Boötes' golden wain.
Pope's Statius His Thebais.
Boötes only seem'd to roll
His Arctic charge around the Pole.
Byron's 3d Ode in Hours of Idleness.
Boötes, the Italians' Boote and the French Bouvier, is transliterated from Βοώτης, which appeared in the Odyssey, so that our title has been in use for nearly 3000 years, perhaps for much longer; although doubtless at first applied only to its prominent star Arcturus. Degenerate forms of the word have been Bootis and Bootres.
It has been variously derived: some say from Βοῦς, Ox, and ὡθεῖν, to drive, and so the Wagoner, or Driver, of the Wain; Claudian writing :
Boötes with the wain the north unfolds;
or the Ploughman of the Triones that, as Arator, occurs with Nigidius and Varro of the century before our era. But in recent times the figure has been imagined the Driver of Asterion and Chara in their pursuit of the Bear around the pole, thus alluded to by Carlyle in Sartor Resartus:
What thinks Boötes of them, as he leads his Hunting Dogs over the zenith in their leash of sidereal fire ?
Others, and perhaps more correctly, thought the word Βοητής, Clamorous, transcribed as Boetes, from the shouts of the Driver to his Oxen, — the Triones, — or of the Hunter in pursuit of the Bear; Hevelius suggesting that the shouting was in encouragement of the Hounds. In translations of the Syntaxis this idea of a Shouter was shown by Vociferator, Vociferans, Clamans, Clamator, Plorans, the Loud Weeper, and even, perhaps, by Canis latrans, the Barking Dog, that Aben Ezra applied to its stars in the Hebrew words Kelebh hannabāh.
The Arabians rendered their similar conception of the figure by Al ‘Awwā’, — Chilmead's Alhava.
The not infrequent title Herdsman, from the French Bouvier, also is appropriate, for not only was he associated with the Oxen of the Wain, but in Arab days the near-by circumpolar stars were regarded as a Fold with its inmates and enemies.
Other names were Ἀρκτοφύλαξ and Ἀρκτοῦρος, the Bear-watcher and the Bear-guard, the latter first found in the Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, the Works and Days, "a Boeotian shepherd's calendar," by Hesiod, eight centuries before our era. But, although these words were often interchanged, the former generally was used for the constellation and the latter for its lucida, as in the Phainomena and by Geminos and Ptolemy. Still the poets did not always discriminate in this, the versifiers of Aratos confounding the titles notwithstanding the exactness of the original; although Cicero in one place definitely wrote:
It has been variously derived: some say from Βοῦς, Ox, and ὡθεῖν, to drive, and so the Wagoner, or Driver, of the Wain; Claudian writing :
Boötes with the wain the north unfolds;
or the Ploughman of the Triones that, as Arator, occurs with Nigidius and Varro of the century before our era. But in recent times the figure has been imagined the Driver of Asterion and Chara in their pursuit of the Bear around the pole, thus alluded to by Carlyle in Sartor Resartus:
What thinks Boötes of them, as he leads his Hunting Dogs over the zenith in their leash of sidereal fire ?
Others, and perhaps more correctly, thought the word Βοητής, Clamorous, transcribed as Boetes, from the shouts of the Driver to his Oxen, — the Triones, — or of the Hunter in pursuit of the Bear; Hevelius suggesting that the shouting was in encouragement of the Hounds. In translations of the Syntaxis this idea of a Shouter was shown by Vociferator, Vociferans, Clamans, Clamator, Plorans, the Loud Weeper, and even, perhaps, by Canis latrans, the Barking Dog, that Aben Ezra applied to its stars in the Hebrew words Kelebh hannabāh.
The Arabians rendered their similar conception of the figure by Al ‘Awwā’, — Chilmead's Alhava.
The not infrequent title Herdsman, from the French Bouvier, also is appropriate, for not only was he associated with the Oxen of the Wain, but in Arab days the near-by circumpolar stars were regarded as a Fold with its inmates and enemies.
