Canes Venatici

Canes Venatici represents two Greyhounds on a leash or brach, the leash held by Bootes, the Herdsman.

Canes, dogs, is the plural of Latin canis, dog. The word Venatici is from Latin vinaticus, from Latin venari, 'to hunt, pursue', and comes from Indo-European root *wen-¹ 'To desire, strive for'. Derivatives: win ('to seek to gain'), wynn (an Old English rune having the sound W or uu; rune for granting wishes), winsome, won¹ (achieved victory), wont, wean (to accustom, train a young mammal gradually to get less milk from its mother), ween (to think; suppose), wish, Vanir (an early race of Norse gods who dwelt with the Aesir in Asgard), vanadium (from Old Norse Vanadis, name of the goddess Freya), venerate, venereal, venery¹ (indulgence in or pursuit of sexual activity), Venus, venom (from Latin venenum, love potion or poison), Wend (to wend one's way from Germanic *Weneda-, a Slavic people), venial (easily excused or forgiven; a venial offense, from Latin venia, favor, forgiveness), venery² (hunting or game), venison (used to mean any meat that was hunted, but is now restricted to the flesh of deer), venatic (relating to hunting, from Latin venari, to hunt), wanderoo (a monkey, Macaca silenus, of south-central Asia, having a glossy black coat and a ruff of gray hair about the face, from Sanskrit vanam, forest, vanarah, forest dweller). [Pokorny 1. wen- 1146. Watkins] Venus is said to have derived from the eponymous mother of Venetian tribes of the Adriatic, after whom the city of Venice was also named.

Gambling is one of one of the traditional astrological influences given for this constellation, gambling is used in greyhound races. Venatici from Latin venari, 'to hunt, pursue', or 'to strive after', is related to the word win, and the words Venus and venery, 'to hunt'. Venus represents love; some say that the (often unconscious) wish for love is the ultimate goal behind all our strivings.

Asterion, means 'starry', and it is the alternative name of the beta star on the Southern Hound (Chara). Asterion is also the name of the Northern Hound itself. This name might relate to Semitic counterpart of Venus; Astoret, Ishtar (Babylonian and Assyrian), Phoenician Astarte, Ashtoreth.

The grey- of greyhound is from Old English grighund, grieghund (grig-, grieg- 'bitch' + hund dog), related to Old Norse greyhundr, from grey, 'dog', and hundre, 'hound'. The word is not related to the color grey or gray. Vanidis (from *wen-¹ above) was an epitaph of Freya, the Norse goddess of love. A greyhound, or a scenting dog, was called a brach meaning a bitch hound. Greyhound from grig-, the translation of which is sometimes given as 'bitch'.

"The first element of Old English grighund is grig, translated 'bitch': The Old Norse form of the word is preserved in Hjalti's couplet that almost sparked war between pagans and Christians in early Iceland: 'I will not blaspheme the gods, but I think Freyja is a bitch'" [Online Etymology Dictionary].

This constellation, Canes Venatici, is just above the constellation Coma Berenices. Canes Venatici, might represent the shrine or temple of Venus/Aphrodite where Berenice dedicated her hair (coma). In the story associated with Coma Berenices, Berenice cuts off her hair and places it in her mother-in-law’s shrine at Zephyrium. Her mother-in-law, Arsínoe, wife of Ptolemy II (283-246BC) was deified and worshipped as a manifestation of Venus-Aphrodite. Arsinoe is called Zephyritis from her shrine, which Catullus associates with Zephyr the west wind.

Windhund is what Germans call the greyhound:

Varro says:

"Venilia (a name, possibly the mother of Turnus) was named from venire ‘to come’ and that ventus ‘wind’ which Plautus mentions:

As that one said who with a favoring wind was borne

Over a placid sea: I'm glad I went*".

[Note by translator: *Punning on ventum: the last phrase may mean also "I'm glad there was a wind"]. [Varro: On The Latin Language, p.69].

"That one said who with a favoring wind was borne over a placid sea", refers to Venus and her birth from the foam of the sea; 'the favoring wind', refers to Favonius, the Roman god of the West Wind who is the same as Greek Zephyr. Here Varro is associating Zephyr, the West Wind, with Latin ventus, which is related to the English word for wind. Venus-Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea after Cronus castrated Uranus. The goddess after rising from the foam first approached the island of Cythera, and thence traveled onto Cyprus on a scallop shell. Zephyros the western wind wafted her over the waves.

