Leo (constellation) Leo (constellation) Leo is one of the constellations of the zodiac, lying between Cancer the crab to the west and Virgo the maiden to the east. Its name is Latin for lion, and to the ancient Greeks represented the Nemean Lion killed by the mythical Greek hero Heracles meaning 'Glory of Hera' (known to the ancient Romans as Hercules) as one of his twelve labors. Its symbol is (Unicode ♌). One of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, Leo remains one of the 88 modern constellations today, and one of the most easily recognizable due to its
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