Bootes

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Doris Vickers, Youla Azkarrula

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Bootes star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg)

One of the 88 IAU constellations. “Bootes” is not a proper name, but it term is sometimes used as if it was because there is always the question of the correct translation: some say “bear keeper” and others “ox driver.” Both are correct. One refers to the Greek constellations, the other to the Roman asterisms. At the same time, both are incorrect, because the Greek word βοώτηϛ means “plowman.”

Etymology and History

Origin of Constellation

The word “Bootes” is used by Aratus, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy. Eratosthenes, however, calls the constellation “Arktophylakos,” bear keeper.

Eratosthenes explains that the bear keeper is Arkas, a son of Zeus who grew up among shepherds. The word bear keeper refers to its proximity to the Greek constellation Ursa Major, which he guards. In Roman times, however, its seven brightest stars were interpreted as seven oxen driven by the ox driver.

What seems particularly unusual to the modern observer is that the brightest star in the area does not belong to the figure of Bootes: the anthropomorphic figure is formed by weaker stars of 2.5 to 4 mag – the brightest star stands incongruously between the legs of this figure and is called Arcturus, the guardian or watchman. In Greek, therefore, the star's name fits the figure.

Babylonian

Whether this was also the case in Babylonian culture cannot be said with certainty. In MUL.APIN, each constellation is assigned a deity, and in this region of the sky, the untranslatable word ŠU.PA is found. Perhaps it is derived from the Akkadian word for “bright” and refers to Arcturus, or perhaps it refers to a group of stars in the area. The star is associated with Enlil, the god of agriculture. His attributes include the wagon or cart and the plow, which orbit in the circumpolar region.

It is therefore conceivable that the Babylonian god, who can be seen as a shepherd or plowman, was a model for the Greek Bootes. However, the evidence for this is indirect.

see

• Enlil, ^dEn-lil₂
• ŠU.PA

Greco-Roman

Aratos

[91] Behind Helice there comes, like a man driving, Arctophylax, whom men call Bootes, because he is seen to be just touching the Wagon-Bear. All of him is very conspicuous; below his belt circles Arcturus itself, a star distinct from the rest.

[580?] No longer great on both sides of the horizon is Arctophylax but only the lesser portion is visible, while the greater part is wrapt in night. For with four signs of the Zodiac Boötes sets and is received in the bosom of ocean; and when he is sated with the light he takes till past midnight in the loosing of this oxen, in the season when he sets with the sinking sun. Those nights are named after his late setting. So these stars are setting, but another, facing them, no dim star, even Orion with glittering belt and shining shoulders and trusting in the might of his sword, and brining all the River, rises from the other horn, the East.

[607] Nor can the rising Claws [Libra], though faintly shining, pass unremarked, when at a bound the mighty sign of Boötes rises, jeweled with Arcturus.

(Kidd 1997)

Eratosthenes

Var. 1:

Var. 2:

(Pamias and Zucker 2013)

Hipparchus

Rising (Lib II Cap V §1)

The Rising of ...

	east		south
	lam1	lam2	lam1	lam2
	Vir 1	Vir 27	Tau 26 1/2	Gem 27
star	the one in the head	the one in the right foot
duration	2 hours = 120 min = 30 degree

Setting (Lib II Cap VI §1)

	west		south
	lam1	lam2	lam1	lam2
	Sco 6	Cap 18 1/2	Cap 22	Ari 4
star	the southernmost of the those in the left foot	the northernmost of those in the club
duration	4 2/3 hours = 280 min = 70°

Stars Mentioned

	Greek	German	English	ident.	src		lam_culm
					Lib II Cap V §10	rising, east, first
					Lib II Cap V §10	rising, east, last
					Lib II Cap VI §2	setting CrB, south, last	Psc 13.5
					Lib II Cap VI §13	setting Aql, south, first	Ari 2
					Lib III Cap I §9	rising Ori, south, last	Psc 13

Hyginus, Astronomica

He is said to be Arcas, the son of Jove and Callisto, whom Lycaon served at a banquet, cut up with other meat, when Jupiter came to him as a guest. For Lycaon wanted to know whether the one who had asked for his hospitality was a god or not. For this deed he was punished by no slight punishment, for Jupiter, quickly overturning the table, burned the house with a thunderbolt, and turned Lycaon himself into a wolf. But the scattered limbs of the boy he put together, and gave him to a certain Aitolian to care for. When, grown to manhood, he was hunting in the woods, he saw his mother changed to bear form, and did not recognize her. Intent on killing her, he chased her into the temple of Jove Lycaeus, where the penalty for entering is death, according to Arcadian law. And so, since both would have to die, Jupiter, out of pity, snatched them up and put them among the stars, as I have said before. As a result, Arcas is seen following the Bear, and since he guards Arctos, he is called Arctophylax.

