CATASTERISM. – This is the transformation of human beings or mythological heroes into stars. Catasterism thus forms part of astrological doctrines (v. ASTROLOGIA), and, like these, originated in Mesopotamia. Among the earliest testimonies are those from Egypt, where, according to the “pyramid texts,” the king (and likewise the queen), after death, could become Orion or be placed—as a new star—in this constellation by the goddess Nât.
In Greece, catasterism has distinctive philosophical precedents. Heraclitus and Plato had explained that the human soul came from the stars and, after death, would return to the stars; the Pythagoreans, too, believed in this stellar destiny. With such a belief, it was easy for the Greeks to accept the teaching of the Babylonians and to initiate a system of stellar legends, in which the heroes of mythology continued after death to live among the stars. Three theories were formed on this subject: a man could be raised to heaven even during his lifetime, in his full personality; not the body, but only a part of the man (the eye, the arm, the heart, the soul, etc.) could benefit from this assumption; man or his soul did not become new stars, but only luminous natures that went to inhabit pre-existing stars. The ancient fables thus received an astronomical determination, and poetic tales found a way to make their protagonists live in celestial form.
In heaven, Perseus finds Andromeda again, Chiron fraternizes with Orion; Heracles, Castor and Pollux, and others had this fortunate destiny. Catasterism represents the conclusion of countless mythical stories, a conclusion not without moral foundations.
As a development of catasterism, one may regard the belief of Hellenistic solar religion, according to which the king Zodiac (v.), or is placed as a new star in a constellation or in the Milky Way.
The Roman apotheosis of the emperor, too, sometimes regarded the deceased emperor as an inhabitant of the stars.
Christianity naturally does not admit catasterism: an echo of it is found in certain authors, for example, where the two Bears become the symbols of creation before and after Christ; the Dog is the Word; and the anonymous constellation (Ἐγγύνασιν) is Adam on his knees, confessing his sins while extending one hand toward the Lyre (instrument of the Word) and the other toward the Crown, which will be restored to him if he remains faithful to the harmony of Lyre–Word.