URSA MAJOR ("The Great Bear"), in astronomy, a con stellation of the northern hemisphere, supposed to be referred to in the Old Testament (Job ix. 9, xxxviii. 22), and mentioned by Homer, "Apicros 0', ijv rtai Ci,u4av KaMovrat (Il. 18. The Greeks identified this constellation with the nymph Callisto (q.v.) placed in the heavens by Zeus in the form of a bear together with her son Arcas as "bear-warder," or Arcturus (q.v.); they named it Arctos, the she-bear, Helice, from its turning round the pole-star. The Romans knew the constellation as Arctos or Ursa; the Arabians termed the quadrilateral formed by the four stars a, (3, Na'sh, a bier, whence it is sometimes known as Feretrum majus. The Arabic name should probably be identified with the Hebrew name 'Ash and 'Ayish in the book of Job (see G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament, 1905). Ptolemy
catalogues eight stars. Of these, the seven brightest (six stars, a, 13,7, E, and n are of the 2nd magnitude, and 6 of the third magnitude) constitute one of the most characteristic figures in the northern sky; they have received various names—Septentriones, the wagon, plough, dipper and Charles's wain (a corruption of "churl's wain," or peasant's cart). With the Hindus these seven stars represented the seven Rishis. The stars a and flare called the "pointers," since they point to the pole-star. Five stars of the Plough form an associated group with common proper motion; but a (the upper pointer) and n (the last star of the tail) have no connection with the others. Stars in other parts of the sky have been found to belong to the same cluster; in particular Sirius is a stray member of it.