From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved "Volume III - The Third Month - Constellation Names for Canis Major"
In the Third Month of Gemini

Canis Major, Great (Greater) Dog
The constellation name for Canis Major:

• Originally referred to as Sirius, which is known as the Dog Star.
  • Egyptian UHR, Dog, which is pictured as a mastiff (hieroglyph) .
  • Sumerian UR, URU, Dog, is a diagram of a dog's head and neck .
  
  
• The Dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor).
  • Dog.
    • Sumerian ur: n., dog; carnivorous beast; servant; young man, warrior; enemy; v., to tremble; adj., humble.
      • Sumerian ur_(2,3,4): to surround; to flood; to drag (over the ground) (often with -ni-); to shear (reduplication class) (cf., gur₁₀).
      • Sumerian úr: floor; base; lap, loins; thighs, legs; root; trunk of a tree.
      • Sumerian ùr: roof; entrance; mountain pass; beam, rafter (cf., ur_(2,3,4)).
      • Sumerian ur₄: (cf., gur_10,14).
      • Sumerian ur₅: (cf., har).
      • Sumerian ur-bi: by itself ('dog' ? + 'its; and').
      • Sumerian ur-gir₁₅[KU]: dog ('beast' + 'noble' ?).
      • Sumerian ur-bi...gu₇: gather together to finish off ('dogs' + 'its' + 'to eat').
      • Sumerian ur-mah: lion ('carnivorous beast' + 'mighty').
      • Sumerian ur-sa: hero, warrior ('young man' + 'first, in front').
    • Hebrew keleb, keh'-leb, from an unused root meaning to yelp, or else to attack, a dog, hence (by euphemism) a male prostitute, dog.
    • Sumero-Akkadian Lik and Pallika.
      • Under Sirius we see Old Akkadian Mul-lik-ud, "the Dog Star of the Sun."
      • Under Sirius we see the Babylonia Kakkab-lik-ku, "Star of the Dog."
      • Richard H. Allen comments: Euphratean scholars identify it with the Kakkab Paldara, Pallika, or Palura of the cylinders, the Star of the Crossing of the Water-dog, a title evidently given with some reference to the River of Heaven, the adjacent Milky Way; and Hommel says that it was the Kak-shisha which the majority of scholars apply to Sirius.
    • Babylonian-Assyrian Kalbu and Kallab-mê.
      • Under Sirius we see Kal-bu-sa mas, "the Dog of the Sun."
    • Phoenician Keleb and Keleb-maîm.
    • In Egypt, Anubis, was the dog or jackal-headed son/god of Isis and Osiris (Orion).
  
  
• Egyptian/Coptic: In Zodiac of Denderah.
  • See the Denderah Zodiac, for more on Canis Major.
  • Sirius is depicted on the Denderah Stone as a star between the horns of the ruminating Hathor cow on Canis Minor or of a cow riding in a boat.
  • In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 142 "In the Denderah Zodiac he (Canis Major - Sirius) is called Apes, which means the head.    He is pictured as a hawk (Naz, caused to come forth, coming swiftly down).    The hawk is the natural enemy of the serpent, and here it has on its head a pestle and mortar, indicating the fact that he shall crush the head of the enemy."   
    • My comments to the above: I do not see the hawk figure here, unless he (Bullinger) is referring to the one seen in Lepus (Axis).    If the hawk figure is named Apes, the head then it is not associated with Canis Major.
  • It has also been given the name Sebak, meaning conquering, victories and also some call it Apes, the head.
  • In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 145 "The Egyptian name in the Denderah Zodiac is Sebak, which means conquering, victorious.    It is represented as a human figure with a hawk's head and the appendage of a tail."
  
  
• Persian Planisphere sees Canis Major as a "wolf," (Heb. Ze'eb), also see Lupus.
  • Wolf.
    • Hebrew z^eeb, zeh-abe', from an unused root meaning to be yellow, a wolf, wolf.
  • In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 142 "It (Canis Major) is pictured as a wolf, and is called Zeeb, which in the Hebrew has the same meaning.    Plutarch translates it Leader.    In the Arabic it means coming quickly."
  
  
• Other names for Canis Major: the greater dog, 'Adhara, 'Adhra', Al Kalb al Ak'bar, Kalb al Jabbar, Alchel'eb Alach'bar or Ala'gar, Asecher', Ascheve' Ahemi'ni, Alsahave' aliemali'ja, Sce'ara', Scheere'liemi'ni, Shaar, Lobur', Ec'ber (Chilmead), Elscheere', Elseiri, Elsere', Al Kur'ud, Sira' (Persian).
  
  • From Richard H. Allen: In early Arabia, as indeed everywhere, it took titles from its lucida, although strangely corrupted from the original Al Shi’ra al ‘Abur al Yamaniyyah, the Brightly Shining Star of Passage of Yemen, in the direction of which province it set.    Among these we see, in the Latin Almagest of 1515, "canis: et est asehere, alahabor aliemenia"; in the edition of 1551, Elscheere; in Bayer's Uranoinetria, Elseiri (which Grotius derived from seirios), Elsere, Sceara, Scera, Scheereliemini; in Chilmead's Treatise, Alsahare aliemalija; and Elchabar, which La Lande, in his I'Astronomic, not unreasonably derived from Al Kabir, the Great.
        The Arabian astronomers called it Al Kalb al Akbar, the Greater Dog, so following the Latins, Chilmead writing it Alcheleb Alachbar; and Al Biruni quoted their Al Kalb al Jabbar, the Dog of the Giant, directly from the Greek conception of the figure.    Similarly it was the Persians' Kelbo Gavoro.
  • It is Cane Maggiore in Italy; Caes in Portugal; Grand Chien in France; Grosse Hund in Germany.
  
  
• Both a Cma and a Cmi are known as Al Shi'rayan (Sirius and Procyon).

See Star names for Canis Major.

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    This file was updated on July 15, 2008.

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