Bears and why they mostly are called otherwise

Stanley Friesen sarima at friesen.net
Sun Mar 5 01:56:48 UTC 2000


At 02:16 AM 3/3/00 -0500, X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:
>And also in Homer - being of a seafaring people - by far the most important
>bear is the one in the sky that marks north - arktos giving its name to the
>artic not because that's where bears live, but because of Ursa minor and the
>north star.

Umm, there is a problem with that: Polaris was NOT the pole star in Homer's
day!  In fact it wasn't even the pole start in Roman times!

Now, it is true that the constellations called the Big and Little Bear have
always been northerly, but they have not always incorporated the celestial
north pole.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com



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