suggests a bear, or any other animal, and even if one nation should so picture it, there is no reason why the same imaginative creation should be universally identical.
Aristotle held that the name was derived from the fact that of all known animals the bear was thought to be the only one that dared to venture into the frozen regions of the north and tempt the solitude and cold.
Prof. Max Miiller thinks that the name of the Great Bear is the result of a mistake as to the meaning of words. The Sanscrit name "Riksha" signifies both "bear" and "star that is bright." The seven bright stars in this contellation form such a striking group that they might well merit the title "Riksha" in its latter sense. It has been suggested that the constellation was called "the Bear" as a pun on this word "Riksha." Later on, this word was confounded with the word, "Rishi," and so connected with the Seven Sages or Poets of India, the Seven Wise Men of Greece, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and the Seven Champions of Christendom. The ancient Hindus believed that the seven bright stars of Ursa Major repressented the seven principal rich men or holy persons who were supposed to live beyond Saturn, but the inhabitants of northern Asia, the Phœnicians, Persians, and others, all saw in these bright stars of the north the likeness of a great bear.
On the famous zodiac of Denderah on the Nile, is pictured the leg of an animal. This is identified by the authorities with a constellation called "the Thigh," which beyond question is the figure now known to us as Ursa Major. The Egyptians called this constellation "the Hippopotamus," "the Dog of Set," or "of Typhon," and in latter days "the Car of Osiris."
The Greeks called this star group Ἄρκτος μεγάλη, whence we get our word "arctic."
It has been suggested that the word "Ursa" is derived from "Versus," because the constellation is seen to turn about the Pole.
