Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/126

76 Boötes also figures as a spear or lance bearer, the shepherd's staff which he was represented as bearing having been changed into a more formidable weapon.

In Burritt's Atlas Boötes appears with his back turned to the bear which his hounds are closely following, and his attitude is anything but one of pursuit.

Landseer and Lalande both held that the Bear Driver was the national sign of ancient Egypt, the myth of the dismemberment of Osiris originating in the successive settings of its stars, and that there it was called "Osiris," "Bacchus," or "Sabazius," the ancient name for Bacchus and Noah.

The star Alpha Boötis bears the name "Arcturus." This glorious star has excited the admiration of all mankind, and from the earliest times we find it mentioned. Without doubt it was one of the first stars to be named. Arcturus is one of the few stars alluded to in the Bible, where we find a reference to it in the Book of Job, hence it is sometimes called "Job's star."

Arcturus probably owes its name to its proximity to Ursa Major, as it means "the watcher of the Bear." The name of this star according to Gore is derived from the Greek words and, which signify a bear's tail, so called because it lies nearly in the continuation of the Great Bear's tail.

Virgil frequently mentions Arcturus, and Manilius in his reference to Boötes thus speaks of its position in relation to the figure of the Herdsman:

In early days Arcturus represented a spear in the hunter's hand, and with the Arabs it was "the Lance Bearer." Emerson, in his translation of the Persian poet Hafiz, wrote: