The story
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The ancient Greeks called it the Dog Star, because it seemed to follow the hunter Orion across the heavens. Its name may mean “scorcher.”
In late summer, Sirius rises just before the sun. The Greeks linked that return with heat, drought, fevers and bad luck. In Homer’s Iliad, the star brings heat and fevers to suffering humanity.
The Romans carried the idea on. They called the season dies caniculares, the “puppy days” or days of the little dog.
The Romans also blamed the star for the lazy, feverish feel of late summer. The writer Pliny even noted that dogs were more likely to turn on people in July and August.
English speakers turned the Latin into “dog days” in the 1530s. The name has outlasted the old belief: the star is far too distant to warm anything here.
