Star Lore Of All Ages/Canis Minor

by William Tyler Olcott

Canis Minor

The Lesser Dog

Canis Minor

Canis Minor
The Lesser Dog

Canicula, fourteen thy stars; but far
Above them all, illustrious through the skies,
Beams Procyon; justly by Greece thus called,
The bright forerunner of the greater Dog.

Canis Minor, according to mythology, was one of the hunting dogs that accompanied the giant hunter Orion, and hence it was sometimes called "Canis Orionis."

Burritt thinks that the Egyptians were the inventors of this constellation, and as it always rises a little before the Dog Star, which at a particular season they so much dreaded, it is properly represented as a little watchful creature, giving notice like a faithful sentinel of the other's approach.

In the valley of the Euphrates it seems to have been regarded as a water dog, on account of its standing on the border of the Milky Way, which represented to the ancients a river in the sky.

Canis Minor has been identified with the Egyptian god Anubis, but Sirius is generally associated with that dogheaded divinity.

Some think the Lesser Dog was the hound of Diana, noted for her love of the chase. Others think that it represents the faithful dog Mæra, which belonged to Icarius, and discovered to his daughter Erigone the place of his burial. It has also been considered to represent Helen's favourite, lost in the Euripus, that she prayed Jove might live again in the sky, and Actæon's hound that devoured his master after Diana had transformed him into a stag. Schiller thought the figure represented the Paschal Lamb.

The traditional figure of Canis Minor represents it as a well-trained house or watch dog, in contrast with the fierce aspect of the Greater Dog, which is generally depicted as rearing on his hind legs, with the star Sirius blazing in his wide-stretched jaws.

This constellation was included in the great figure of the Lion known to the Arabs, but they called the star Procyon, the lucida of the constellation, "the forerunner of the Greater Dog," and "the blear-eyed Sirius." According to Gore, the Arabs also called Procyon "the Syrian Sirius," because it set in the direction of Syria.

The Romans sometimes called the constellation "Canis" or "Catellus," meaning "the puppy."

Ptolemy accords Canis Minor only two stars, Procyon, and Gomeisa or Gomelza, while Burritt's and Argelander's maps show fourteen and fifteen stars here.

The constellation owes its fame to the first magnitude star Procyon, one of the most interesting stars in the heavens.

"See Procyon too glittering beneath the Twins," says Aratos.

The Greeks called this star προκύων, meaning "before the Dog," the Latin "Antecanis" or " Antecanem," a reference to its rising prior to Sirius. As the rising of Sirius was a warning sign to the Egyptians of the inundation of the Nile, so the appearance of Procyon, the brilliant in the Lesser Dog, warned them still farther in advance of this all-important event. The Babylonians knew Procyon as "the Sceptre of Bel."

In these two constellations of the Greater and Lesser Dogs, we have very good examples of the practical use the stars played in the everyday life of the ancients, and in a measure we see a reason for some of the names of the constellations, which in so many cases seem absurd and irrelevant. Here, as in many of the constellations, there is no resemblance in the configurations of the stars to the figures they are supposed to represent. In Canis Minor Photo by Brogi
Actæon Attacked by the Hounds of Diana
National Museum. Palermo with its two stars of any prominence, it would take a fertile imagination to descry the figure of a canine; but when we realise its importance as a warning sign set in the sky for all to observe, then we perceive the significance and appropriateness of the title of the constellation.

Horace, in his celebrated ode to Mæcenas, accredits to Procyon the fiery nature attributed by all to Sirius. He writes:

Now Procyon flames with fiercest fire;

a line which Mr, Gladstone translates:

The heavens are hot with Procyon's rays.

Both Sirius and Procyon seem to have conveyed to the ancients the idea of scorching fire and great heat which the dog days at present suggest to us.

Allen tells us that Procyon was "the star of the crossing of the water-dog," mentioned in the Euphratean cylinders and that the natives of the Hervey Islands regarded Procyon as their goddess Vena.

Mrs. Martin referring to Procyon writes: "It is in fact a most beautiful star, and is only the sixth in order of brightness among the stars seen in our latitude. It is very distinctly individual, being the only one among the beautiful winter group that is lightly tinged with yellow. It is one of the Sirian class of stars, but is somewhat further developed than Sirius, and is beginning to have the golden tint which signifies that it is approaching the time of life into which Capella and the sun are well passed."

Al-Sufi, the noted Arabian astronomer, in his Description of the Fixed Stars, written in the 10th century a.d., relates the following legend concerning the two Dog Stars: "Al-abûr (Sirius) and Al-gumaïsâ (Procyon) were two sisters of Suhail (Canopus). Canopus married Rigel, and soon after, having killed his wife, fled toward the South Pole, fearing the anger of his sisters. Sirius followed him across the Milky Way, but Procyon remained behind and wept for Suhail till her eyes became weak."

According to Dr. Elkins, Procyon is nine and one half light years from our system, and Vogel claims that it is approaching us at the rate of nearly six miles a second. It is estimated that it emits anywhere from three to eight times as much light as the sun, and it has a thirteenth magnitude companion, discovered in 1896, revolving about it with a period of revolution of about forty years.

Astrologically this star portended wealth, fame, and good fortune. It comes to the meridian at 9 p.m. on the 24th of February.

Beta Canis Minoris is a star of the third magnitude. It was known to the Arabs as "Gomeisa" or "Gomelza" from their name for the constellation, which was "Ghumaisa." This star was noted by Ptolemy, and the Arabs used the distance between this star and Procyon to mark their short cubit, their long cubit being the distance separating Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.

In spite of the fact that Canis Minor is one of the smallest constellations as regards its bounds, it contains four noted variable stars of long period.