Dog Days of Summer

What are the dog days of summer?  Where did that expression come from?  Aren't we in almost there?   dog days. the sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11. a period marked by lethargy, inactivity, or indolence. Wikipedia says the term refers to the hottest and most humid time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.   National Geographic says:  “If you go back even as far as Homer, The Iliad, it’s referring to Sirius as Orion’s dog rising, and it describes the star as being associated with war and disaster,” said Jay B. Holberg, author of Sirius: Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky and senior research scientist at the University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory. “All throughout Greek and Roman literature, you found these things.” The phrase “dog days” was translated from Latin to English about 500 years ago. Since then, it has taken on new meanings.