Dog Days

We are now in the “dog days” of summer. I got curious, as I tend to get, to find out the origins of this phrase as it is used quite regularly by many people. So here it is:

The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks as well as the ancient Romans (who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs)) after Sirius (the "Dog Star", in Latin Canicula), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun. The dog days of summer are also called canicular days.

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The ancients [who?] sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium.

So there you have it; those zany Greeks. It had a far more impressive origin than I even had imagined. Here in North Carolina we are smack dab in the middle of the canicular days. It was over 100 degrees yesterday and made the century mark today as well. For those of us who work outside from time to time you didn’t need to tell us it was hot. I probably have a more difficult time as I am in and out of it numerous times in a day.

That’s enough self-pity for everyone to endure. This was simply a little investigation into that term “dog days” and I thought you might find it interesting and if you didn’t boy did you just throw away a few minutes of your time. Happy dog days to you all!