Maia Callisto with Zeus. Wronged by the love affair, Zeus' wife Hera in a jealous rage had transformed Callisto into a bear. Arcas is the eponym of Arcadia, where Maia was born. The story of Callisto and Arcas, like that of the Pleiades, is an "aition" for a stellar formation, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great and Little Bear. Her name is related to μαῖα ("maia"), an honorific term for older women related to μήτηρ ("mētēr") 'mother'. "Maia" also means "midwife" in Greek. In ancient Roman religion and myth, Maia embodied the concept of growth, as her name
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