Fixed Star Name : ALKES

Al-Ka's, "The cup"

Location Name : alpha Crater
Apparent Magnitude : 4.2 Spectral Class : K1
Right Ascension : 10h 59m Latitude : -22.42'
Declination (1900) : -17.46' Declination (2000) : -18.18'
 
Longitudinal Position (in 1900) : 22 Virgo 19
Longitudinal Position (in 2000) : 23 Virgo 41
Its Planetary Nature : Venus - Mercury

About this star:

The Arabic name for Alkes is Al-Ka's, "The cup".

The Latin designation for this orange star in Crater is Fundus vasis — well describes its position at the base of the Cup. (Allen).

Magic cauldrons appear in many myths as the purveyors of transformation, and under the guise of cauldrons, pots, chalices, cups, which contain ambrosia or the nectar of life or immortality, or the elixir of the gods. The "cauldron of plenty" provided an inexhaustible supply of food and was also a source of knowledge and wisdom and the symbol of the fountain of youth. The contents of the Cup are figuratively, the essence distilled from experience, whether joyous or sorrowful.

The Holy Grail, Jesus Christ’s cup, is associated with this Cup; according to medieval legend, the cup said to be used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, and by Joseph of Arimathea to collect his blood and sweat at the Crucifixion. It was sought after by medieval knights.
Some have associated the contents with sperm and the Cup being related to the womb.


Influence of the constellation:

According to Ptolemy it is like Venus and in some degree like Mercury. It gives a kind, generous, cheerful, receptive, passionate and hospitable nature with good mental abilities, but subject to apprehension and indecision. There is a disordered life full of sudden and unexpected events, and great danger of unhappiness, but usually some eminence. (Robson).

Good mental abilities. (Noonan).


Influence of the star:

Alkes has always portended eminence to those born under its influence. When rising the star indicates dedicated environmentalists whose love for rivers and streams lead them to be very protective regarding water resources. At a less intense level the native may become a landscape architect, a builder of canals, or in some other manner do business in merchandise connected with water. (Noonan).


Rising:

The Bowl with the gilt of its stars. Whoever derives hence his birth and character will be attracted by the well-watered meadows of the countryside, the rivers, and the lakes. He will join your vines, Bacchus, in wedlock to your elms; or he will arrange them on props, so that the fronds resemble the figures in a dance or, allowing your vine to rely on its own strength, he will lead it to spread out its branches as arms, and entrusting you to yourself will forever protect you from the bridal bed, seeing how you were cut from your mother (Semele, daughter of Cadmus). He will sow corn among the grapes and will adopt any other of the countless forms of cultivation that exist throughout the world as the conditions of the district will require. He will drink without stint the wine he has produced and enjoy in person the well earned fruits of his labors; neat wine will incite him to jollity, when he will drown all seriousness in his cups. Nor only on the soil will he stake his hopes for paying his yearly vows he will also go in pursuit of the grain tax (become a tax collector), and of those wares (papyrus, for example, or sponges) especially which are nourished by moisture or to which water clings. Such are the men to be fashioned by the Bowl, lover of all that is wet. (Manilus, book 5 of Astronomica, 1st century AD).