Other names were Ἀρκτοφύλαξ and Ἀρκτοῦρος, the Bear-watcher and the Bear-guard, the latter first found in the Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, the Works and Days, "a Boeotian shepherd's calendar," by Hesiod, eight centuries before our era. But, although these words were often interchanged, the former generally was used for the constellation and the latter for its lucida, as in the Phainomena and by Geminos and Ptolemy. Still the poets did not always discriminate in this, the versifiers of Aratos confounding the titles notwithstanding the exactness of the original; although Cicero in one place definitely wrote:
Arctophylax, vulgo qui dicitur esse Boötes.
Transliterated thus, — or Artophilaxe, — and as Arcturus, both names are seen for the constellation with writers and astronomers even to the 18th century; Chaucer having "ye sterres of Arctour." The scientific Isidorus knew it as Arcturus Minor, his Major being the Greater Bear.( misunderstanding of Isidore, or a translation based on a faulty manuscript reading; here's the passage as literally translated as I can manage it, based on the linked text:
Arctophylax is so called because it follows Arctos, that is Helicê the Bear. They also called it Boötes, because it clings to the cart: it is a constellation [highly] visible for its many stars, among which is Arcturus. Arcturus is the star after the tail of the great bear; [it is] situated in the constellation Boötes) Smyth derived this word from Ἄρκτου οὐρά, the Bear's Tail, as Boötes is near that part of Ursa Major; but this is not generally accepted — indeed is expressly condemned by the critic Buttmann.
Statius also called it Portitor Ursae; Vitruvius had Custos and Custos Arcti, the Bear-keeper; Ovid, Custos Erymanthidos Ursae; the Alfonsine Tables, Arcturi Custos; while the Bear-driver is often seen with early English writers.
Although Manilius knew it in connection with the Bear, he changed the simile when he wrote:
whose order'd Beams
Present a Figure driving of his Teams;
and Aratos long before had united the two thoughts and titles:
Behind and seeming to urge on the Bear,
Arctophylax, on earth Boötes named,
Sheds o'er the Arctic car his silver light.
Plaustri Custos, the Keeper of the Wain, was another name for it that altered the character of Boötes' duties; Ovid following in this with:
interque Triones
Flexerat obliquo plaustrum temone Bootes.
Arctophylax is so called because it follows Arctos, that is Helicê the Bear. They also called it Boötes, because it clings to the cart: it is a constellation [highly] visible for its many stars, among which is Arcturus. Arcturus is the star after the tail of the great bear; [it is] situated in the constellation Boötes) Smyth derived this word from Ἄρκτου οὐρά, the Bear's Tail, as Boötes is near that part of Ursa Major; but this is not generally accepted — indeed is expressly condemned by the critic Buttmann.
Statius also called it Portitor Ursae; Vitruvius had Custos and Custos Arcti, the Bear-keeper; Ovid, Custos Erymanthidos Ursae; the Alfonsine Tables, Arcturi Custos; while the Bear-driver is often seen with early English writers.
Although Manilius knew it in connection with the Bear, he changed the simile when he wrote:
whose order'd Beams
Present a Figure driving of his Teams;
and Aratos long before had united the two thoughts and titles:
Behind and seeming to urge on the Bear,
Arctophylax, on earth Boötes named,
Sheds o'er the Arctic car his silver light.
Plaustri Custos, the Keeper of the Wain, was another name for it that altered the character of Boötes' duties; Ovid following in this with:
interque Triones
Flexerat obliquo plaustrum temone Bootes.
It has been Lycaon, the father, or grandfather, of Kallisto, when that nymph was identified with Ursa Major; as well as Arcas, her son; Ovid distinctly asserting in the 2d of the Fasti that Arctophylax in the skies was the earthly Arcas, although it is often wrongly supposed that the latter is represented by Ursa Minor; it was Septentrio, from its nearness to the north, so taking one of the Bear's titles; and Atlas, because, near to the pole, it sustained the world.
