Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/471

Rh Homer mentions the Bear as keeping watch from his arctic den upon the hunter Orion for fear of a sudden attack. He regarded the constellation as only composed of the seven stars which form the familiar figure the Dipper, and in his description of the shield of Achilles, he writes, after mentioning other stars, of "the Bear sur-named the Chariot." Homer's twice repeated assertion that "the constellation of the Bear alone never sinks into the ocean" merely allows us to infer that in his age the Greek sphere did not yet comprise the constellations Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Ursa Minor, which likewise never set.

Even in Homer's day Ursa Major was known as "the Wain," the name by which it is known in England today. This title was originally "Charlemagne's Wain," from the Scandinavian Karlsvagn, the Carle's Wain. Another title was Arthur's Wain, a name, says Smyth, derived from the Welsh "Arth," a bear. Smyth finds in the circling of this constellation about the Pole the possible origin of King Arthur's famous Round Table.

In all probability it is this group of stars and not Arcturus which is referred to in Job's question:

In the Revised Version it reads:

The word from which Arcturus was derived was "`Ayish" or "`Ash," a word that does not differ importantly from the word "na'sh," the Hebrew word for assembly, the Arabic "bier," a title among the Arabs for the four stars forming the Dipper, from remote antiquity.

The three stars which form the tail of the Bear were called by the Arabs "Benāt-na'sh," the "daughters of the Bier." "Regarding Arcturus as referring to the Bear," says Maunder, "we have in both passages of Job which mention Arcturus, Orion, the Pleiades, and the Chambers