All the commentators on Homer, Hygin and Diogenes Laertes, attribute to Thales the introduction of this constellation. Pseudo-Eratosthenes called the Little Bear [Greek: Phoinike], to indicate that it was a guide to the Phenicians. A century later, about the seventeenth Olympiad, Cleostrates of Tenedos enriched the sphere with the Archer ([Greek: Toxotes], Sagittarius) and the Ram ([Greek: Krios], Aries), and about the same time the zodiac was introduced into the Grecian sphere. With regard to the Little Bear there is another passage of Strabo which it will be interesting to quote. He says--"The position of the people under the parallel of Cinnamomophore, _i.e._ 3,000 stadia south of Meroe and 8,800 stadia north of the equator, represents about the middle of the interval between the equator and the tropic, which passes by Syene, which is 5,000 stadia north of Meroe. These same people are the first for whom the Little Bear is comprised entirely in the Arctic circle and remains always visible; the most southern star of the constellation, the brilliant one that ends the tail being placed on the circumference of the Arctic circle, so as just to touch the horizon." The remarkable thing in this passage is that it refers to an epoch anterior to Strabo, when the star [Greek: a] of the Little Bear, which now appears almost immovable, owing to its extreme proximity to the pole, was then more to the south than the other stars of the constellation, and moved in the Arctic circle so as to touch the horizon of places of certain latitudes, and to set for latitudes nearer the equator. In those days it was not the _Pole_ Star--if that word has any relation to [Greek: poleo], I turn--for the heavens did not turn about it then as they do now. The Grecian geographer speaks in this passage of a period when the most brilliant star in the neighbourhood of the pole was [Greek: a] of the Dragon. This was more than three thousand years ago. At that time the Little Bear was nearer to the pole than what we now call the Polar Star, for this latter was "the most southern star in the constellation." If we could alight upon documents dating back fourteen thousand years, we should find the star Vega ([Greek: a] Lyra) referred to as occupying the pole of the world, although it now is at a distance of 51 degrees from it, the whole cycle of changes occupying a period of about twenty-six thousand years. Before leaving these two constellations we may notice the origin of the names according to Plutarch. He would have it that the names are derived from the use that they were put to in navigation. He says that the Phenicians called that constellation that guided them in their route the _Dobebe_, or _Doube_, that is, the speaking constellation, and that this same word happens to mean also in that language a bear; and so the name was confounded. Certainly there is still a word _dubbeh_ in Arabic having this signification.