Leo (constellation) thus, the warriors' clubs, swords, and spears were rendered useless against it. Realizing that he must defeat the Lion with his bare hands, Hercules slipped into the Lion's cave and engaged it at close quarters. When the Lion pounced, Hercules caught it in midair, one hand grasping the Lion's forelegs and the other its hind legs, and bent it backwards, breaking its back and freeing the trapped maidens. Zeus commemorated this labor by placing the Lion in the sky. The Roman poet Ovid called it "Herculeus Leo" and "Violentus Leo". "Bacchi Sidus" (star of Bacchus) was another of its titles,
Leo Minor be undefined and not containing any distinctive pattern; Ptolemy classified the stars in this area as "amorphōtoi" (not belonging to a constellation outline) within the constellation Leo. Johannes Hevelius first depicted Leo Minor in 1687 when he outlined ten new constellations in his star atlas "Firmamentum Sobiescianum", and included 18 of its objects in the accompanying "Catalogus Stellarum Fixarum". Hevelius decided upon Leo Minor or Leo Junior as a depiction that would align with its beastly neighbours the Lion and the Great Bear. In 1845, English astronomer Francis Baily revised the catalogue of Hevelius's new constellations, and assigned a Greek