Some have said that he is Icarus, father of Erigone, to whom, on account of his justice and piety, Father Liber gave wine, the vine, and the grape, so that he could show men how to plant the vine, what would grow from it, and how to use what was produced. When he had planted the vine, and by careful tending with a pruning-knife had made it flourish, a goat is said to have broken into the vineyard, and nibbled the tenderest leaves he saw there. Icarus, angered by this, took him and killed him and from his skin made a sack, and blowing it up, bound it tight, and cast it among his friends, directing them to dance around it. And so Eratosthenes says: Around the goat of Icarus they first danced.

Others say that Icarus, when he had received the wine from Father Liber, straightway put full wineskins on a wagon. For this he was called Bootes. When he showed it to the shepherds on going round through the Attic country, some of them, greedy and attracted by the new kind of drink, became stupefied, and sprawling here and there, as if half-dead, kept uttering unseemly things. The others, thinking poison had been given the shepherds by Icarus, so that he could drive their flocks into his own territory, killed him, and threw him into a well, or, as others say, buried him near a certain tree. However, when those who had fallen asleep, woke up, saying that they had never rested better, and kept asking for Icarus in order to reward him, his murderers, stirred by conscience, at once took to flight and came to the island of the Ceans. Received there as guests, they established homes for themselves.

But when Erigone, the daughter of Icarus, moved by longing for her father, saw he did not return and was on the point of going out to hunt for him, the dog of Icarus, Maera by name, returned to her, howling as if lamenting the death of its master. It gave her no slight suspicion of murder, for the timid girl would naturally suspect her father had been killed since he had been gone so many months and days. But the dog, taking hold of her dress with its teeth, led her to the body. As soon as the girl saw it, abandoning hope, and overcome with loneliness and poverty, with many tearful lamentations she brought death on herself by hanging from the very tree beneath which her father was buried. And the dog made atonement for her death by its own life. Some say that it cast itself into the well, Anigrus by name. For this reason they repeat the story that no one afterward drank from that well. Jupiter, pitying their misfortune, represented their forms among the stars. And so many have called Icarus, Bootes, and Erigone, the Virgin, about whom we shall speak later. The dog, however, from its own name and likeness, they have called Canicula. It is called Procyon by the Greeks, because it rises before the greater Dog. Others say these were pictured among the stars by Father Liber.

In the meantime in the district of the Athenians many girls without cause committed suicide by hanging, because Erigone, in dying, had prayed that Athenian girls should meet the same kind of death she was to suffer if the Athenians did not investigate the death of Icarus and avenge it. And so when these things happened as described, Apollo gave oracular response to them when they consulted him, saying that they should appease Erigone if they wanted to be free from the affliction. So since she hanged herself, they instituted a practice of swinging themselves on ropes with bars of wood attached, so that the one hanging could be moved by the wind. They instituted this as a solemn ceremony, and they perform it both privately and publicly, and call it aletis, aptly terming her mendicant who, unknown and lonely, sought for her father with the god. The Greeks call such people aletides.

In addition to this, Canicula, rising with its heat, scorched the land of the Ceans, and robbed their fields of produce, and caused the inhabitants, since they had welcomed the bandits, to be plagued by sickness, and to pay the penalty to Icarus with suffering. Their king, Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Cyrene, and father of Actaeon, asked his father by what means he could free the state from affliction. The god bade them expiate the death of Icarus with many victims, and ask from Jove that when Canicula rises he should send wind for forty days to temper the heat of Canicula. This command Aristaeus carried out, and obtained from Jove the favour that the Etesian winds should blow. Some have called them Etesian because they spring up at a certain time each year, for etos in Greek is annus in Latin. Some, too, have called them Etesian because they were "asked for" from Jove, and so obtained. But we shall leave this undecided, lest we be though to have anticipated everything.

To return to the matter at hand, Hermippus, who wrote about the stars, says that Ceres lay with Iasion, son of Thuscus. Many agree with Homer that for this he was struck with a thunderbolt. From them, as Petellides, Cretan writer of histories, shows, two sons were born, Philomelus and Plutus, who were never on good terms, for Plutus, who was richer, gave nothing of his wealth to his brother. Philomelus, however, compelled by necessity, bought two oxen with what he had, and became the inventor of the wagon. So, by plowing and cultivating the fields, he supported himself. His mother, admiring his invention, represented him plowing among the stars, and called him Bootes. From him they say Parias was born, who called the people Parians and the town Parion from his own name. (Mary Ward 1960)

