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Bible Encyclopedias
Arcturus
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, situated in the constellation Bootes in an almost direct line with the tail Q' and rt) of the constellation Ursa Major (Great Bear); hence its derivation from the Gr. tiprcros, bear, and oupos, guard. Arcturus has been supposed to be referred to in various passages of the Hebrew Bible; the Vulgate reads Arcturus for stars mentioned in Job ix. 9, xxxvii. 9, xxxviii. 31, as well as Amos v. 8. Other versions, as also modern authorities, have preferred, e.g., Orion, the Pleiades, the Scorpion, the Great Bear(cf. Amos in the "International Critical Comment." series,and G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the O.T., Eng. trans., Oxford, 1905, ch. iv.). According to one of the Greek legends about Arcas, son of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, he was killed by his father and his flesh was served up in a banquet to Zeus, who was indignant at the crime and restored him to life. Subsequently Areas, when hunting, chanced to pursue his mother Callisto, who had been transformed into a bear, as far as the temple of Lycaean Zeus; to prevent the crime of matricide Zeus transported them both to the heavens (Ovid, Metam. ii. 410), where Callisto became the constellation Ursa Major, and Arcas the star Arcturus (see Lycaon and Callisto).
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Arcturus'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/arcturus.html. 1910.
