the Bear and the north star

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I 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.

In a message dated 3/6/2000 7:19:25 PM, sarima at friesen.net wrote:
>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 star 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.

The author is correct about Polaris.  But note that I did not mention Polaris
and there were clearly "north stars" - in the sense of "pole stars" - before
Polaris.  I have that Polaris "stands almost still all night above the
northern horizon as other stars wheel around it... For nearly 1000 years,
Polaris has been located within a few degrees of the north celestial pole,
but in other times other stars have been nearer the pole. If a bright star is
located near the north celestial pole, it is called the North Star....  The
current North Star, Polaris, is in Ursa Minor as was it's predecessor,
Kochab."

Before 2300BC the pole star would have been in the constellation Draco, but
afterward would have been well on its way into the region of Bootes (the
herdsman) and the adjacent Ursae.  (BTW, Bootes contains Arcturus, Gr.,
"guardian of the bear".)  By 1200BC, the celestial pole would entered the
Ursae region and the pole star would have been found there.

And, by Hellenic times, the Greek super-geometrists were referring to the
pole-star with scientific precision, some using the term "polos" (LS:
"pole-star, Eratosth. Cat.2.")  By 300BC, one of them - Pythias - had even
established that neither celestial axis nor "pole star" were fixed.

Thales says that the Phoenicians were already navigating by the pole star
(@600BC.) and that would suggest some kind of calculation of latitude.  But
Homer's references are obviously to "the star" as a simplier navigational
guide.

In the Odyssey, we read:
"Gladly then did goodly Odysseus spread his sail to the breeze; [270] and he
sat and guided his raft skillfully with the steering-oar, nor did sleep fall
upon his eyelids, as he watched the Pleiads, and late-setting Bootes, and the
Bear, which men also call the Wain, [Wagon] which ever circles where it is...
[275] and alone has no part in the baths of Ocean. For this star, Calypso,
the beautiful goddess, had bidden him to keep on the left hand as he sailed
over the sea."

In the Illiad, Homer gives us "and the Bear, that men call also the Wain,
that circleth ever in her place, and watcheth Orion [the Hunter], and alone
hath no part in the baths of Ocean. " - e.g. never sets below the horizon.

It is clear in any case, that by the time of Herodotus (@500BC), <arktos> was
becoming a word for north: (LS) to de Paniônion esti tês Mukalês
chôros hiros pros ARKTON tetrammenos (The Panionion is a sacred ground in
Mycale, facing north...) Hdt. 1.148.

It is also interesting that in some of the earliest accounts the Bear gets up
there thanks to the intervention of Zeus who saves it from being shot by an
arrow.  Once again, it's not the bear who is doing the mayhem.  And in the
Greek sky, the Bear apparently even needed "a guardian."

Regards,
Steve Long