Tags: Mythological Figure.
In Greek mythology Canopus (or Canobus) was the pilot of the ship of King Menelaus of Sparta during the Trojan War. He is described as a young handsome man who was loved by Theonoe the Egyptian prophetess but never answered her feelings. According to legend while visiting the coasts of Egypt he was bitten by a serpent and died. His master erected a monument to him at the mouth of the River Nile around which the town of Canopus later developed.