ELPHETA. Elfeta is one of the fixed stars of the constellation Scorpio. Early Arabian astronomers, however, applied the name to the constellation Ariadne's Crown and called it al-fakkah, because of the gaps in the crown, transliterated variously as Alphaca, Alfeta, Alfecca. Na'ir al-fakkah is the alpha or brightest star of the northern constellation Corona Borealis. J.M. Manly points out that the name occurs in Liber Astronomicus qui Dicitur Albion, c. 1326, ascribed to Richard de Wallingford (MS Harley 80, folio 51a). Elpheta is Cambyuskan's wife and mother of Algarsyf, Cambalo, and Canacee in The Squire's Tale. Chaucer may have found her name in a medieval list of stars. [Algarsif: Cambalo: Cambyuskan: Canacee²]

Elpheta, derived from Arabic al-fakkah, meaning "the opened," from the verb fakka, "to open," "to breach," appears once, medially, SqT 29.