The Birth of The Milky Way

27 August 2008
From Fresh Milk by Fiona Giles:

"The story of the Milky Way, as it appears in Greco-Rman mythology, concerns the feeding of baby Hercules, son of Jupiter. Because Hercules' mother was mortal, Zeus put Hercules to the breast of the Goddess Juno, his wife and sister, knowing that Hercules would acquire immortality through her milk. As Hercules suckled from the sleeping Juno's breast, she woke up and pushed him away. As she did so her milk sprayed across the heavens, crystallizing into a promontory of stars. Her milk that fell on the ground produced lililies." (pages 1-2)

Whenever my milk drips onto the floor beneath me from now on I will think of the creation of galaxies.

Check out this rather appropriate image from sunreligion.net which is of "The unfolded contours of the Milky Way from Stars Atlas". I found it by googling "origins of milky way" and browsing the images that showed up in the search.