Almagest Boώrης

id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
	Βοώτου ἀστερισμός.	Constellation of Bootes
1	τῶν ἐν τῇ ἀριστερᾷ χειρὶ γ’ ὁ προηγούμενος.	The most advanced of the three in the left arm	kap Boo
2	ὁ μέσος καὶ νοτιώτερος τῶν τριῶν	The middle and southernmost of the three	iot Boo
3	ὁ ἑπόμευος τῶν τριῶν.	The rearmost of the three	tet Boo
4	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ ἀγκῶνος.	The star on the left elbow	lam Boo
5	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ ὥμου	The star on the left shoulder	gam Boo
6	ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς:	The star on the head	bet Boo
	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ ὥμου	The star on the right shoulder	del Boo
	ὁ βορειότερος αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ κολλορόβου	The one to the north of these, on the staff	mu Boo
	ὁ ἔτι τούτου βορειότερος ἐπ’ ἄκρου τοῦ κολλορόβου.	The one farther to the north again of th is, on the tip of the staff	nu Boo
	τῶν ὑποκάτω τοῦ ὤμου ἐν τῷ ῥοπάλῳ β ὁ βορειότερος.	The northernmost of the two stars below the shoulder, m the club	eta Boo
	ὁ νοτιώτερος αὐτῶν.	The southernmost of them	omi Boo
	ὁ ἐπ’ ἄκρας τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρός	The star on the end of the right arm	45 Boo
	ὁ τῶν ἐν τῷ καρπῷ δύο ὁ ἠγούμενος	The more advanced of the two stars in the wrist	psi Boo
	ὁ ἐπόμενος αὐτῶν	The rearmost of them	46 Boo
	ὁ ἐπ’ ἄκρας τῆς λαβῆς τοῦ κολλορόβου.	The star on the end of the handle of the staff	omega Boo
	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ μηροῦ ἐν τῷ περιξώματι	The star on the right thigh, in the apron	eps Boo
	τῶν ἐν τῇ ζώνῃ δύο ὁ ἐπόμευος.	T he· rearmost of the two stars in the belt	sig Boo
	ὁ προηφούμενος αὐτῶν.	T he· rearmost of the two stars in the belt	rho Boo
	ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς δεξιᾶς πτέρυης	The star on the right heel	zet Boo
	τῶν ἐν τῇ ἀριστερᾷ κυήμῃ ἡ’ ὁ βόρειος	The northernmost of the 3 stars in the left lower leg	eta Boo
	ὁ μέσος τῶν τριῶν	The middle one of the three	tau Boo
	ὁ φότιος αὐτῶν.	The southernmost of them	ups Boo
	ἀστέρες κβ, ὥν γ μεγέθους ὅ, δ’ ὅ, ε θ.	22 stars, 4 of the third magnitude, 9 of the fourth, 9 of the fifth
	Ὁ ὑπ’ αὐτὸν ἀμόρφωτος.
	ὁ μεταξὺ τῶν μηρῶν ὁ καλούμενος Ἀρκτοῦρος ὑπόκιρρος	The star between the thighs, called 'Arcturus', reddish	alf Boo
	ἀστὴρ α μεγέθους α'	1 star of the first magnitude

Convex Hull for the stars inside Bootes (CC BY Youla Azkarrula).

