why does the constellation, sirius seem to be so important to so many ancient cultures?

Answer 1

Wow Howard this is one of my favorite topics! My favorite story is about the Dogon and their knowledge of Sirius prior to westerners finding it with their telescopes.

The Dogon believe that approximately 5,000 years ago, Amphibious Gods, called Nommo, came to Earth in three legged space ships from the Sirius Star System. They have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by this elliptical orbit created by the two stars as they rotate make around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion.

Answer 2

This is a fascinating question. the Sumerian , Caanite and Phoenician cultures had a great deal of interest in the system. There is a primitive culture in Africa that has a complicated and sophisticated mythology centred around a planet in that system. This mythology was prevalent in the peoples beliefs prior to their first dealing with the white man in the 1800's. It was laughed at because there was no evidence that the star they spoke of existed in the western cultures science. The Star was discovered where these people said it was and at the brilliance the claimed in the 60's, I believe

Answer 3

Acient cultures had no knowlodge of science like we do today. They tended to look to nature and there surronding as signs from gods. In the sky there were things that stood out to them, they were the sun, the moon and then any other bright objects. The next brightest thing in the sky after these two is the Dog star aka (sirius). They used these bright objects and there postions in the sky to tell then it was time to sow plants, harvest them and then winter was coming. Over the hunderds of years they become incorprated into the culture as gods and where plus worshiped.

Answer 4

It was and is the brightest that can be seen from Earth.