Until the other night, I’d given hardly any thought at all to the names of the stars, aside from the very brightest or most prominent. Polaris, Vega, Arcturus. The names of the constellations, though, was a different matter. On dark nights with my wits about me, I could easily locate Orion or the Big Dipper. Those names I knew.
When I pulled out a star-watching app the other night for the first time and pointed it at the sky, the star names surprised me. The stars of the Big Dipper: Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Alkaid.
And then, even more surprising, was the folk tale, apparently Arabic or Bedouin in origin, that involves these names. In this story, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid are mourning daughters at the foot of a “funeral bier,” the corners of which are represented by the four other stars in the constellation. One variation of this tale suggests that the funeral bier and daughters rotates around Polaris, which represents the man who stands in for their father. They circle him, night after night, seeking vengeance.
Who knew such a story was up in such common stars?
Taylor Coe 