Arctos

See also: arctos

Latin

Alternative forms

• Arctus (native 2nd declension)
• arctos (in metonymic senses)

Etymology

Ancient Greek Ἄρκτος, ἄρκτος (Árktos, árktos)

Proper noun

Arctos f (genitive Arctī); second declension

1. (in the plural) Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
   • Propertius (2, 22, 25f.). In: Propertius with an English translation by H. E. Butler, 1916, page 124f.:

     Iuppiter Alcmenae geminas requieverat Arctōs,
     et caelum noctu bis sine rege fuit;

     Jove for Alcmena's sake made the stars of the Bear to slumber two nights long, and heaven twice was kingless through the dark;

2. (metonymically, in the plural) north
   • Claudianus (De consulatu stilichonis, 1, 246ff.). In: Claudian with an English translation by Maurice Platnauer. In two volumes I, 1922, page 382f.:

     Post domitas Arctos alio prorupit ab axe
     tempestas et, ne qua tuis intacta tropaeis
     pars foret, Australis sonuit tuba.

     After the conquest of the north arose a fresh storm in another quarter. The trumpets of war rang out in the south that there might be no part of the world untouched by thy victories:

3. (metonymically, in the singular) north
   • Horatius (Carmina, 2, 15, 14ff.). In: The Odes and Epodes of Horace[.] A metrical Translation into English with Introduction and Commentaries by Lord Lytton[.] With Latin text. New Edition, 1872, page 178f.:

     ... nulla decempedis
     Metata privatis opacam
     Porticus excipiebat Arcton;²

     No one sought the cool shade of the North
     Under peristyles planned out for temples;²

     ² 'Nulla [...] Arcton.'
     No private man had porticoes measured by a ten-feet rule, which appears to have been a measurement for temples and public buildings. The peristyles at Pompeii, which form an inner court to the house, give sufficient idea of these corridors, opening to the north for coolness in summer, and to the south for sunshine in winter.

Declension

Second-declension noun (Greek-type).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Arctos	Arctoe
Genitive	Arctī	Arctōrum
Dative	Arctō	Arctīs
Accusative	Arcton	Arctōs
Ablative	Arctō	Arctīs
Vocative	Arcte	Arctī

Derived terms

• Parrhasis Arctos

Further reading

• “arctŏs”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Arctos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Arctos in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 156.
• “Arctos”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers