Canis Minor

Canis Minor used to have the title Procyon which is also the name of its alpha star, Procyon. Procyon is a combination of two Greek words; pro-, 'before' + Greek kuon, 'dog'. Canis Minor is situated by the Great Celestial River, the Milky Way. Procyon is the genus name for the raccoons, animals that live by water. Robson in The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology says "it is noteworthy that the ideas of water and drowning seem to be universally associated with this constellation". A raccoon will drown its opponent if attacked in water. "Dogs are thought to have descended, in an evolutionary sense, from an ancient ancestor of the raccoon family. The raccoons were thought to have evolved first, so raccoons are 'before dogs'" [1].

The poodle is a type of water-dog; a puddle dog?

Arab astronomers had a number of titles for Canis Minor meaning the sycamine tree, still seen in the name of the beta star of this constellation, Gomeisa, meaning a sycamine tree, from Arabic Al Jummaiza, with much varied spelling. The German astronomer Johan Bayer gave Canis Minor the Greek titles Sukaminos (sycaminos), and Morus. "The sycamore is etymologically either the 'fig-mulberry' or the 'mulberry-mulberry'" [Ayto]. The Greeks knew the sycamine as sycamenea which is the black mulberry (Morus nigra), grown for its fruit. The white mulberry (Morus alba) is called sycamore, and grown for food for silk-making caterpillars. The name sycamore has been used for a variety of plants. Two other trees referred to 'sycamore trees'; (Platanus) of eastern North America, and the Eurasian deciduous maple tree (Acer pseudoplatanus) are different trees and not related to the mulberries, but because of the name might belong to this constellation.

Easton's Bible says "the Sycamine is a tree mentioned in the New Testament, thought to be a species of mulberry which is from the genus Morus, from sykon, fig, plus moron, black mulberry. The mulberry tree is in the same family as the fig-tree". "Some contend that the name sycamine denotes the sycamore fig of Luke 19:4" [2], Ficus sycomorus, so called due to the leaves' resemblance to those of the Mulberry.

The fig, Greek sykon, is related to the mulberry:

Our word fig is from Latin ficus, Greek sukon, sykon, from an adaptation of Hebrew shiqmah 'mulberry'. It is related to feague, an obsolete verb which primarily refers to 'whipping' or 'beating' which Ayto says is in turn was very likely borrowed from German fegen, 'polish', from Germanic base, *feg-, as produced English fake. We get the word sycophant from the Greek variation, meaning a servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering, literally 'fig shower'. People who grassed on criminals were said to 'show them the fig', 'show them two fingers,' as it might be expressed in modern English. And so the term sukophantes came to be used for an 'informer,' and eventually, via 'one who ingratiates himself by informing,' for a 'flatterer' or 'toady'. Fig was used metaphorically for 'cunt,' and hence for an 'indecent gesture made by putting the thumb into the mouth or between two fingers' [Ayto].

Myth of the Mulberry: In Ovid's Metamorphoses Pyramus and Thisbe were two young Babylonians who loved each other but could not marry because of parental opposition. They saw each other secretly through a chink in the wall which separated their two houses. One night they arranged a rendezvous at the tomb of Minus (the name resembles the suffix in Sukaminos, sycaminos; minus, from Latin minor, as in Canis Minor). A mulberry tree grew there. Thisbe was the first to arrive but saw a lioness after a kill. She fled, but lost her scarf, which the lioness seized in her bloody mouth and tore into pieces. When Pyramus arrived and saw the scarf, he assumed that Thisbe had been eaten by a wild animal, and ran himself through with his sword. When Thisbe returned, she found him dead, and killed herself with the same sword. The fruit of the mulberry, which had until then been white, turned red with all this spilt blood [Grimal] [Morus alba, sycamore, turned to Morus nigra, sycamine?]. They asked to be buried in the same tomb under the mulberry bush and their wish was granted.

"Alison Keith shows how Ovid shapes the Pyramus and Thisbe narrative around anagrammatic and paronomastic puns on mora ('mulberries') - amor - mors - mora ('delay') and the Greek etymology of mora ('flowing blood')" [3].

The name of the biblical prophet Amos resembles Latin amor. Amos is described as 'a dresser of sycamore trees'.

Along with meaning a sycamine tree, Al Jummaiza, some Arabian astronomers thought that this could be Al Ghumaisa, the Dim, Watery-eyed, or Weeping One. Because Al Shi'ra, Sirius (the main star in Canis Major), and Procyon (the main star in Canis Minor), are seen on opposite sides of the Milky Way, there is an Arab story describing how these two companions became separated by the great Sky River. They tell of two sisters (Sirius and Procyon) of Suhail (Canopus) and his marriage to Al Jauzah (Orion) who tried to follow their brother Suhail (Canopus) across the sky. When they came to the great Sky River they plunged in to swim across. The older and stronger sister (Sirius) managed and today can be seen on the southern bank of that great river. But the younger sister was too weak and remained weeping on the northern bank, where we still see her today as Procyon. [Allen, Star Names].

"It [Canis Minor] bestows not hunting, but its weapons" [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD).

The words weep and weapon both had the same spelling in Middle English; wepen.