Venus came with the wind Zephyr, or Favonius. Arsinoe is called Zephyritis worshipped as a manifestation of Venus-Aphrodite. There are two characters involved here; Zephyr and Venus. Canes Venatici comprises two dogs. "The northern of the two hunting dogs was named Asterion, and was sometimes regarded as an independent constellation or at least an asterism. The southern dog was named Chara" [1]. Two hounds in leash are known as a brache, which is the same word as brace, meaning pair. Several cultures historically held Venus' appearances as a morning and evening star to be those of two separate bodies. Copula is the name of the Spiral Nebula, or the Whirlpool Nebula, N.G.C.5194, 51 M. in the Northern Hound, Asterion. 'Copula' is related to the words 'couple' and 'copulation'. Venery (hunting), embraces pairs or couples and opposites; pursuer and pursued, hunter (venator) and prey (venison), and venery (copulation).

"At once the brother of Memnon the Aithiopian [Zephyros the West Wind], the gentle breeze, the steed of Lokrian Arsinoe of the violet girdle [referring to the fact that her temple was built at Zephyrium], moving his swift wings in circles dashed and seized me with his breath, and carrying me through the humid air he placed me in the lap of Kypris [Aphrodite, love]." - Callimachus, Aetia Frag 110 http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AnemosZephyros.html

It was said that Zephyr blew with sweet breath (fragrant). He was married to Chloris, goddess of flowers, of the Elysian Fields and he gave her jurisdiction over flowers. Canes Venatici is depicted as two greyhounds, two scenting hounds, on a leash, the leash held in the hand of Bootes. Two greyhounds in leash are known as a brache. A brach, is a bitch hound, from Middle English brache, 'a scenting hound', from Old French brache, related to Middle High German braehen, 'to smell', and cognate with Latin fragrare, 'to smell sweetly'. These words come from the Indo-European root *bhrag- 'To smell'. Derivatives: brach (a bitch hound, from Old High German bracc(h)o-, dog that hunts game by scent, from Germanic *brak-). Suffixed form *bhrag-ro-; flair, fragrant (from Latin fragrare, to smell). Pokorny bkrag- 163. Watkins] Strawberries are of the genus Fragaria from Latin fragum.

Varro says:

"venator ‘hunter’ from ventus ‘wind,' because he follows the stag towards the wind and into the wind". [Varro: On The Latin Language, p.91].

Windhund is what Germans call the greyhound, Dutch call it windhond, and Swedish vinthund. Latin ventus comes from the Indo-European root *wé- 'To blow'. Derivatives: weather, wind¹, window, vent¹, ventilate, wing, nirvana (an ideal condition of harmony and joy, from nis-, nir- 'out' + vati 'to blow'). [Pokorny 10. aw(e)- 81. Watkins]

The temples of Venus were schools of instruction in a technique of sexual-spiritual enlightenment known as Venia. Romans educated in the sexual arts by the Venerii (priestesses) were taught that the moment of death was the ultimate sexual union, the consummation of the sacred marriage promised by the religion of Venus. Ovid, an initiate of these mysteries, requested, "...Let me go in the act of coming to Venus; in more senses than one let my last dying be done..."(Cavendish 51). 'To die' was a common metaphor for sexual orgasm, as Ovid seems to imply (Shadock 544) [2].

Varro above says "Venilia was named from venire ‘to come’". Andreas Michalopoulos in Ancient Etymologies in Ovid's Metamorphoses says "Venus was originally an impersonal force of attraction Venus - an amatory context of venire as 'to come to a lover, to submit to love'", and he offers numerous examples of wordplay from a number of mythological sources to confirm the venire/Venus connection. Latin venire comes from the Indo-European root *gwá-  Also *gwem-. 'To go, come'. Derivatives: come, welcome, become, venire (jurors from which a jury is selected), venue, advent, adventitious, adventure, avenue, circumvent, contravene, convene, convenient, inconvenient, convent, conventicle, convention, coven, covenant, event, eventual, intervene, invent, inventory, misadventure, (these words from Latin venire, to come). 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *gwm-yo-; base¹, basis, basal; abasia. Reduplicated form *g^we-g^wa-; juggernaut (used as a title for the Hindu deity Krishna, from Sanskrit jagat, moving, the world). [Pokorny gwa- 463. Watkins]  

The Venerii priestesses must have seemed like a coven of witches to the early Christians after the collapse of the Roman empire. They taught the sexual arts and consummation of marriage. Come is a slang term for describing the experience of orgasm, or copulation.

This constellation should represent Venus, and nirvana, an ideal condition of harmony and joy, and the Vanir, an early race of Norse gods who dwelt with the Aesir in Asgard. This might also be the native American's 'Happy Hunting Grounds'. Sanskrit vanam, is a forest (from *wen-¹). Greyhounds were raised for deer chasing and hunting. Traditionally hunting dogs were kept in royal parks. The River Jordan was drawn on this part of the sky. In the Hebrew Bible, the Jordan is referred to as the source of fertility to a large plain ('Kikkar ha-Yarden'), called on account of its luxuriant vegetation 'the garden of God' (Genesis 13:10) [3].

Nehalennia of the Greyhound was a pre-Celtic goddess.

© Anne Wright 2008.