The Dog Days of Summer Begin

Nowadays when the summer heat gets unusually fierce, we tend to blame El Niño and global warming. Ancient Mediterranean cultures invoked the Dog Star—the brightest visible from the earth and the principal star in Canis Major—whose celestial proximity to the sun for six weeks of the year was thought to add fuel to summer’s fire. The Romans, believing that the scorching heat caused hysteria among animals and people, offered up a brown dog to pacify Canicula (as they called the star). When this year’s heat wave hits, please spare your pets—but feel free to sacrifice your suv.