Canes Venatici's Double Error

The constellation Canes Venatici, "the Hunting Dogs," shouldn't exist at all. It was born out of not one, but two translation mistakes. The original Greek star chart described a figure holding a club. When the text was translated into Arabic, the translator didn't recognize the Greek word and rendered it instead as a "staff with a hook" (kull?b). Later, a Latin translator misread kull?b ("hook") as kil?b ("dogs"). By the time the mistake was spotted, the damage was done. The translation permanently rechristened the stars as two celestial hounds chasing the Great Bear across the night sky.

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