Crater is identified with a story from Greek mythology in which a crow or raven serves Apollo, and is sent to fetch water, but it delays its journey as it finds some figs and waits for them to ripen before eating them. Finally it retrieves the water in a cup, and takes back a water snake, blaming it for drinking the water. According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky. The three constellations were arranged in such a way that the crow was prevented from drinking from the cup, and hence seen as a warning against sinning against the gods.