Hello steemians, in that opportunity I bring a post about the constellations of the zodiac and the stories of some of them according to Greek mythology, I hope you enjoy it.
The name zodiac comes from the Greek "zoodiakos" which means wheel of animals. The zodiacal signs are areas of the celestial sphere that are defined differently to how the constellations of the same name are defined, this means that a zodiacal sign and the constellation are located in different spaces in the sky.
The origin of the zodiac is from the culture of the Babylonians in 2000 BC, where they noticed that the sun passed through the same constellations throughout the year and that is how the astrologers assigned people born in a specific month a sign depending on of the position in which the sun was found, this due to the belief that the position of the sun, stars and planets influenced the behavior of people. The zodiac of astrology is not composed of the zodiacal constellations but by the astrological signs that are called horoscopes, this means that signs and constellations are two very different things despite having the same name.
Then I will talk about the mythology of 6 constellations of the zodiac, which are:
- Aries: This constellation is so named because of the story of Phrixos and Helle, sons of Athamas, king of Thessaly. When Atamhas becomes a widower, he decides to marry Ino. After a few years the kingdom suffers a stage of famine and is when the queen decides to sacrifice the brothers Phrixos and Helle to end this. Hermes saves the children and gives them a winged ram with a golden fleece and so the children leave for Asia and save their lives. On the road Helle falls into the sea and drowns. Phrixos arrives at Colchis and there King Eetes welcomes him and gives his daughter Chalciope a marriage. Phrixos sacrificed the ram and gave the Golden Fleece to the king, he consecrates it to Ares and placed it in a park dedicated to this god, which was protected by a dragon and surrounded by a bullfighting wild.
- Taurus: It was the way Zeus took to seduce Europa, a Phoenician princess. It is also said that Taurus was the beast sent by Hera (wife of the god Zeus) to destroy Orion.
- Gemini: It makes reference to the brothers Castor and Pullox. Castor was mortal and he was the son of King Tindaro, Pullox was the son of the God Zeus and he was inmortal. When Castor died Pullox begged Zeus to give Castor immortality, and he did it, uniting them in heaven.
- Cancer: It was a giant crab which appears in one of the twelve labors of Hercules. The crab was sent by Hera to attack Hercules while he fought against the Hydra. Hera rewarded it for this action by turning it into the Cancer constellation.
- Leo: This constellation corresponds to the Nemean Lion. The first of the twelve labors of Hercules was to kill him. Hercules covered one of the two entrances to the lion’s cave and he surprised the animal, and holding it with both hands he squeezed the lion's neck until it drowned him, after that he used his claws to tear his skin and his head to use it of helmet. Zeus transformed the Lion into a constellation to commemorate his son Hercules.
- Virgo: It is the representation of Astrea, daughter of Zeus and Themis. She was the goddess of justice for men. She was born mortal and was sent to earth to administer justice and order. She lived with men during the age of gold and silver, but when the bronze race was born which she detested, she left the earth and went to heaven where she became a constellation.
