Cultural Associations
The Bible refers to it as "the seven stars" (Amos 5:8).
Book XVIII of Homer's Iliad mentions it as "the Bear, which men also call the Wain."
In Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos, it is called the Valacirca (Sickle of the Valar), the sign of Hope signifying doom for Evil, while in T.A. Barron's Great Tree of Avalon series, it is called the Wizard's Staff, symbolizing Merlin's staff.
It is a prominent symbol in the Fist of the North Star manga/anime series; Kenshiro, has scars on his chest in the Big Dipper's configuration. It is identified as an omen: "When the great bear appears, violence will follow."
In the video game Devil Survivor 2, the seven stars of the Big Dipper (known as Septentriones) appear as the primary antagonists of the game, while Polaris serves as the game's final boss.
In the video game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, the player has to find the big dipper in the sky.
In addition to appearing on the flags of political entities, the Dipper has also been used in corporate logos.
Read more about this topic: Big Dipper
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or associations:
“The men who are messing up their lives, their families, and their world in their quest to feel man enough are not exercising true masculinity, but a grotesque exaggeration of what they think a man is. When we see men overdoing their masculinity, we can assume that they haven’t been raised by men, that they have taken cultural stereotypes literally, and that they are scared they aren’t being manly enough.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Wild as it was, it was hard for me to get rid of the associations of the settlements. Any steady and monotonous sound, to which I did not distinctly attend, passed for a sound of human industry.... Our minds anywhere, when left to themselves, are always thus busily drawing conclusions from false premises.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)