August is here.
What a summer it has been so far. But in just a month, fall will be knocking on the door.
And yet. The Dog Days are yet to come.
That term has always scruffed me a bit. It seems like it has a somewhat negative connotation attached to it. The “dog days of summer” refer to the hottest and most sultry days of the season, typically occurring in July and August in the Northern Hemisphere. And people don’t like to be miserably hot. But why blame it on the dogs? Why not the cat days of summer? Or the groundhog days of summer?
As it turns out, the term “dog days” comes from the ancient Greeks and Romans. I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but those Greeks and Romans associated the hottest days of summer with the star Sirius, which, of course, is also known as the Dog Star. And Sirius rises and sets with the sun during this time of the year — July-ish and August-ish. So there it is. The Dog Days.
A note about Sirius. It is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog). They say that Canis Major looks like a dog in the sky at night, although I can never “see” the pictures they say the stars are making up. I think someone was smoking weed when they named all those constellations.
Like Ursa Major (The Great Bear), aka the Big Dipper. Or. Ursa Minor (The Little Bear). Or. Leo the Lion. Taurus the Bull. Pegasus. And on. Which one is the Archer? Sagittarius? I don’t see an archer there. And there’s no way I see a dog in Canis Major.
Anyway. Back to Dog Days.
Here’s where the negative connotation comes in. In ancient times, the dog days were often considered an evil or dangerous time. Those two months were associated with heat waves and droughts. But more than that, they were connected with people going mad. This belief persisted through the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
Regardless, these days, the term is still used colloquially to describe hot, oppressive summer weather.
We should just be glad we are not living in some really horribly hot place. Recently, the BBC “Hot Focus” named its hottest ten places on Earth. The top three:
3. Ahvaz (Iran): 54°C (129.2°F)
Capital of the Khuzestan province of Iran, Ahvaz has a population of around 1.3 million people and dates back to the Achaemenid period.
2. Kebili (Tunisia): 55°C (131°F)
Aside from its continent-breaking record heat, Kebili is also famous for being known as the earliest example of people living in Tunisia, some 200,000 years ago, during the early Palaeothic era. They’ve found many ancient stone tools have been located near the city.
1. Furnace Creek, Death Valley (USA): 56.7°C (134°F)
This is only the air temperature, with surface heat much higher. On 15 July 1972, a ground temperature of 93.9 °C (201 °F) was recorded at Death Valley, only a few degrees off the boiling temperature of water.
I’d probably rename these days and this heat to The Devil Days of Summer. You know. Hell and all. Fire and brimstone.
Because around my house, every day is Dog Day. In a good way. Louis. Ollie. All year long.
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“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” — John Steinbeck
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“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.” — Galileo Galilei
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“When it’s hot, keep a cool mind. When it’s cold, keep a warm heart.” — Ajahn Brahm
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It doesn’t look like a dog up there. Or an archer.
