Who let the dogs out?

Two dogs snap at the heels of the Ursa Major, the Great Bear, in a nightly chase around the north celestial pole. These canines are the hunting hounds of Boötes, the Herdsman, who holds them on a leash in his outstretched hand. In Greek tradition, Boötes was visualised in several ways, usually herding or driving animals. One story says that the name Boötes comes from the Greek for ox driver, since the stars of the Plough were visualised as an ox cart. An alternative explanation is that the name comes from a Greek word meaning ‘noisy’, and we can perhaps imagine the sounds of the herdsman shouting to his animals in the night.

The two dogs of Boötes are represented by the constellation of Canes Venatici, but this isn’t one of the 48 figures that the written around 150 AD.