The Stories Of Ursa Major

One quite common story came from the Iroquois Indians. It starts out with the bear (Ursa Major) being chased by seven Indians. The bear leaves its den in spring. Then in autumn, four Indians stop hunting the bear. One of the hunters, Robin, hits the bear, and it stands on its hind legs. Then when winter comes the bear is dead, with only the carcass left, lying on it’s back (Staal, 131-133). This reoccurs every year. This story is told to explain why the constellation moves throughout the sky during the seasons.

The Aztecs had yet another story. They believed that Ursa Major looked like Tezcatlipoca, their god. The story says that Tezcatlipoca’s brother Quetzalcoatl, made Tezcatlipoca into a jaguar, and then changed him into a puppet, after Quetzalcoatl heard he wanted to demolish his work. Quetzalcoatl hung him in the sky to stay and dance forever. He would shift from being straight up, to upside-down (134). Ag

The Greeks had pondered on why the bear’s feet never touched the water. They questioned this because all the other stars set and rose in the sea. This is how they came up with their story, Callisto. Juno, who was jealous of Callisto because Jupiter was in love with her, transformed her into a bear. Juno believed that Callisto’s son Arcas would accidentally kill her while he was out hunting. Jupiter stopped him from killing her and swung them into the sky. Juno was furious, because now Callisto was more beautiful than before with all the stars. So Juno went to Neptune to make sure he

Everyone saw different figures in Ursa Major. The Babylonians saw a wagon, Romans made seven oxen out of the stars, and the Dayaks and other natives saw a hog’s jaw. Other images included; skunk, camel, shark, plough, canoe, bushel, sickle, Chinese God of Literature, Wen-chang, and numerous others. The most common is of course the Bear. According to Dr. Helmet Werner, this is because of two things; bears are quadruped, yet can stand on two hind legs (as some stories tell), and the way Ursa Major moves is simple and easily imaginable (136-137).

won’t let them drink, bathe or even touch the water. He did so, and they haven’t touched the water until later on when Callisto would dip her tail in it afte

Some topics in this essay:
Ursa Major, Dubhe Benatnasch, North Pole, Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca, Callisto Jupiter, Major Babylonians, Juno Neptune, Indians Greeks, ursa major, Helmet Werner, Literature Wen-chang, stories ancient, ancient people, touched water, seven stars, hind legs, stories ancient people, tell season,