Bootes, the Herdsman or Ploughman, is a large northern constellation, one of Ptolemy's forty-eight, whose kite-shaped figure is anchored by Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the whole sky. Its name is often taken to mean the ox-driver or the bear-watcher, for the figure appears to drive the Great Bear around the pole, and Arcturus itself means guardian of the bear. In myth the herdsman has been identified with various rustic figures, and the neighbouring hunting dogs, Canes Venatici, are shown at his heel. In astronomical tradition the constellation is a star pattern rather than a zodiac sign. These are the features of Bootes as the classical and modern traditions describe it, distinct from any astrological reading of the region; Arcturus, a golden giant, has long been a guidepost of the spring evening sky.
The hunting dogs at Bootes's heel, Canes Venatici, are not part of the ancient figure at all: Johannes Hevelius formally introduced them in his 1687 catalogue, though similar dogs appear unlabelled in some earlier star atlases, one of several cases where a seventeenth-century astronomer gave lasting official form to an image that had already been floating around informally for some time.