the Bear and the north star

[Stanley Friesen]

At 02:05 AM 3/9/00 -0500, X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:
>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!
> ...

>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."

Ah, that is the key point.  I was not sure that the previous North Star had
also been in the Ursae.

>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.

Which is plenty early to be the namesake of the Arctic, as suggested.

>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.

I never doubted the Greeks had the celestial pole located properly.  That
pretty much goes without saying.

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