Curious George Co-Creator Hans Rey Drew Keystone as Head of Hercules

Summary: Curious George co-creator Hans Rey drew the Keystone as the head of Hercules, not as the Hero’s torso depicted in traditional visualizations.

Curious George co-creator H.A. Rey’s redrawn Hercules the Hero constellation: AugPi at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Curious George co-creator Hans Rey drew the Keystone as the head of Hercules rather than as the Hero’s torso favored by traditional visualizations.

German-born American author and illustrator Hans Augusto “H.A.” Rey (Sept. 16, 1898-Aug. 26, 1977) co-created the Curious George series with his wife, Margret (May 16, 1906-Dec. 21, 1996). The husband-and-wife team published the popular children’s picture book series between 1941 and 1966.

Hans Rey’s interest in nature extended beyond Earth, to the stars. As a stargazer, he experienced difficulties in matching figures in constellation guides with configurations in the nighttime sky. His creativity inspired him to devise easily identifiable and meaningful alternatives to the allegorical figures and geometrical shapes presented in traditional constellation guides.

Rey published his alternatives, drawn as matchstick figures, in 1952 in The Stars: A New Way to See Them. He shared his new method of visualizing constellations again in 1954 with the publication of Find the Constellations.

Traditional visualizations orient constellation Hercules with the Hero’s head pointing southward toward Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer constellation. The upside-down, kneeling hero’s feet occupy the constellation’s northern reaches, where he eternally steps on and vanquishes Draco the Dragon. Draco represents Greek mythology’s Ladon, guardian of the golden apples in goddess Hera’s Garden of the Hesperides. Hercules killed Ladon in order to steal the golden apples as the 11th of his 12 penitential labours.

Rey’s revision flipped Hercules from upside down to a more upright position in the constellation. The Hero’s feet occupy the constellation’s southern reaches, north of Ophiuchus. His head now appears centrally in the constellation. The club in his upraised arm is placed between him and the constellation’s northern neighbor, Draco the Dragon.

Traditional visualizations represent the Hero’s head with Alpha Herculis (α Herculis; Alpha Her, α Her). The multiple star system shines as the fifth brightest star in constellation Hercules. The second magnitude star’s traditional name of Rasalgethi (Arabic: رأس الجاثي, ras al-djathi, “head of the kneeler”) reflects its imagined depiction of the Hero’s head. Rasalgethi lies northwest of Alpha Ophiuchi (α Ophiuchi; Alpha Oph, α Oph), the brightest star in constellation Ophiuchus.

In reversing the Hero’s head and feet, Rey imagined Rasalgethi (Alpha Herculis) as the foot of Hercules’ kneeling leg. Instead of being head to head with Ophiuchus, Hercules now stands with his foot over the Serpent Bearer’s head.

Rey topped the matchstick figure’s head with Eta Herculis (η Herculis; Eta Her, η Her). The fourth magnitude star marks the northwestern corner of the constellation’s Keystone asterism, or recognizable pattern of stars. The distinctive Keystone asterism comprises four stars, diagonally paired as third and fourth magnitudes. The asterism’s northeastern and southeastern corners, anchored respectively by Pi Herculis (π Herculis; Pi Her, π Her) and Epsilon Herculis (ε Herculis; Epsilon Her, ε Her), image the Hero’s shoulders.

Traditional visualizations imagine the constellation’s brightest star, Beta Herculis (β Herculis; Beta Her, β Her) as the shoulder of the Hero’s upraised, club-wielding arm. The third magnitude binary star’s traditional name of Kornephoros, derived from Greek for “club bearer” (Κορυνηφόρος), recognizes the importance of this shoulder’s arm as wielder of the Hero’s favorite weapon, a club.

Rey viewed Beta Herculis as an outstretched hand, tipped by Gamma Herculis (γ Herculis; Gamma Her, γ Her). Fourth magnitude binary star Gamma Herculis shines as ninth brightest in constellation Hercules. The hand stretches southeastward, toward Serpens Caput the Serpent Head constellation.

Rey’s transposition of the Keystone asterism, from traditionally imaged torso to alternatively imaged head, recognized the most distinctive feature of Hercules the Hero constellation. In The Stars: A New Way to See Them, Rey advised first tracing the Hero’s head as the “best way to spot him.”

The takeaway for Curious George co-creator Hans Rey’s drawing the Keystone as Hercules the Hero’s head is that the revision aimed to ease stargazing by highlighting the best ways to find and recognize constellations.

traditional visualization of Hercules the Hero 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 Hercules the Hero constellation: AugPi at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hercules_constellation_map_visualization.PNG

traditional visualization of Hercules the Hero 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_-_Hercules_and_Corona_Borealis.jpg; No known restrictions on publication in the United States, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695504/

For further information:

Kaler, James B. (Jim). “Gamma Her (Gamma Herculis).” University of Illinois Astronomy Department > Star of the Week.
Available @ http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/gammaher.html

Kaler, James B. (Jim). “Kornephoros (Beta Herculis).” University of Illinois Astronomy Department > Star of the Week.
Available @ http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/kornephoros.html

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

Marriner, Derdriu. "Curious George Co-Creator Hans Rey Drew Gemini as Hand Holding Twins." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/02/curious-george-co-creator-hans-rey-drew.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Curious George Co-Creator Hans Rey Redrew Virgo as a Reclining Woman.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 7, 2014.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/05/curious-george-co-creator-hans-rey.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.