Why did they name the constellations?

Answer 1

When the shepherds got together at the tavern in the morning for their usual scrambled eggs,

feta, and coffee, after their all-night shift, and began to discuss the wonders they had seen in

the sky, one group over at the end of the bar near the piano were trying to swap their impressions

of the thing that moved through the patch of sky where there's a big distorted rectangle with some

really bright stars at its corners and a squashed triangle on top of it and three stars in a sloping straight

line across the middle of it and a really bright star off to the east of it. By the time all five of them

agreed on what part of the sky they were all talking about, another group down at the other end of the

bar were all done discussing the meteor in Orion, were well into the sambucca and retsina course,

and almost ready to head on home.

Naming the objects in the sky may or may not be of any benefit to an individual who goes out

and gazes regularly at the objects and patterns that are so familiar to him. But it certainly makes

things a lot easier as soon as there's a need or desire to communicate with others regarding their

observations.