Alpha Geminorum, α Geminorum; Alpha Gem, α Gem) is Gemini’s second brightest star. University of Illinois Professor Emeritus of Astronomy James “Jim” Kaler notes Castor’s lofting “into the ‘first magnitude’ category, though in fact it is the brightest of the second magnitude stars (1.58).”

The traditional names of the constellation’s two brightest stars reflect their association with the mythological twins. The two stars represent the twins’ heads in traditional visualizations. Rey concurred, noting, in The Stars: A New Way to See Them, that yellowish Pollux is brighter than whitish Castor. In Find the Constellations, Rey described each head as possessing a bright star.

Rey’s revised Gemini visualization differs from traditional depictions in presenting hand holding twins. Iota Geminorum (ι Geminorum; Iota Gem, ι Gem) represents the twins’ clasped hands. The fourth magnitude star perches at the apex of an almost isosceles triangle with Castor (Alpha Geminorum) and Pollux (Beta Geminorum). Iota Geminorum lies slightly closer to Pollux, positioned to the northeast, than to Castor, located to the northwest.

Curious George co-creator Hans Rey sought to share his enjoyment of astronomy by demystifying constellations for stargazers. He drew upon his creativity to make meaningful, new connections between a constellation’s stars without altering the constellation’s traditional stellar components. When he looked at Gemini, he saw brotherly love, epitomized by hand holding twins.

The takeaway for Curious George co-creator Hans Rey’s drawing Gemini as hand holding twins is that the German-born American author and illustrator refashioned Gemini the Twins constellation with the aim of easing recognition of Castor and Pollux for stargazers.

traditional visualization of Gemini the Twins constellation, as depicted by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788-1831) in Urania’s Mirror (1825), a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards: U.S. Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Curious George co-creator H.A. Rey’s redrawn Gemini the Twins constellation: AugPi, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gemini_constellation_map_visualization_1.PNG

traditional visualization of Gemini the Twins constellation, as depicted by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788-1831) in Urania’s Mirror (1825), a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sidney_Hall_-_Urania's_Mirror_-_Gemini.jpg; No known restrictions on publication in the U.S., via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695511/

For further information:

Kaler, James B. (Jim). “Castor (Alpha Geminorum).” University of Illinois Astronomy Department > Star of the Week.
Available @ http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/castor.html

Rey, H.A. Find the Constellations. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1954.

Rey, H.A. The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1952.