Surviving the Dog Days of Summer
When you use the term “the dog days of summer,” you’re actually quoting the classics.
The ancient Greeks and Romans used the term to describe the hottest time of the year, a period in late July close to the day when the star Sirius – AKA the “dog star” – would appear to rise just before the sun.
“If you go back even as far as Homer, The Iliad, it’s referring to Sirius as Orion’s dog rising, and it describes the star as being associated with war and disaster,” author and astronomer Jay B. Holberg told National Geographic last year. Continue Reading