Milky Way: Ancient astronomers were at wits end trying to explain this apparent, dim circle that had nothing to do with the positions of the equinoxes or other important celestial guides. Anaxagoras saw it as a collection of stars whose light was partially obscured by the shadow of the Earth. Pythagoras said it was thousands of suns that were extremely far from the Earth and not very bright. Aristotle thought it was a great mass of luminous vapor higher than the ether but lower than the planets. Metrodorus claimed it marked the former path of the sun and Theophrastus thought it was the seam in the sky where the two hemispheres of the celestial vault didn't quite fit together. The light was that of the celestial beyond peaking through the ill fitting seam. Many peoples saw it as a river, others as heavenly smoke.

Mesopotamia: the most prevalent description of the Milky Way is that of smoke rising to the gods from sacrificial offerings. The oldest known reference is that of the sacrifice of Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, after the ark was stranded on Mount Ararat following the deluge.

Egypt: the River Nile into which the goddess Isis fled to escape the monster Typhon. She threw stalks of grain behind her and these became the stars of the Milky Way.

Greece: classical Greek mythology describes the Milky Way in a number of colorful stories. One story described it as a smear of milk left after the infant Hercules suckled milk from Hera to gain her wisdom. When she realized that the child was the bastard son of Zeus and another woman, she pushed the baby away and the spurting milk became the Milky Way. An earlier story dates to the birth of Zeus whose father Cronus swallowed his children to protect his position as sky god. Rhea, the earth, not wanting to lose yet another child to her husband's jealousy, wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to her husband to swallow. Cronus asked her to nurse the child one more time before he swallowed it. Pressing the hard rock against her nipple, the spurting milk became the Milky Way. Another explanation says the Milky Way is the burned scar across the sky formed when Phaethon inexpertly drove the sun chariot.

India: depending on the part of the country you were traveling, it was known as the Bed of the Ganges in the south and in the north as the Path of the Serpent.

Source: Stories of the Constellations