Big Dipper

[12] Classical Greek mythography identified the "Bear" as the nymph Callisto, changed into a she-bear by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus.

Other names for the constellation include Perkūno Ratai ("The Wheels of Perkūnas"), Kaušas ("The Bucket"), Vežimas ("The Carriage"), and Samtis ("The Ladle").

[citation needed] In the Sámi languages of Northern Europe, the constellation is identified as the bow of the great hunter Fávdna (the star Arcturus).

According to the legend, Fávdna stands ready to fire his Bow every night but hesitates because he might hit Stella Polaris, known as Boahji ("the Rivet"), which would cause the sky to collapse and end the world.

The most prominent name is the "Northern Dipper" (北斗) and the "Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper" (Chinese and Japanese: 北斗七星; pinyin: Běidǒu Qīxīng; Cantonese Yale: Bak¹-dau² Cat¹-sing¹; rōmaji: Hokuto Shichisei; Korean: 북두칠성; romaja: Bukdu Chilseong; Vietnamese: Bắc Đẩu thất tinh).

[24][25] In astrology, these stars are generally considered to compose the Right Wall of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure which surrounds the Northern Celestial Pole, although numerous other groupings and names have been made over the centuries.

[26] The personification of the Big Dipper itself is also known as "Doumu" (斗母) in Chinese folk religion and Taoism, and Marici in Buddhism.

[27] Although this name has now been replaced by the Sino-Vietnamese "Bắc Đẩu" in everyday speech, many coastal communities in central and southern Vietnam still refer to the asterism as such and use it to navigate when their fishing vessels return from the sea at night.

[28] In Shinto religion, the seven largest stars of Ursa Major belong to Amenominakanushi, the oldest and most powerful of all kami.

[citation needed] In the earliest Indian astronomy, the Big Dipper was called "the Bear" (Ṛkṣa, ऋक्ष) in the Rigveda, but was later more commonly known by the name of Saptarishi, "Seven Sages.

[34] In an 1824 book on the history of the constellations' mythology, Jacob Green [fr] contrasted the "Dipper or Ladle" descriptors used in the United States with "Charles's Wagon or Wain" which were common in England.

[36][37][38] Within Ursa Major the stars of the Big Dipper have Bayer designations in consecutive Greek alphabetical order from the bowl to the handle.

At fourth magnitude, Alcor would normally be relatively easy to see with the unaided eye, but its proximity to Mizar renders it more difficult to resolve, and it has served as a traditional test of sight.

[41] The asterism's prominence on the north of the night sky produced the adjective "septentrional" (literally, pertaining to seven plow oxen) in Romance languages and English, meaning "Northern [Hemisphere]".

Folklore has it that escaped southern slaves in the United States used the Big Dipper as a point of reference to go north.

[44][45] A version of this story taken from the pacifist magazine Herald of Peace was translated into Russian and incorporated into Leo Tolstoy's compilation A Calendar of Wisdom.