About this star:

A star on the Tail of the Great Bear Ursa Major. This little star is a companion and only 11' distant to the star Mizar. Alcor is a 4th magnitude star and only people with excellent eyesight could distinguish it as a separate star from Mizar because they are so close as to appear to be a single star. These stars used to be the "test" or "riddle" by which people used to test their eyesight on.

Inconspicuous though Alcor may be, it has been famous in astronomical folklore.

Although the statement has been made that Alcor was not known to the Greeks, there is an old story that it was the Lost Pleiad, Electra, which had wandered here from her companions and became ... "the Fox."

In Hindu mythology the seven stars of Ursa Major, the seven Richis or Seven Wise Men, were wedded to the seven sisters of the Pleiades. After rumors of their infidelity the Richis banished their wives. Only Arundhati (or Arundha), an exemplary wife remained with her husband, Sage Vashishta as the star Alcor; Vashishta is Mizar. In the course of Hindu marriage rituals, both the bride and groom are taken outside the marriage mandap and shown the Star Alcor, better known as Arundhati Nakshatram. This ritual symbolizes the urge of the newly weds to remain true to each other. And Alcor is pointed out as a paradigm of marital virtue to the bride. Al Biruni called this star Al Suha, "the pious woman". [These two close stars could have more erotic implications because Mizar is the "groin" or "loins" of the Great Bear].

A Latin title was Eques Stellula, "the Little Starry Horseman"; Eques, "the Cavalier", is from Bayer; while the Horse and his Rider, and, popularly, in England, Jack on the Middle Horse, are well known, Mizar being the horse.

It was also called "the Abject", which means a courser or rider.

Alcor, forever tied to Mizar, is hardly ever spoken of unless as "Mizar and Alcor," which the Arabs referred to as the horse and rider. The name Alcor, however, was stolen from that for Alioth. Both come from an Arabic word that means the "black horse." The term was distorted in different ways as it was applied to each of the two stars. Oddly, the "rider" of the pair is the one with the name of the "horse," "Mizar" referring not to a horse but to the "groin" of the Great Bear. (3)

Alcor is connected with a German story of a wagoner named Hans Dumkin, who, although he was poor; offered his hospitality to Christ. He had always wanted to travel, so Christ gave him Alcor; enabling him to continue sightseeing for eternity.

In an Arabic story this star, Alcor, was the little infant in the arms of one of the "Mourners". The constellation of the Great Bear was seen as a funeral procession, around a Bier or coffin (bear and bier come from the same root word). The bier was marked by the Plough or Big Dipper stars on the body of the Bear - Merak (beta), Dubhe (alpha), Phecda (gamma) and Megrez (delta). The coffin was followed by "Mourners"; the three big stars on the tail of the Great Bear; epsilon (Alioth), zeta (Mizar), and eta (Alkaid). These mourners, the children of Al Na'ash, who was murdered by Al Jadi, the pole-star (Polaris), are still nightly surrounding him in their thirst for vengeance, the walidan among the daughters — the star Mizar — holding in her arms her new-born infant, the little Alcor.

In the Norse astronomy Rigel marked one of the great toes of Orwandil, the other toe having been broken off by the god Thor when frost-bitten, and thrown to the northern sky, where it became the little Alcor (Anglo-Saxon Earendel). (Allen).

Influence of the constellation:

It is said to give a quiet, prudent, suspicious, mistrustful, self-controlled, patient nature, but an uneasy spirit and great anger when roused. By the Kabalists it is associated with the Hebrew letter Zain and the 7th Tarot Trump "The Chariot". (Robson).

Influence of the star:

Those born at the rising of this constellation will be tamers of wild beasts, that is men to teach bears, bulls and lions to lay aside their fierceness and share in human ways. (Manilius Astronomica 1st century AD).