Stars within the Constellation Area

id	Label	IAU design.	description	Vmag
1	Arcturus	HIP 69673	Inside the hull	-0.05
2	Izar	HIP 72105	Constellation lines	2.45
3	Muphrid	HIP 67927	Constellation lines	2.68
4	Seginus	HIP 71075	Constellation lines	3.02
5	δ Boötis	HIP 74666	Constellation lines	3.49
6	Nekkar	HIP 73555	Constellation lines	3.52
7	ρ Boötis	HIP 71053	Constellation lines	3.59
8	ζ Boötis	HIP 71795	Constellation lines (Vertex)	3.78
9	θ Boötis	HIP 70497	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.05
10	υ Boötis	HIP 67459	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.07
11	Xuange	HIP 69732	Constellation lines	4.18
12	Alkalurops	HIP 75411	Constellation lines	4.31
13	σ Boötis	HIP 71284	Constellation lines	4.47
14	τ Boötis	HIP 67275	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.49
15	ψ Boötis	HIP 73745	Constellation lines	4.55
16	ξ Boötis	HIP 72659	Inside the hull	4.593
17	ο Boötis	HIP 72125	Inside the hull	4.6
18	ι Boötis	HIP 69713	Constellation lines	4.75
19	W Boo	HIP 71995	Inside the hull	4.79
20	-	HIP 69879	Inside the hull	4.796
21	* eps Boo B	HR 5505	Inside the hull	4.801
22	ω Boötis	HIP 73568	Constellation lines	4.81
23	12 Boo	HIP 69226	Inside the hull	4.83
24	-	HIP 70027	Inside the hull	4.85
25	π 1 Boötis	HIP 71762	Inside the hull	4.893
26	45 Boo	HIP 73996	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.93
27	9 Boo	HIP 68103	Inside the hull	5
28	ν 1 Boötis	HIP 75973	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.026
29	BY Boo	HIP 69038	Inside the hull	5.28
30	33 Boo	HIP 71618	Inside the hull	5.387
31	22 Boo	HIP 70602	Inside the hull	5.394
32	-	HIP 72582	Constellation lines	5.48
33	-	HIP 73634	Inside the hull	5.513
34	-	HIP 75257	Inside the hull	5.532
35	-	HIP 70791	Inside the hull	5.58
36	40 Boo	HIP 73369	Inside the hull	5.634
37	46 Boo	HIP 74087	Constellation lines	5.669
38	7 Boo	HIP 67787	Inside the hull	5.709
39	-	HIP 71568	Inside the hull	5.721
40	-	HIP 72012	Inside the hull	5.73
41	CH Boo	HIP 71280	Inside the hull	5.74
42	10 Boo	HIP 68276	Inside the hull	5.748
43	Merga	HIP 72487	Inside the hull	5.757
44	* pi.02 Boo	HR 5476	Inside the hull	5.761
45	CY Boo	HIP 69829	Inside the hull	5.8
46	-	HIP 72552	Inside the hull	5.8
47	HP Boo	HIP 72567	Inside the hull	5.867
48	26 Boo	HIP 71115	Inside the hull	5.897
49	-	HIP 71571	Inside the hull	5.91
50	V* CN Boo	HR 5343	Inside the hull	5.957
51	-	HIP 74561	Inside the hull	5.974
52	-	HIP 71277	Inside the hull	5.999
53	-	HIP 71094	Inside the hull	6
54	DE Boo	HIP 72848	Inside the hull	6
55	-	HIP 70892	Inside the hull	6.05
56	-	HIP 73068	Inside the hull	6.122
57	-	HIP 69316	Inside the hull	6.129
58	-	HIP 74571	Inside the hull	6.13
59	-	HIP 72469	Inside the hull	6.13
60	-	HIP 72139	Inside the hull	6.145
61	-	HIP 71729	Inside the hull	6.15
62	-	HIP 74514	Inside the hull	6.187
63	-	HIP 69818	Inside the hull	6.195
64	-	HIP 70762	Inside the hull	6.2
65	-	HIP 71490	Inside the hull	6.2
66	-	HIP 70310	Inside the hull	6.2
67	11 Boo	HIP 68478	Inside the hull	6.221
68	-	HIP 69569	Inside the hull	6.227
69	-	HIP 70517	Inside the hull	6.28
70	-	HIP 72124	Inside the hull	6.28
71	-	HIP 71243	Inside the hull	6.306
72	-	HIP 70029	Inside the hull	6.31
73	-	HIP 69862	Inside the hull	6.316
74	-	HIP 73941	Inside the hull	6.351
75	-	HIP 70873	Inside the hull	6.36
76	-	HIP 71406	Inside the hull	6.37
77	-	HIP 69735	Inside the hull	6.376
78	-	HIP 69592	Inside the hull	6.377
79	-	HIP 68516	Inside the hull	6.384
80	-	HIP 71168	Inside the hull	6.39
81	-	HIP 71857	Inside the hull	6.4
82	-	HR 5346	Inside the hull	6.41
83	-	HIP 70385	Inside the hull	6.41
84	-	HIP 70051	Inside the hull	6.445
85	kap01 Boo	HIP 69481	Constellation lines (Vertex)	6.69

Mythology

Eratosthenes reports that Arkas was the son of Zeus and Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon. After the birth, Lycaon is said to have invited Zeus to a feast, at which he served him the dismembered newborn. Zeus was horrified, overturned the table, destroyed the palace with a thunderbolt, put the boy back together, gave him a beautiful form, and had him raised among shepherds. When the young man, unaware of his origins, wanted to marry his mother and was therefore to be sacrificed according to the law, Zeus saved him once again. He carried him up to the stars.  

In another version of the legend, mythographers report that Arkas' mother Callisto was transformed into a bear: either by Artemis, who punished her for not remaining a virgin until initiation, or by her suitor Zeus, to protect her from the revenge of his wife Hera, or by Hera herself, who wanted revenge. Whatever the reason, as a young man, Arkas encountered the bear and did not recognize his mother. He hunted her until she fled to the temple of Zeus. Since it was forbidden to enter, the situation gave Zeus the opportunity to transport both of them to the heavens.

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)