Sirius | |
---|---|
God of the star Sirius | |
Greek | Σείριος |
Abode | Sky |
Genealogy | |
Parents | |
Siblings | the Stars |
Consort | Opora |
In Greek and Roman mythology, Sirius [lower-alpha 1] is the god and personification of the star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, also known as the Dog Star, the most prominent star in the constellation Canis Major (the Greater Dog). [1] In ancient texts, Sirius is portrayed as the scorching bringer of the summer heatwaves, who intensifies the Sun's own heat.
The ancient Greek word and proper noun Σείριος has been connected to the verb σείω (seíō), meaning to 'sparkle, to gleam' and has thus an Indo-European etymology; Furnée on the other hand compared it to the word τίριος (tírios), the Cretan word for summer, which, if correct, would mean that the word is pre-Greek instead. [2] From this name an ancient phrase was derived, σείριον πάθος (literally "sirian passion", meaning burning passion). [3]
Sirius's divine parentage is not made entirely clear in ancient texts; in the Theogony the poet Hesiod names Eos (the dawn goddess) and her husband Astraeus (a star god) as the parents of all stars, although this usually referred to the 'wandering stars', that is the five planets. [4]
Sirius is first mentioned by name in Hesiod's Works and Days , [5] [6] although he is also strongly alluded to in Homer's Iliad , with his brilliance used as a metaphor for the shiny bronze armors of the soldiers, and in another point he is presented as an ominous death star foreshadowing the fate of the doomed Hector in his fight against Achilles. [7] Apollonius of Rhodes calls him "brilliant and beautiful but full of menace for the flocks," [8] and both Aratus and Quintus of Smyrna speak of his rise in conjunction to that of the Sun (the god Helios). [9] The Roman poet Statius says:
Tempus erat, caeli cum | Twas the season when the vault |
In addition to that, "Sirius" was sometimes used as an epithet of Helios himself due to the Sun's great heat and warmth. [11] [12]
Sirius and his appearance in the sky in July and August was associated with heat, fire and fever by the ancient Greeks from early on, [13] as was his association with dogs; as the chief star in the constellation Canis Major, he was referred to as 'the Dog', which also referred to the entire constellation. [14] The arrival of Sirius in the sky was seen as the cause behind the hot, dry days of summer; dogs were thought to be the most affected by Sirius's heat, causing them rapid panting and aggressive behaviour towards humans, who were in danger of contacting rabies from their bites. [15]
Sirius, a luminous star brighter than the Sun, is very often described as red in some ancient Greek and Roman texts, put in the same category as Mars and Antares, although it is a white-blue star in reality. [16]
In a lesser known narrative, back when the stars walked the earth, Sirius was sent on a mission on land. There he met and fell madly in love with Opora, the goddess of fruit as well as the transition between summer and autumn. He was however unable to be with her, so in anger he began to burn even hotter. [17] The mortals started to suffer due to the immense heat, and pleaded to the gods. [18] Then the god of the north wind, Boreas, ordered his sons to bring Opora to Sirius, while he himself cooled off the earth with blasts of cold, freezing wind. [19] Sirius then went on to glow and burn hot every summer thereafter during harvest time in commemoration of this event and his great love, explaining the heat of the so-called dog days of summer, which was attributed to this star in antiquity. [20]
The story is generally believed to have originated from a lost play entitled Opora, by the Athenian playwright of Middle Comedy Amphis, and a work of the same name by Amphis's contemporary Alexis. [19] It also parallels the tale of young Phaethon, the son of the sun-god Helios who drove his father's sun chariot for a day and ended up burning the earth with it, prompting the entire nature to beg Zeus for salvation. [19] In Euripides's version of the story, Helios accompanies Phaethon in his journey riding on a steed named Sirius. [12]
After the mortal hunter Orion was killed by the scorpion the earth-goddess Gaia sent to punish him, he was transported by the gods (usually either Artemis or Zeus) in the stars as the homonymous constellation, where he was ever accompanied by his faithful dog, who was represented by Sirius (and Canis Major) in their new celestial lives. [21] [22] This belief seems to originate from the fact that the Dog forms a sky-picture with Orion, as the two hunt Lepus (the Hare) or the Teumessian fox through the sky. [20]
Sirius is also identified with Maera (Ancient Greek : Μαῖρα, romanized: Maira, lit. 'sparkler'), which was another name for the dog star in antiquity. [23] In mythology Maera was the hound of Icarius, an old Athenian an who was taught the art of wine-making by Dionysus. When Icarius shared the wine with the other Athenians he was accused of poisoning them (due to the wine's intoxicating properties which made them pass out) and he was thus killed in vengeance; his daughter Erigone, after being led to his corpse by Maera, took her own life by hanging. [24] Dionysus then transferred all three in the sky, with Maera becoming the star Canicula, which was the Romans' name for Sirius, [25] [26] although Hyginus himself claimed that the Greeks used Procyon for Canicula. [27]
