Etymology and Cultural Significance
The name "Canopus" is a Latinisation of the Ancient Greek name Κάνωβος/"Kanôbos", recorded in Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest (c150 AD). Eratosthenes used this spelling, however Hipparchos wrote it as Κάνωπος. John Flamsteed wrote Canobus. The name has two common derivations, both listed in Richard Hinckley Allen's seminal Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning; and one less so. All are matters of conjecture:
- One from the legend of the Trojan War, where the constellation Carina was once part of the now-obsolete constellation of Argo Navis, which represented the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts. The brightest star in the constellation was given the name of a ship's pilot from another Greek legend: Canopus, pilot of Menelaus' ship on his quest to retrieve Helen of Troy after she was taken by Paris.
- A second from the Egyptian Coptic Kahi Nub ("Golden Earth"), which refers how Canopus would have appeared near the horizon in ancient Egypt, reddened by atmospheric extinction from that position. A ruined ancient Egyptian port named Canopus lies near the mouth of the Nile, site of the Battle of the Nile.
- A third is its possible origin from the Semitic root G(C)-N-B (Gimmel-Nun-Beth), from which the Arabic word for south, janūb ( جنوب ), is derived. The southeastern wall of the Muslim Ka'bah points to Canopus, and is named Janūb ("south") as well.
Canopus was known to the ancient Mesopotamians and given the name NUN-ki and represented the city of Eridu in the Three Stars Each Babylonian star catalogues and later MUL.APIN around 1100 BC. Today, the star Sigma Sagittarii is known by the common name Nunki.
An occasional name seen in English is Soheil, or the feminine Soheila; in Turkish is Süheyl, or the feminine Süheyla, from the Arabic name for several bright stars, سهيل suhayl, and Canopus was known as Suhel in medieval times. Alternate spellings include Suhil, Suhilon, Sohayl, Shoel, Sohil, Soheil, Sahil, Sihel, and Sihil. An alternate name was Wazn "weight" or Haḍar "ground", possibly related to its low position near the horizon. Hence comes its name in the Alphonsine Tables, Suhel ponderosus, a Latinization of Al Suhail al Wazn. Its Greek name was revived during the Renaissance.
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