Audiendus:
Thanks for adding the astronomical clarification which I'd not obtained. You've pointed out that:
1. "Cynosure" is used to refer to the "North Star,"
NOT to the "Dog Star." The North Star is also known as Polaris. The Dog Star is also known as Sirius.
2. The North Star isn't distinguished by its brightness but by its location and, it seems, by its use in celestial navigation.
3. I'm guessing that your comments about the North Star may suggest the star is thought to have admirable or valued characteristics, such as reliability. I think I've seen the expression "constant as the North Star." I can imagine mariners would have appreciated the star's dependability. After all, their lives depended on their use of the star for navigation. (I'm guessing Sirius may have been given its alternate name "Dog Star" due to its constancy. I'm thinking of the faithfulness of dogs, but that doesn't seem to be the case. See the post-script below my signature.)
4. Your comments also explain that the star's position near the north celestial pole and the small circle of rotation of its constellation give the star visual prominence which it doesn't achieve by brightness.
All of these appreciated astronomical details seem to suggest how the star could have been seen as an exemplar and how the star's name would be used as a synonym for the star's admirable qualities.
There's only one problem: The literal meaning of the star's name is "
dog tail," even though the English form of that Greek compound word is beautiful and elegant!
Isn't "dog tail" "bad" enough?! What if, somehow, the constellation had been named long ago in some language other than English as "decaying corpse"? Thanks also for contributing what may be the correct linguistic terminology ("synecdoche") for the process which I tried to identify as "expansion" and "association." If, by that process, the original name of the constellation were applied to the star, would Thomas Carlyle's meaning have been: "Meanwhile the fair young Queen, in her halls of state, walks like a goddess of Beauty, the
decaying corpse of all eyes"?!
Am I just a "stick in the mud," or does our language "fall apart" when we ignore details like this?
Jeff Hook
I followed your good example and checked Wikipedia. Their page for Sirius is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
The star seems to have been associated in ancient Egypt with Isis and with Osiris and with the annual flooding of the Nile. The name "Sirius" is said by my paper copy of the AHD4 to be derived from a Greek word {
seirios} for "burning." Wikipedia explains:
The ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius heralded the hot and dry summer, and feared that it caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused. Due to its brightness, Sirius would have been noted to twinkle more in the unsettled weather conditions of early summer. To Greek observers, this signified certain emanations which caused its malignant influence. Anyone suffering its effects was said to be astroboletos (ἀστροβόλητος) or "star-struck". It was described as "burning" or "flaming" in literature. The season following the star's appearance came to be known as the Dog Days of summer. The inhabitants of the island of Ceos in the Aegean Sea would offer sacrifices to Sirius and Zeus to bring cooling breezes, and would await the reappearance of the star in summer. If it rose clear, it would portend good fortune; if it was misty or faint then it foretold (or emanated) pestilence. Coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BC feature dogs or stars with emanating rays, highlighting Sirius' importance. The Romans celebrated the heliacal setting of Sirius around April 25, sacrificing a dog, along with incense, wine, and a sheep, to the goddess Robigo so that the star's emanations would not cause wheat rust on wheat crops that year.
The name "Dog Star" doesn't seem to have been given to the star because the star was thought to be as faithful as a dog.