“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, ‘Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea’; and it should obey you.” — Luke 17:6 [4]

The New York Stock Exchange was founded under a sycamore tree.

Manilius giving the astrological influences for Canis Minor:

"To rear keen scented whelps and to tell their class by their pedigree, their qualities by their place of origin" [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD]. "catulos (puppy) nutrire (rear) sagacis (know) et genus (genetics, birth) a proavis (ancestor)".

Manilius tells us that this constellation is interested in origins, he used the words genus and proavis meaning ancestor; perhaps the word 'root', meaning primary source or origin, might belong here? The biblical "say unto this sycamine tree 'Be thou plucked up by the roots'". A fig tree displays its roots.

This constellation had the Roman titles Catellus and Catulus, Catulos (of Manilius), these words are related to our word cat. It was rather late in history, around the 5th century, that the domesticated cat, with the corresponding Latin word cattus, makes its apparition. Some etymologists think that the word cat, from Latin cattus, probably derives from a Nubian source, kadis and Berber kaddiska cat. Others believe that Latin cattus, cat, is a very ancient European word and was in fact borrowed from the Celts. "The Celtic word evidently began with the sense of 'baby animal', then specialized as 'kitten', and eventually came to mean the animal at any age" [5]. "It is based on *khath- 'cat', from which are derived verbs meaning 'give birth' (to small animals) and names for the young of small animals" [Trends in Linguistics p.514] which is what Latin catulus also means. Felis was another title given to this constellation meaning feline.

What creature could express the characteristics of a sycophant better than a cat? "A self-serving self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering". The term sycophant also relates to 'one who ingratiates himself by informing'. The verb 'to cat' is slang for 'to let a secret be known' [AHD]. Chat is the French word for cat, and a homonym for chat, and to chatter. If you listen carefully to a cat chatting you will notice the contents are interspersed with a lot of whining observations, a catalogue of catty remarks, and general plaintive chit chat. Cats only chat with people, they never chat amongst themselves.

A fig, itself is symbolic of a cunt (sykon also meant 'vulva') [6]. "The resemblance seems to be in the way a ripe fig looks when it is split open; in Italian the word for 'fig' also was used for 'cunt'" [7]. Cat and pussy are slang terms used in English with a similar meaning.

Egyptian Bast, Bastet, or Pasht, was the goddess of cats, and of the city of Bubastis. In Julius Schiller star atlas Coelum Stellatum Christianum where the constellations were replaced with Christian figures; Canis Minor was the Paschal Lamb, from ecclesiastical Latin pascha (resembling Pasht the alternative name for Bastet, the cat goddess?) 'Utchats' [ut-chat?] was another name for her. She was goddess of birth, pleasure (Latin felis, the generic word for cat, is derived from Latin felix, meaning 'happy'; cats purr when happy), and the protector against contagious diseases and evil spirits (perhaps plague, cats kill vermin). Bubastis was said to be the home of belly-dancing. Belly dancing is essentially muscle flexing (f-lex, felix, cat - though not recognized cognates); it has the effect of giving a large belly, similar to that of a pregnant woman. Belly dancing is said to have been invented to promote an easy labor. In the process the dance would have helped achieve the popular body image of the graceful cat. The Celtic meaning of *khath-, 'cat', along with the meaning of a small animal also had the meaning 'give birth'. Bast, goddess of birth, is seen with a passel of kittens about her feet. Her name Bast, I suggest, might be related to bastard; as cat mating is a secret affair, no one ever knows who is the father and there are usually several males involved [Pyramus and Thisbe rendezvous under the mulberry tree was a secret affair].

There is another myth that might be relevant:

One day, Glaucus, son of King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë of Crete, was playing with a ball or mouse [as cats do] and suddenly disappeared. His parents went to the Oracle at Delphi who told them; "A marvelous creature has been born amongst you: whoever finds the true likeness for this creature will also find the child." They interpreted this to refer to a newborn calf in Minos' herd of cattle. Three times a day, the calf changed color from white to red to black. Polyeidos observed the similarity to the ripening of the fruit of the mulberry plant, and Minos sent him to find Glaucus [8].

Owl-eyed Glaucus, the sea-god was a name for Homer's glauk-opis, Greek glaucoma originally meant a cataract (cata-, down, + arassein, to strike) of the eye, where the pupil turned white.

The site Tel Shiqmona (in Arabic Tell al-Samak), ancient Shikimonah, in the suburbs of Haifa, was referred to by many different names over the ages that are derivatives of the name Sycaminos, sycamine, Hebrew shikmah.

The astrological influences of the constellation by Manilius:

"Procyon rises at the moment when Cancer's twenty-seventh degree ascends from the waves to the stars. He bestows upon those born under him not hunting, but its weapons. To rear keen scented whelps [catulos nutrire sagacis] and to tell their class by their pedigree [et genus proavis], their qualities by their place of origin [mores numerare per urbes]; to produce nets and hunting-spears tipped with strong points, and pliant shafts with knots smoothed out and to manufacture and sell at a profit whatever the art of hunting is likely to require: these are the gifts Procyon will bestow" [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, 317.]

© Anne Wright 2008.