Dog Days
August 2014 :
As we move into the normally hottest time of the year, we often hear a saying believed to have significance because of our sweet, constant, normally happy companions, our dogs. At this time, however, they very often become lethargic, often getting underfoot, as they are so warm because of the increased temperature; in fact, it is believed they are affected more than we are because dogs have no sweat glands, and therefore are only able to cool themselves off by panting as much as they can. From this, it is said the phrase “Dog days” arises. However, this term is actually much older than any of our canine companions.
In ancient Egypt, as now, water was not a plentiful commodity. Growing food was therefore a very serious business, capable of occurring only because of the Nile River. When the temperature would rise, the snows would melt and join with the river waters, flooding its banks, allowing the farmers to capture some of the water by digging trenches into their properties. It would behoove them to dig these ditches before the waters rose, but when exactly did this occur? For guidance, they looked to the stars.
If you’ve ever gotten up early in the morning, right before sunrise, and faced east, you might just be able to see a couple stars low in the horizon, just for a few minutes, before the sunlight washes their light away. The next morning, you’ll see those again, but perhaps one or two more, lower, or to the east, of the previous morning’s objects. The first morning you can see a star (or planet) in the east before sunlight overpowers it is called that object’s heliacal rising.
The Egyptians, in looking eastward in the mornings, soon realized that the sky’s brightest star, Sirius, the Dog Star, underwent its heliacal rising right before the hottest time of year. For them, it was the signal to begin creating ways for water to flow onto their properties when the Nile would flood. They also noted that there was an indicator to Sirius’s heliacal rising – another star that would rise just about a day beforehand. This was Procyon, the “before the dog” star, brightest in Canis Minor. When these stars would rise in the morning, the time became known as the days of the dogs, the dog days, time for life-giving water to rise.
Therefore, even though we do equate these days as those for our poor suffering puppies, the real “Dog Days” served a much more important purpose. But, when does this actual heliacal rising now take place? It is now, at this time of year. If any of you have a good eastern horizon, find out for yourselves when you can first detect Sirius in the morning. Let us know when it happens for you.
