Editing Ursa Major (section)

==History==
[[File:Ursa Major shown on a carved stone, c.1700, Crail, Fife.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Ursa Major shown on a carved stone, c.&nbsp;1700, [[Crail]], Fife]]
Ursa Major has been reconstructed as an [[Indo-European studies|Indo-European]] constellation.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1                 = Mallory
| first1                = J.P.
| last2                 = Adams
| first2                = D.Q.
| chapter               = Chapter 8.5: The Physical Landscape of the Proto-Indo-Europeans
| title                 = Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World
| location              = Oxford, GBR
| publisher             = Oxford University Press
| date      = August 2006
| page                  = 131
| isbn                  = 9780199287918
| oclc                  = 139999117
| quote                 = The most solidly 'reconstructed' Indo-European constellation is Ursa Major, which is designated as 'The Bear' (Chapter 9) in Greek and Sanskrit (Latin may be a borrowing here), although even the latter identification has been challenged.
}}</ref> It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century AD astronomer [[Ptolemy]] in his ''[[Almagest]]'', who called it Arktos Megale.{{efn|Ptolemy named the constellation in Greek Ἄρκτος μεγάλη (Arktos Megale) or the great bear. Ursa Minor was Arktos Mikra<ref name="Ridpath1515">{{cite web |last1=Ridpath |first1=Ian |author-link=Ian Ridpath |title=Ptolemy's Almagest: First printed edition, 1515 |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/almagest.html#48 |access-date=15 November 2022}}</ref>}} It is mentioned by such poets as [[Homer]], [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], [[Alfred Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]] and also by [[Federico Garcia Lorca]], in "Song for the Moon".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/poesia/esp/lorca/cancion_para_la_luna.htm |title=Canción para la luna - Federico García Lorca - Ciudad Seva |access-date=2015-08-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510013428/http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/poesia/esp/lorca/cancion_para_la_luna.htm |archive-date=2015-05-10 }}</ref> [[Suomen kansan vanhat runot|Ancient Finnish poetry]] also refers to the constellation, and it features in the painting ''[[Starry Night Over the Rhône]]'' by [[Vincent van Gogh]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Frog|date=2018-01-30|title=Myth|journal=Humanities|language=en|volume=7|issue=1|pages=14|doi=10.3390/h7010014|issn=2076-0787|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Clayson|first=Hollis|date=2002|title=Exhibition Review: "Some Things Bear Fruit"? Witnessing the Bonds between Van Gogh and Gauguin|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=84|issue=4|pages=670–684|doi=10.2307/3177290|issn=0004-3079|jstor=3177290}}</ref> It may be mentioned in the biblical [[book of Job]], dated between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, although this is often disputed.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Botterweck|editor1-first=G. Johannes|title=Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Volume 7|date=1994|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|isbn=978-0-8028-2331-1|pages=79–80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weqiE1yiPyoC&pg=PA80|access-date=2019-07-30|archive-date=2022-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407221720/https://books.google.com/books?id=weqiE1yiPyoC&pg=PA80|url-status=live}}</ref>