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Canis Minor: Difference between revisions
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Though strongly associated with the Classical Greek uranographic tradition, Canis Minor originates from ancient Mesopotamia. Procyon and Gomeisa were calledMASH.TAB.BA or "twins" in the Three Stars Each tablets, dating to around 1100 BC. In the later MUL.APIN, this name was also applied to the pairs of Pi3 and Pi4Orionis and Zeta and Xi Orionis. The meaning of MASH.TAB.BA evolved as well, becoming the twin deities Lulal and Latarak, who are on the opposite side of the sky from Papsukal, the True Shepherd of Heaven in Babylonian mythology. Canis Minor was also given the name DAR.LUGAL, which translates to "the star which stands behind it", in the MUL.APIN; the constellation represents a rooster. This name may have also referred to the constellation Lepus.[ DAR.LUGAL was also denoted DAR.MUŠEN and DAR.LUGAL.MUŠEN in Babylonia. Canis Minor was then called tarlugallu in Akkadian astronomy. | Though strongly associated with the Classical Greek uranographic tradition, Canis Minor originates from ancient Mesopotamia. Procyon and Gomeisa were calledMASH.TAB.BA or "twins" in the Three Stars Each tablets, dating to around 1100 BC. In the later MUL.APIN, this name was also applied to the pairs of Pi3 and Pi4Orionis and Zeta and Xi Orionis. The meaning of MASH.TAB.BA evolved as well, becoming the twin deities Lulal and Latarak, who are on the opposite side of the sky from Papsukal, the True Shepherd of Heaven in Babylonian mythology. Canis Minor was also given the name DAR.LUGAL, which translates to "the star which stands behind it", in the MUL.APIN; the constellation represents a rooster. This name may have also referred to the constellation Lepus.[ DAR.LUGAL was also denoted DAR.MUŠEN and DAR.LUGAL.MUŠEN in Babylonia. Canis Minor was then called tarlugallu in Akkadian astronomy. | ||
==Arabic Astronomers== | |||
The medieval Arabic astronomers maintained the depiction of Canis Minor (al-Kalb al-Asghar in Arabic) as a dog; in his Book of the Fixed Stars, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufiincluded a diagram of the constellation with a canine figure superimposed.There was one slight difference between the Ptolemaic vision of Canis Minor and the Arabic; al-Sufi claims Mirzam, now assigned to Orion, as part of both Canis Minor—the collar of the dog—and its modern home. The Arabic names for both Procyon and Gomeisa alluded to their proximity and resemblance to Sirius, though they were not direct translations of the Greek; Procyon was called ash-Shi'ra ash-Shamiya, the "Syrian Sirius" and Gomeisa was called ash-Shira al-Ghamisa, the Sirius with bleary eyes.[10] Among the Merazig of Tunisia, shepherds note six constellations that mark the passage of the dry, hot season. One of them, called Merzem, includes the stars of Canis Minor and Canis Major and is the herald of two weeks of hot weather. | |||
The ancient Egyptians thought of this constellation as Anubis, the jackal god. | |||