Although Ursa Minor is one of Ptolomy's 48 original constellations, I can find no mythological connection. Dr. March, in her book, makes only one mention of the constellation and that in connection with the stars. The only references I have found on the internet attribute its origin to the story that I have used (following Dr. March) for Ursa Major. I can only assume that Ptolomy named it Ursa Minor because of the similarity of the asterisms of their main stars.
Ursa Minor is a very small constellation and is important only because its major star is Polaris, the Pole Star, which lies within ¾° of the celestial north pole. Polaris is a double star with an eighth-magnitude companion at a distance of 19 seconds. Polaris is a Cepheid variable from which its distance can be deduced as 431 light years. Most of the faint stars surrounding Ursa Minor belong to Draco, but I can only identify one in this picture as having a -Draconis designation.
The celestrial pole is about 20 arc-minutes from Polaris on the line towards Kocab and I have marked its position with a + on the mouseover.
The picture was taken with a Canon 1000D camera and Canon 18-mm lens with 10 seconds exposure at f/4 and ISO 1600 at 22:02 UT on 11 June 2010. It has been enhanced by increasing the gamma, the contrast, and brightness in PhotoImpact.