| Sirius | |
|---|---|
God of the star Sirius | |
 Canis Major and Lepus with Sirius as the dog's snout, as depicted inUrania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards c. 1825. | |
| Greek | Σείριος |
| Abode | Sky |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | |
| Siblings | the Stars |
| Consort | Opora |
InGreek andRoman mythology andreligion,Sirius (/ˈsɪrɪəs/,SEE-ree-əss;Ancient Greek:Σείριος,romanized: Seírios,lit. 'scorching'pronounced[sěːrios]) is the god and personification of the starSirius, also known as the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky and the most prominent star in the constellation ofCanis Major (or the Greater Dog).[1] In ancient Greek and Roman texts, Sirius is portrayed as the scorching bringer of the summer heatwaves, the bright star who intensifies theSun's own heat.
The ancient Greek word and proper nounΣείριος has been connected to the verbσείω (seíō), meaning to 'sparkle, to gleam' and has thus anIndo-European etymology; Furnée on the other hand compared it to the wordτίριος (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 theTheogony the poetHesiod namesEos (the dawn goddess) and her husbandAstraeus (a star god) as the parents of all stars, although this usually referred to the 'wandering stars', that is the fiveplanets.[4]
Sirius is first mentioned by name inHesiod'sWorks and Days,[5][6] although he is also strongly alluded to inHomer'sIliad, 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 doomedHector in his fight againstAchilles.[7]Apollonius of Rhodes calls him "brilliant and beautiful but full of menace for the flocks,"[8] and bothAratus andQuintus of Smyrna speak of his rise in conjunction to that of theSun (the godHelios).[9] The Roman poetStatius says:
Tempus erat, caeli cum
torrentissimus axis
incumbit terris ictusque
Hyperione multo acer
anhelantes incendit Sirius agros.
Twas the season when the vault
of heaven bends its most scorching
heat upon the earth, and Sirius
the Dog-star smitten by Hyperion's full
might pitilessly burns the panting fields.[10]
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 constellationCanis 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 the red-shiningMars andAntares, although in reality it is a white-blue star.[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 withOpora, 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 entitledOpora, by theAthenian playwright of Middle ComedyAmphis, and a work of the same name by Amphis's contemporaryAlexis.[19] It also parallels the tale of youngPhaethon, 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 begZeus for salvation.[19] InEuripides'sversion of the story, Helios accompanies Phaethon in his journey riding on a steed named Sirius.[12]
After the mortal hunterOrion was killed by the scorpion the earth-goddessGaia sent to punish him, he was transported by the gods (usually eitherArtemis or Zeus) in the stars as thehomonymous constellation, where he was ever accompanied by his faithful dog,[21] who was represented by Sirius (and Canis Major) in their new celestial lives.[22][23] This belief seems to originate from the fact that the Dog forms a sky-picture with Orion, as the two huntLepus (the Hare) or theTeumessian fox through the sky.[20]
Sirius is also identified withMaera (Ancient Greek:Μαῖρα,romanized: Maira,lit. 'sparkler'), which was another name for the dog star in antiquity.[24] In mythologyMaera was the hound ofIcarius, an old Athenian an who was taught the art of wine-making byDionysus. 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 daughterErigone, after being led to his corpse by Maera, took her own life by hanging.[25] Dionysus then transferred all three in the sky, with Maera becoming the star Canicula, which was the Romans' name for Sirius,[26][27] althoughHyginus himself claimed that the Greeks usedProcyon for Canicula.[28]
In second-century authorLucian's satire workA True Story, the people of Sirius, here presented as an inhabited world, send an army of Cynobalani (dog-faced men mounting gigantic winged acorns) to assist the Sun citizens in their war against the inhabitants of the Moon.[29] Sirius, associated with heat, is an appropriate ally for the kingdom of the Sun.[30]
Not much evidence on Sirius' ancient cult is preserved. In antiquity, Sirius might have been venerated on the island ofKea 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.[24] 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]
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