[4] Sirius is first mentioned by name in Hesiod's Works and Days,[5][6] although he is also strongly alluded to in Homer's Iliad, with his brilliance used as a metaphor for the shiny bronze armors of the soldiers, and in another point he is presented as an ominous death star foreshadowing the fate of the doomed Hector in his fight against Achilles.

[7] Apollonius of Rhodes calls him "brilliant and beautiful but full of menace for the flocks,"[8] and both Aratus and Quintus of Smyrna speak of his rise in conjunction to that of the Sun (the god Helios).

[9] The Roman poet Statius says: Tempus erat, caeli cum torrentissimus axis incumbit terris ictusque Hyperione multo acer anhelantes incendit Sirius agros.

Twas the season when the vault of heaven bends its most scorching heat upon the earth, and Sirius the Dog-star smitten by Hyperion's full might pitilessly burns the panting fields.

[19] It also parallels the tale of young Phaethon, the son of the sun-god Helios who drove his father's sun chariot for a day and ended up burning the earth with it, prompting the entire nature to beg Zeus for salvation.

[12] After the mortal hunter Orion was killed by the scorpion the earth-goddess Gaia sent to punish him, he was transported by the gods (usually either Artemis or Zeus) in the stars as the homonymous constellation, where he was ever accompanied by his faithful dog,[21] who was represented by Sirius (and Canis Major) in their new celestial lives.

[24] Keans would observe Sirius's rising from a hilltop; if the star rose clear and brilliant it was a good sign of health, but if it appeared faint or misty it was seen as ominous.