Corvus

Corvus, a Greek constellation, represents the crow (or raven): the sacred bird of the god Apollo. In the myth, Apollo tells the raven to watch over his pregnant lover Coronis. After a while, Coronis loses interest in the god and falls in love with a human man. When the bird reports the affair to Apollo, the god becomes so angry that the raven did not stop the affair that he curses it, scorching the raven’s feathers and turning them black. (The bird had originally had white feathers.) Coronis’ son, the healer Asclepius, is represented by Ophiuchus constellation.

In a different tale, Apollo sends the raven to fetch him some water in a cup, represented by Crater constellation, and the bird gets distracted by a fig tree and stops to feast. Later, the raven blames its tardiness on a water snake (represented by Hydra constellation), but the god is so angry that he casts all three – the raven, the water snake, and the cup (Crater) – into the sky. Apollo also casts a curse on the bird, turning its feathers black, and making the raven eternally thirsty. This, according to the tale, is why ravens and crows have such raspy voices.