#plaustrum

The European tradition of identifying Ursa Major with Wagon dates back at least to ancient Greece (Homer could be cited here). In his Cosmographia, Apianus shows these two representations next to each other, depicting the Big Dipper as a wain pulled by three horses (labeled Plaustrum). The seven stars in the asterism were known in ancient Rome as Seven Oxen (septentriones), referring to the animals pulling a plough. Like the oxen on a threshing-floor, they circle around the North Pole, furnishing the adjective Septentrionalis for description of the Northern regions.