Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word Σείριος, Seirios, meaning lit. 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinised to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated α CMa or Alpha CMa. Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion, termed Sirius B. Sirius is colloquially known as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (the Greater Dog). The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, the star marked winter and was an important reference for their navigation around the Pacific Ocean.

Quotes

• But Pallas now Tydides’ soul inspires,
  Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires,
  Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,
  And crown her hero with distinguish’d praise.
  High on his helm celestial lightnings play,
  His beamy shield emits a living ray;
  The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies,
  Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies,
  When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,
  And, bathed in ocean, shoots a keener light.
  • Homer, Iliad, Book V, as translated by Alexander Pope

• Great Hector, cover’d with his spacious shield,
  Plies all the troops, and orders all the field.
  As the red star now shows his sanguine fires
  Through the dark clouds, and now in night retires,
  Thus through the ranks appear’d the godlike man,
  Plunged in the rear, or blazing in the van;
  While streamy sparkles, restless as he flies,
  Flash from his arms, as lightning from the skies.
  • Homer, Iliad, Book XI, as translated by Alexander Pope

• Him, as he blazing shot across the field,
  The careful eyes of Priam first beheld.
  Not half so dreadful rises to the sight,
  Through the thick gloom of some tempestuous night,
  Orion’s dog (the year when autumn weighs),
  And o’er the feebler stars exerts his rays;
  Terrific glory! for his burning breath
  Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.
  So flamed his fiery mail.
  • Homer, Iliad, Book XXII, as translated by Alexander Pope

• Still from the living root the mantling green
  Against the Dog-star spreads a leafy screen.
  • Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 958–74, as translated by Walter Headlam (Cambridge, 1910), p. 117