BERENICE, wife of Ptolemy Euergetes king of Egypt, cut off her hair in pursuance of a vow, and consecrated it in the temple of Venus. This deposit having disappeared, Conon the mathematician, in compliment to the queen, declared that her locks had been conveyed to heaven, and composed the constellation which to this day is called Coma Berenices. Callimachus celebrated the hair of Berenice in a poem, of which only a few lines are extant: it still exists however in the translation of Catullus.