In second-century author Lucian's satire work A True Story , the people of Sirius, here presented as an inhabited world, send an army of Cynobalani (dog-faced men mounting winged gigantic acorns) to assist the Sun citizens in their war against the inhabitants of the Moon. [28] Sirius, associated with heat, is an appropriate ally for the Sun kingdom. [29]
In antiquity, Sirius might have been venerated on the island of Kea with summer sacrifices to his honour during the Hellenistic period, [15] though certain doubts have been cast on whether such cult did exist indeed; at any point, that cult surely did not predate the third century BC. [23] Keans would observe Sirius's rising from a hilltop; if the star rose clear and brilliant it was a good sign of health, but if it appeared faint or misty it was seen as ominous. Sirius was also represented on coinage from Kea. [15]
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night. In Greek tradition and poetry, she is characterized as a goddess with a great sexual appetite, who took numerous human lovers for her own satisfaction and bore them several children. Like her Roman counterpart Aurora and Rigvedic Ushas, Eos continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos. Eos, or her earlier Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ancestor, also shares several elements with the love goddess Aphrodite, perhaps signifying Eos's influence on her or otherwise a common origin for the two goddesses. In surviving tradition, Aphrodite is the culprit behind Eos' numerous love affairs, having cursed the goddess with insatiable lust for mortal men.
In Greek mythology and religion, Notus is the god of the south wind and one of the Anemoi (wind-gods), sons of the dawn goddess Eos and the star-god Astraeus. A desiccating wind of heat, Notus was associated with the storms of late summer and early autumn, wetness, mist, and was seen as a rain-bringer. Unlike his two more notable brothers, Boreas and Zephyrus, Notus has little to no unique mythology of his own.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Helios is the god who personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion and Phaethon. Helios is often depicted in art with a radiant crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. He was a guardian of oaths and also the god of sight. Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD.
In Greek mythology, Aello was one of the Harpy sisters who would abduct people and torture them on their way to Tartarus.
In Greek mythology, the Horae, Horai or Hours were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time.
In Greek mythology, the Heliades also called Phaethontides were the daughters of Helios and Clymene, an Oceanid nymph.
In Greek mythology, Hemera was the personification of day. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the sister of Aether. Though separate entities in Hesiod's Theogony, Hemera and Eos (Dawn) were often identified with each other.
In Greek mythology, Thaumas was a sea god, son of Pontus and Gaia, and the full brother of Nereus, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia.
In Greek mythology, Iasus or Iasius was the name of several people:
Phaethon, also spelled Phaëthon, is the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios in Greek mythology.
The dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius, which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Pleiades, were the seven sister-nymphs, companions of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Together with their sisters, the Hyades, they were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers of the infant Dionysus. The Pleiades were thought to have been translated to the night sky as a cluster of stars, the Pleiades, and were associated with rain.
Clytie or Clytia is a water nymph, daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys in Greek mythology. She is thus one of the 3,000 Oceanid nymphs, and sister to the 3,000 Potamoi.
In Greek mythology, Maera is the hound of Erigone, daughter of Icarius of Athens.
In Greek mythology, Erigone was the daughter of Icarius of Athens.
Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind, storms, and winter. Although he was normally taken as the north wind, the Roman writers Aulus Gellius and Pliny the Elder both took Boreas as a northeast wind, equivalent to the Roman god Aquilo or Septentrio. Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as a winged old man or sometimes as a young man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak. Boreas's most known myth is his abduction of the Athenian princess Oreithyia.
Melite or Melita was the name of several characters in Greek mythology:
Cassiopeia or Cassiepeia, a figure in Greek mythology, was Queen of Aethiopia and wife of King Cepheus. She was arrogant and vain, characteristics that led to her downfall.
In Greek mythology, Icarius was a man from Athens who welcomed the god Dionysus.
In Greek mythology, Clymene or Klymene was the name of an Oceanid nymph loved by the sun god Helios and the mother by him of Phaethon and the Heliades. In most versions, Clymene is the one to reveal to Phaethon his divine parentage and encourage him to seek out his father, and even drive his solar chariot.