Mid-June through July is my favorite time to see Ursa Major as a bear. She stands right-side up high in the northwestern sky so it's easy to picture the animal's form, part of which includes the familiar seven stars of the Big Dipper. Yes, the bear is a sow.
In Greek mythology she represents the beautiful maiden Callisto with whom Zeus had a tryst resulting in the birth of their son Arcas. Justifiably furious, Zeus's wife Hera took revenge on Callisto by throwing her to the ground, where she sprouted hair, grew claws and morphed into a bear. Years later, Arcas came across his ursine mother in the forest.
Callisto tried to approach him, but he feared for his life, not knowing the bear was his mother. Arcas was about to release his spear and kill the creature when Zeus conjured up a whirlwind that carried them both to the heavens. Today we know them as the constellations Ursa Major the Great Bear and Boötes the Herdsman.
The brightest star in the latter is Arcturus, which means "bear-watcher" or "bear-guardian" in ancient Greek. Appropriately, son and mother appear next to each other in the sky. Hera got the last word though.
She asked her godparents Tethys and Oceanus (gods of the sea) to bar the bear from bathing in the northern waters. To this day Ursa Major never sets below the northern horizon as seen from mid-northern latitudes. Although its mythological outline resembles a bear, like most constellations it's idealized.
In person, this Ursa has an unusually long tail an.