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 to his house required crossing a stream. The seven sons, sympathetic to their mother, placed stepping stones in the river. Their mother, not knowing who put the stones in place, blessed them and, when they died, they became the constellation. In Shinto, the seven largest stars of Ursa Major belong to Amenominakanushi, the oldest and most powerful of all kami. In China and Japan, the Big Dipper is called the "North Dipper" (Chinese: "běidǒu", Japanese: "hokuto"), and in ancient times, each one of the seven stars had a specific name, often coming themselves from ancient China: In Theosophy, it is