This feminine noun denotes the bear, specifically Ursus arctos, the brown bear that inhabited ancient Greece and the Near East. Classical usage includes both the literal animal and the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Homer refers to the constellation as both Arktos and Hamaxa (the Wagon). The word could also indicate direction (the north, toward where the bears/constellation are). John's Apocalypse uses it in symbolic animal imagery, describing the beast from the sea as having feet like a bear's.