Hesychios, of about A.D. 370, called it Orion, but this seems unintelligible unless originating from a misunderstanding of Homer's lines, translated by Lord Derby:
Arctos call'd the Wain, who wheels on high
His circling course, and on Orion waits,
as if they were in close proximity. Or the title may come from some confusion with the Orus, or Horus, of the Egyptians, that was associated with both Orion and Boötes. La Lande alluded to this when he wrote:
Arctouros ou l'Orus voisin de l'Ourse, pour le distinguer de la constellation méridionale d'Orion ;
and, in considering this very different derivation of our word Arcturus, it should be remembered that Κάνδαος and Κανδάων were the titles also applied to Boötes, as the latter Greek word was to Orion by the Boeotians. It would be interesting to know more of this connection.
Philomelus is another designation, as if he were the son of the neighboring Virgo Ceres; and the early title Venator Ursae, the Hunter of the Bear, again appears as Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter before the Lord, with the biblical school of two or three centuries ago; although this was more usual for Orion.
Pastor, the Shepherd, presumably is from the Arabic idea of a Fold around the pole, or from the near-by flock in the Pasture towards the southeast, in our Hercules and Ophiuchus; or perhaps by some confusion with Cepheus, who also was a Shepherd with his Dog.
Pastinator is Hyde's rendering of a supposed Arabic title signifying a Digger or Trencher in a vineyard. A commentator on Aratos called it Τρυγετής, the Vintager, as its rising in the morning twilight coincided with the autumnal equinox and the time of the grape harvest; Cicero repeating this in his Protrygeter; but both of these names better belonged to the star Vindemiatrix, our ε Virginis.
Still its risings and settings were frequently observed and made much of in all classical days, and even beyond the Augustan age, although many, perhaps most, of these allusions were to its bright star. As a calendar sign it was first mentioned by Hesiod, thus translated by Thomas Cooke:
Hesychios, of about A.D. 370, called it Orion, but this seems unintelligible unless originating from a misunderstanding of Homer's lines, translated by Lord Derby:
Arctos call'd the Wain, who wheels on high
His circling course, and on Orion waits,
as if they were in close proximity. Or the title may come from some confusion with the Orus, or Horus, of the Egyptians, that was associated with both Orion and Boötes. La Lande alluded to this when he wrote:
Arctouros ou l'Orus voisin de l'Ourse, pour le distinguer de la constellation méridionale d'Orion ;
and, in considering this very different derivation of our word Arcturus, it should be remembered that Κάνδαος and Κανδάων were the titles also applied to Boötes, as the latter Greek word was to Orion by the Boeotians. It would be interesting to know more of this connection.
Philomelus is another designation, as if he were the son of the neighboring Virgo Ceres; and the early title Venator Ursae, the Hunter of the Bear, again appears as Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter before the Lord, with the biblical school of two or three centuries ago; although this was more usual for Orion.
Pastor, the Shepherd, presumably is from the Arabic idea of a Fold around the pole, or from the near-by flock in the Pasture towards the southeast, in our Hercules and Ophiuchus; or perhaps by some confusion with Cepheus, who also was a Shepherd with his Dog.
Pastinator is Hyde's rendering of a supposed Arabic title signifying a Digger or Trencher in a vineyard. A commentator on Aratos called it Τρυγετής, the Vintager, as its rising in the morning twilight coincided with the autumnal equinox and the time of the grape harvest; Cicero repeating this in his Protrygeter; but both of these names better belonged to the star Vindemiatrix, our ε Virginis.
Still its risings and settings were frequently observed and made much of in all classical days, and even beyond the Augustan age, although many, perhaps most, of these allusions were to its bright star. As a calendar sign it was first mentioned by Hesiod, thus translated by Thomas Cooke:
When in the rosy morn Arcturus shines,
Then pluck the clusters from the parent vines;
and again, but for a different season of the year:
When from the Tropic, or the winter's sun,
Thrice twenty days and nights their course have run;
And when Arcturus leaves the main, to rise
A star bright shining in the evening skies;
Then prune the vine.
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