In his fell jaw Flames a star above all others with searing beams Fiercely burning, called by mortals Sirius.
Eudosia writing of the Greater Dog says, "His fierce mouth flames with dreaded Sirius," and Victor Hugo in The Vanished City thus alludes to the might of this kingly star:
When like an Emir of tyrannic power Sirius appears and on the horizon black Bids countless stars pursue their mighty track.
Aside from the fact of its surpassing brilliance, the fact that Sirius is visible from every habitable portion of the globe has served to make it from time immemorial the nocturnal cynosure of all the nations of the earth.
The sight of this majestic star, clad as it were in all its wealth of history, rising over the snow-crowned hills on a crisp winter's night, flashing to us like a great beacon a message from infinite space, in letters of rainbow hue, is one of entrancing beauty.[1]
The name Sirius is supposed to be derived from the Greek word σείριος which signifies brightness and heat. It is thought by some to represent the three-headed dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to Hades, according to Greek mythology.
Allen states that the risings and settings of Sirius were regularly tabulated in Chaldea about 300 b.c., and that it is the only star known to us with absolute certitude in the Egyptian records, its hieroglyph often appearing on the monuments and temple walls throughout the Nile country.
According to Blake,[2] the hieroglyphics representing
- ↑ Serviss thus mentions Sirius: "The renown of Sirius is as ancient as the human race. There has never been a time or a people in which or by whom it was not worshipped, reverenced, and admired. To the builders of the Egyptian temples and pyramids it was an object as familiar as the sun itself."
- ↑ Astronomical Myths, by J. F. Blake.
