Cancer (巨蟹座)is one of the thirteen constellations of the zodiac.Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly represented as such.Cancer is small and its stars are faint.It lies between Gemini to the west and Leo to the east,Lynx to the north and Canis Minor and Hydra to the south.
In Ancient Greece,Aratus called the constellation Καρκινος (Karkinos),which was followed by Hipparchus and Ptolemy.The Alfonsine tables called it Carcinus,a Latinized form of the Greek word.Eratosthenes extended this as Καρκινος,Ονοι,και Φατνη:the Crab,Asses,and Crib.
The Indian language Sanskrit shares a common ancestor with Greek,and the Sanskrit name of Cancer is Karka and Karkata.In Telugu it is "Karkatakam",in Kannada "Karkataka" or "Kataka",in Tamil Karkatan,and in Sinhalese Kagthaca.The later Hindus knew it as Kulira,from the Greek Κολουρος (Koloyros),the term originated by Proclus.
In Ancient Rome,Manilius and Ovid called the constellation Litoreus (shore-inhabiting).Astacus and Cammarus appear in various classic writers,while it is called Nepa in Cicero's De Finibus and the works of Columella,Plautus,and Varro; all of these words signify crab,lobster,or scorpion.
Athanasius Kircher said that in Coptic Egypt it was Κλαρια,the Bestia seu Statio Typhonis (the Power of Darkness).Jérôme Lalande identified this with Anubis,one of the Egyptian divinities commonly associated with Sirius.