Mythology of Columba
1) Even before de Lacaille divided the giant Argo Navis into three smaller constellations - Carina, Puppis and Vela, COLUMBA was seen as a bird flying alongside the vessel. It was thought to represent the dove that guided the Argonauts through the Symplegades, the crashing rocks that guarded the entrance to the Black Sea.
2) Columba, was also thought to represent the dove that Noah sent out from his ark to test how far the flood had subsided. As Noah's dove, it was first formally published in 1679 by Royer, and it appeared some 76 years earlier in Bayer's plate of Canis Major and in his text as recentioribus Columbia. Columba did not appear in Bartschius, or by Tycho, Hevelius or even Flamsteed. The constellation refers to the dove released several times during the voyage after the great flood to find land, it was this dove that returned with an olive branch in its beak, indicating dry land had been found.