Show do dog days traced to egypt dog dl days ays so often misinterpreted go back to ancient egypt for on the nile the star sirius named in honor of the dog denoted the hot flood season its rise was the signal for lowlanders low landers to move to higher ground the fact that sirius rises in the summer has brought dog days to mean something entirely different this oft recounted story has a counterpart in the tale of maera the dog of icarus after disclosing to the place where her murdered father lay maera died of grief for his faithfulness maera was rewarded by being taken up into the heavens and becoming the constellation canis this is the greek version of an earlier babylonian lonian legend |