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The history of Sirius

Sirius is the main star of Canis Majoris and it is the brightest star in the night sky; the Moon, Venus, Juppiter,and Mars only are brighter, but we must remember that they are planets and that they are relatively nearest to the Earth. Pointing to Orion and looking down on the left, you can see a big  very bright star, that is Sirius A, even if nobody really needs  istructions to find the brightest star in the sky.  

Canis Major

Its name come from the Greek word that means sparkling or burning.  It's the most important star in the Canis Majoris constellation, that represents the bigger hunting dog of Orion and as that is commonly called "Dog Star". Sirius isn't visable in the night sky during the summer months, therefore the Greeks thought that Sirius added its heat to that of the Sun, producing the warm summer months. The hottest days are still called "Dog Days". The Egyptians instead used the position of Sirius  calculate the floods of the Nile, this special occasion reppresented the return from the world of dead of sun god, Osiris, in fact just like in Greece Sirius was linked to Sun in the same theory of Sirius producer of  hot summer. The old civilization described the star as red and burning, but today it is very white, scientists can't explane this phenomenon. The people of the Andes called Sirius Sothus, they narrated that in the obscure nights of the Andes without moon, Sirius projected light shades on the world. The Arabs called Sirius Alhabar, that means: "That has gone past the Milkyway". They belived it was a star very near to the Earth. For the Romans it was a star connected to the agriculture, they belived that Sirius could kill the weak plants and help the strong ones to survive. A Roman, Manlio, said that Sirius was not a star but a cold sun, because they thought stars were very different from the sun. Therefore Sirius colour was blue. When the sun made obscure Sirius, the winter was over. All the past astrologers thought Sirius emanated positive energy.