Ursa Minor train, of light" (i.e. λύκος "wolf" vs. λύκ- "light"). Allen points to the Old Irish name of the constellation, "drag-blod" "fire trail", for comparison. Brown (1899) suggested a non-Greek origin of the name (a loan from an Assyrian "An‑nas-sur‑ra" "high-rising"). An alternative myth tells of two bears that saved Zeus from his murderous father Cronus by hiding him on Mount Ida. Later Zeus set them in the sky, but their tails grew long from being swung up into the sky by the god. Because Ursa Minor consists of seven stars, the Latin word for "north" ("i.e.", where Polaris points) is
Ursa Major has been reconstructed as an Indo-European constellation. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century AD astronomer Ptolemy in his "Almagest", who called it Arktos Megale. It is mentioned by such poets as Homer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Federico Garcia Lorca (in "Song for the Moon"). The Finnish epic Kalevala mentions it, Vincent van Gogh painted it. In 2009, the American rock band Third Eye Blind named their fourth album, "Ursa Major", after the constellation. It may be mentioned in the biblical book of Job, dated between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, although this is