Stretching across the dark night sky, not easily visible when the Moon is in the sky, is a faint irregular glowing strip of light. For thousands of years peoples of various cultures tried to explain what they saw, sometimes using stories. Here are some examples:
Chinese
The seventh Princess of Heaven fell in love with a poor herdsman and ran away to marry him. When her mother sent soldiers to bring her home, the herdsman chased them away. Seeing her daughter’s husband running, the mother dropped a silver pin to make a silver stream to separate the lovers forever. Eventually, her father allowed her to have an annual reunion with her husband — black birds escorted her across the stream. The Milky Way is that silver stream. The young lovers are the stars Vega and Altair on either side of it.
Navajo
When the world was created, the people gathered around Black God to place stars in the sky. Coyote was frustrated by how long it was taking. He threw the bag of stars over his head, forming the Milky Way.
Egyptian
The goddess Isis spread large quantities of wheat across the sky. We see this bounty as the Milky Way.
African Bushmen
The Milky Way is made of the ashes of campfires.
Polynesian
The Milky Way is a long, blue, cloud-eating shark.
Greek
The Milky Way is along the circular path where the Sun once moved across the sky. It looks different than the rest of the sky because the Sun scorched it.
