Sagitta

Origin

Sagitta is one of the original 48 constellations of Ptolemy, and represents an arrow. There are many stories associated with Sagitta because there are many stories in which arrows are shot. These include the arrow with which Hercules slew the eagle that tormented Prometheus, the arrow of Apollo, and the arrow of Eros, more commonly known these days as Cupid.

Greek mythographers, namely Eratosthenes (and if you want also Roman Hyginus) give rather explicitly one story which identifies this specific arrow as the one on which riding Apollo and his sister Demeter (the god of light and the goddess of fertility) return to Greece in spring time - in winter they had been in a country far away called Hyperborea and which is considered at the Eastern edge of the world.

Bright Stars

The brightest stars in Sagitta are Gamma and Delta Sagittae at magnitudes of 3.71 and 3.78 respectively.

Photo of the constellation Sagitta produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer. The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.

Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani