Maira (dog)

Maira ( Greek  Μαῖρα ) is in Greek mythology the dog of Ikarios , the legendary founder of viticulture in Attica . After his death, he was transferred to heaven by Zeus as the star Sirius .

Ikarios had been slain by drunken shepherds and his body was buried under a tree; according to another version, his body had been thrown into the source shaft of the Anigros . His daughter Erigone went in search of her father, with Maira helping her. After burying her father, Erigone hanged herself in desperation. According to Nonnos, Maira starved to death on the grave, from which he did not want to leave. After Hyginus, Maira plunged into the well shaft.

Like Ikarios and Erigone, Maira is also placed under the stars, namely as Sirius , the "dog star", which was called Maira by the Greeks . In Hyginus ( Astronomica 2.2) the star is not identified as Sirius, but as Prokyon , the main star in the constellation of the Little Dog .

literature

• Adolf Schirmer : Maira 5 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Col. 2285 f. ( Digitized version ).

swell

• Hyginus Mythographus Fabulae 130
• Nonnos of Panopolis Dionysiaka 47.219-264