Mythology
Mythology
Aries
Phrixus and Helle are the children of Athamas, king of Thessaly and Nephele. After being widowed, Athamas married Ino again. Years later, the kingdom suffers a period of famine and the queen decides to sacrifice the brothers to end this darkage. Hermes saves children by giving them a winged ram with golden wool orfleece, and endowed with the gift of speech. Kids parties on the way to Asia, saving his life. During the trip Hele falls into the sea and drowned, giving his name to theMarine Region, which will be renamed Hellespont. Phrixus reached Colchis, whereAeetes king welcomed him and gave him his daughter in marriage to Calcíope.
In appreciation of Aeetes, Phrixus sacrificed the ram and offered him the fleece to the king, who devotes himself to Ares and hung from an oak in a grove dedicated to the god, guarded by a huge dragon and surrounded by huge fields where wild bullsgraze.
According to some, Aries is a constellation of low gloss for the golden fleece of the lamb was in Colchis.
Taurus
Taurus is the bull took the god Zeus to seduce Europa, a mythical Phoenician princess. They had three sons: Minos, the legendary king of Crete, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus.
Gemini
The twins are Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux to the Romans). Born from an egg laidLeda, queen of Sparta, having copulated conZeus become a swan. Castor, the mortal, the son of King Tyndareus, the immortal son of Zeus Polydeuces.
They participated in several collective achievements: the Calydonian boar hunt andthe voyage of the Argonauts, among others.
The twins had a dispute with their cousins Idas and Lynceus. Idas (the immortalcousin) killed Castor with a spear, to which Polydeuces, despite his wounds, saidkilling Lynceus. Zeus intervened and glared lightning. Polydeuces immortal rejected his condition if he could not share it with Castor. Thus, Zeus made a pact with his brother Hades, in which the brothers could spend six months in Olympus and six inthe kingdom of Hades.
Cancer
The constellation of the crab and the constellation of Hydra are related to one of the twelve labors of Heracles (Roman Hercules). The goddess Hera, sworn enemy ofHeracles sent a giant crab to kill him while he fought with the dreaded serpentHydra. However, Heracles was victorious. As a reward for their efforts goddessconstellations formed the Crab and Hydra in the sky.
Leo
Leo's birth dates back to antiquity, although post-Aries, Taurus and Sagittarius. Leo, corresponds to the Lion of Nemea, son of Typhon and Echidna, invulnerable animalravaging the fields devouring people and livestock. The first task of Hercules was to kill him. The Lionwas like a cave dwelling two entrances, Hercules plugged one of them and entered the other to catch the beast. He hugged the lion squeezing to drown, and then with his own claws skinned it and took to himself his skin and his head as a helmet. Zeus transformed the lion into a constellation to honor his son.
In Mesopotamia, the fire symbolized the culmination of solar warming in the northern hemisphere. In Egypt, represented the Sun and the Monarchy. The Israelites assimilated with Judah, whichlies like a lion, and therefore that contained in the banner of the kingdom namesake. The Judeo-Christian tradition relates it to the evangelist St. Mark.
Virgo
In mythology it is the representation of Dice, daughter of Zeus and Themis, and goddess of justice for men. had born mortal and was put on earth to administer justice and order. He lived with mortals during the Golden Age and the Silver Age, but when the Race of Bronze was born, which he hated, he left the earth and ascended into heaven, where was established by the constellation Bootes (Boötes). It was one of the tres Horas orear then and most notable among virgin goddesses.
Libra
The constellation, which was originally part of the forceps of Scorpio, is the youngestof the Zodiac and the only not a living being. In Greek mythology, this constellation contains the balance held by Hera, goddess of marriage.
Scorpio
The origin is in the constellation Orion legend. According to one version, Orion the hunter took eyes in a fit of jealousy, and as he wandered through the world blind stepped on ascorpion stung him with its sting, causing their death. The gods rose to Orion and the scorpion by placing them in the heavens opposite ends of the sky, so that when Scorpio rises in the horizon, Orion fleeing animal hides that caused his death.
A longer version suggests that Orion tried to rape Artemis, since this was hunting in the middle of forest when it was seen by the giant Orion and Artemis in his eagerness to defenden lists the help of a scorpion, this fatally bitten by the giant and released, why the goddess Artemis placed him in heaven.
The meaning of Scorpio or scorpion refers to astrology.
Sagittarius
There was great controversy among ancient mythologists whether or not this constellation representing a centaur. Eratosthenes eHigino favored the view that there was a saying that no centaurcentaur had used arc. Argued that it was a satyr called Croton, who lived with the Muses on MountHelicon.
Croton, in addition to inventing the art of shooting arrows, he invented the applause, while listening to the Muses. these, pleased, asked Zeus to put a Croto among the constellations.
Capricorn
Capricornus represents half goat Amalthea, half fish, who cared for and fedZeuscuando he was young, in whom Rea
entrusted to protect him from his father Cronus.
According to some, Amalthea was a nymph of Arcadia, for others, a nymph in adecabra. Amalthea and her daughter Adrastea Zeus raised with honey and milk. Amalthea had impressive horns that grew and spilled nectar and ambrosia, and when one of them was broken, filled it with fruit and offer it to Zeus. This is the famous horn of Amalthea, a symbol of abundance and joy. From that event, Zeus placed her in one of the constellationsin the sky.
Another version of the myth of Capricorn goes that Pan, the god of hunters andshepherds, is pursued by the serpent Typhon and, to escape, he jumps into the river Nile, becoming fish on the back ibex and a goat on the other. Zeus admires this ploy and rises to the heavens.
Aquarium
The well-known myth identifies Aquarius, which was also known as cup-bearer, withGanymede. Ganymede is son of Laomedon, King of Troy. His father entrusted the task of guarding the flocksin the mountains. It was, stories, one of the most beautiful mortal, so that Zeus, father of the gods, fell in love of it and becoming Eagle (another constellation) kidnaps him and takes himalOlimpo. In return Zeus gave the father a boy's immortal divine horses. On Olympus Ganymede became the divine butlermanager serve the gods.
Aquarius generally represents the figure of a man, and when the stars are considered for a human are very faint or indistinct view, takes the figure of a man with a jar that pours a liquid. Aquarius also has been identified as Deucalion, who escaped with his wife Pyrrha of flood sent byZeus, in the Greek version of the myth.
Pisces
The Greek astronomer Eratosthenes (born in 276 BC) tells us that the origin of thesymbolism of the fish is in a big fish that saved Derceto (Assyrian goddess who was half woman half fish), when it fell into a pond. in this version was considered Derceto daughter of Aphrodite. Hyginus's version, however, was based on the myth of Venus and hijoCupido (in Greek mythology, Aphrodite and Eros).
These two mythological figures were surprised by the monster Typhon, but Venusknew that they could escape by water. Cupid took and plunged into the water, where both were transformed into fish. To ensure that no lost, tied with string. In heaven we see, therefore, the mother and child, united by a rope.