Pasaje Can Menor
Named after Canis Minor, the constellation that follows Orion, in a neighborhood whose streets all bear names drawn from the sky.
The name looks to the sky. Canis Minor is the smaller of the two hunting dogs that accompany Orion in his chase across the night vault. It is a tiny cluster of stars, with almost all its brightness concentrated in Procyon, the eighth most luminous in the firmament. Its Greek name means “before the dog,” because it rises above the horizon just before Sirius.
Pasaje Can Menor belongs to the Estrella neighborhood, where nearly every street takes its title from the sky: the Estrella Polar, the Pez Austral, the Astros, Perseo, Lira and this dog’s big brother, Pasaje Can Mayor. A star map spread across the plan of Retiro.
Mythology links Canis Minor to the dog of Icarius, the farmer whom Dionysus taught to make wine; when shepherds killed his master, the ancients placed the animal among the stars.