Sirius B - The Dog Star

Sirius B is close to us , putting this in the context of the galaxy being infinite this means it is more or less our next door neighbours. These are trivial though in comparison to some of the links that star has to various aspects of culture here on Earth.

The Native Americans and the the Chinese both referred to Sirius B as the dog star or the wolf star. The native Americans believed that the dog star was a protector while the Chinese looked upon as a "celestial wolf". The most interesting information comes from though the Dogon and the Sumerians whom both had an advanced understanding of the star before modern astronomy would have touched it. The Dogon knew of the existence of a second star that was Sirius B before modern astronomy discovered it. In Sumeria , this is the best, the star descended for the hero Gilgemesh and he and fifty people descended into the heavens in a ship to the heavens.
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In the Sumerian Civilization, predating the Egyptians, their epic poem Epic of Gilgamesh describes a dream of Gilgamesh where the hero is drawn irresistibly to a heavy star that cannot be lifted despite immense effort.
This star descends from heaven to him and is described as having a very 'potent essence' and being "the God of heaven". Gilgamesh had for his companions, 50 oarsmen in the great ship, Argo, a constellation bordering Canis Major, where Sirius is found.

Links and References

http://www.crystalinks.com/sirius.html

http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/s...usgodstar.html

http://www.badarchaeology.com/?page_id=585#