Zodiac Explained

8/10/2019 Zodiac Explained

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The Myths of the Zodiac

By Kalev Pehme

[email protected] Pehme is a writer and an investigative reporter who has edited a

number of major community newspapers in New York City. In addition,

he studies ancient classical literature.

Aires the Ram(View the stars in the constellationAries)

The ram with the golden fleece is believed to have been

born of the union of Poseidon and Theophane, the daughter

of Bialius. It is said that Poseidon had changed her into a

sheep to keep her away from her many suitors, and the god

himself turned himself into a ram to couple with her. Butthis ram is not remembered because of this amorous

adventure.

This ram carried the children of King Athamas of Boetia

Phrixus and Helle in the air, across the waterway now

known as the Hellespont. The ram, according to Pseudo-

Eratosthenes, and given to the youngsters by their mother,

Nephele ("cloud"). Eratosthenes mentions that as they

crossed that narrow straight between Europe and Asia, the

ram threw the young girl Helle off, and lost a horn at the

same time. Poseidon, the god of the sea and of horses,

purportedly rescued her. Hyginus in his Poetica Astronomia,


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however, is a little more candid, and notes that Poseidon

raped her. Helle would later give birth to Paeon or to

Edonus, depending on the source.

According to Hyginus, after Phrixus arrived at Colchis, the

kingdom of Aeetes, father of the Medea and brother to Circe

and Pasiphae, the young man sacrificed the ram to Zeus and

hung the golden fleece in the temple on the altar.

Eratosthenes, however, says that the ram shed the fleece and

gave it to Phrixus as a souvenir. The ram then went to the

stars, where it is very faint. Not one star of Aires is brighterthan the third-magnitude.

Hyginus says the ram was placed among the stars by

Nephele to preside over spring, because formerly Ino sowed

parched grain at that time, which was responsible for the

flight of Phrixus and Helle in the first place. It is here where

the story is murky and requires a bit of deduction. Ino, the

daughter of Cadmus and Harmony and a descendent of

Aphrodite, would later marry Athamas after he divorced

Nephele. Ino also would later go insane and kill her own

children because of the anger of Hera. The goddess sought

revenge for Ino caring for one of Zeuss sons, the god

Dionysos, a god of madness and the frenzy that is visited

upon women in particular. In turn, Ino would commit

suicide and throw herself into the sea, where she was

transformed into Leucothea, the nymph who would save

Odysseus during a great storm. There is a strong theme of

underlying madness as part of the myth.


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Of course, it is not so clear as to why the flight took place.

One account has it that Cretheus, Athamass brother, had a

wife Demodice (or Biadice).

She had fallen in love with Phrixus, because the young man

was very handsome, but she could not seduce him. Enraged,

she denounced the young man before Cretheus, accusing

him of trying to rape her. A man who loved his wife or

perhaps to because he felt his own honor at stake, Cretheus

prevailed upon Athamas to killed his son. It was then that

Nephele placed her two children on the ram that led Phrixusto Colchis and Helle either into the arms of Poseidon or to

her death in the Hellespont. One account has it that Hermes,

the messenger of the gods, brought Phrixus back to his

father, persuading him that the young man was innocent. It

is reported that Demodice was later executed for her

treachery.

Later, of course, the golden fleece would be the quest of

Jason and the Argonauts.

The usual modern explanation for this myth is that in times

of famine or drought, the son of the king would be

sacrificed just as a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. The ram

is the animal favored for sacrifice to Zeus. Clearly, spring is

a good time for sacrifice. If spring planting is unsuccessful,starvation is imminent. This explanation is likely to be true.

However, very little is ever said about Helle, who is treated

as if she were just an incidental to the story. Helle is said to

have been raped by Poseidon. The terminology is not rape


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in the modern sense of the word, but more like hierogamy,

the coupling of a woman with a god. In this story of Phrixus

and Helle, we find the twin parts of mystery of sacrifice. For

women, it is often hierogamy instead of death or perhapsdeath sometimes interpreted as hierogamy.

There are many children who are lost in ancient times to the

gods, and even today some go to the god, albeit not as a

sacrifice. That such a story is composed over such a hard

occasion is one way to appease the pain and sorrow of the

parents, family, and the community. Most anthropologistswould say instead that this story also depicts the time when

human sacrifice was ended, and a ram was substituted for

the young man. That interpretation is probably correct as

well.

Yet, in the end, isnt hierogamy and sacrifice the same

thing? In the beginning, the god would copulate and kill

himself at the same time. Human beings could not do this,

so instead they used the two genders they had to duplicate

the divine way: killing and copulation, sacrifice and

marriage.

As for the erotic tale of Demodice as the foundation of the

flight, it is probably a late interpolation. Yet there is another

erotic side, between the lines.

It involves the profound marital discord between Athamas

and his two wives, Nephele and Ino. The reason for her

divorce from Athamas was an accusation by her husband


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that Nephele was given to fits of insanity. However, Ino,

who was jealous of the divorced Nephele, because Phrixus

and Helle would succeed Athamas, intrigued against the

children. So to save them, Nephele put them on the ram.Perhaps Nephele throws a mist over her children so they

can escape. Later would Nephele be turned into a cloud.

The Latins called her Nube or Nebula. (Sometimes the

golden wool is referred to as the Nephelian fleece.)

One wonders exactly what it was that Ino said to Athamas

that would have prompted Nephele to save her children.Hyginus tells us that Ino sowed parched grain; there is no

elaboration in this exceptionally laconic passage. In all

likelihood, it was Ino who demanded Phrixus be sacrificed

during a period of drought and Athamas no doubt had no

choice but to enforce the ancient law, while Nephele wanted

to substitute the ram. Ino, a very special woman, prevailed

because of her beauty and ambition. Of course, it is Hera,the goddess of marriage, who would destroy her.

For a time of renewal associated with spring, Aires the Ram

also is a reminder of a tragedy.

Taurus the Bull (View the stars in the constellationTaurus)

In ancient times, several gods took on the form of a bull


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rising from the sea, including the Dionysos. However,

Taurus is the bull commemorates the abduction of Europa

by Zeus, goaded on by the gadfly, who took her from her

home in Phoenicia over to the waters to Crete. It is thebeginning of the long struggle between Asia and Europe.

That is one story.

Others maintain that the bull is Zeus, yes, but that it is his

relationship with Io that is recalled by its major stars, the

Hyades (the sisters of Hyas) and the Pleiades, the seven

weeping sisters. For while Europa is important, she is only aduplicate of an earlier hierogamy, that of her great-great-

grandmother Io.

The story of Zeus and Io is spoken of very discreetly. Io was

Heras own priestess at Argos when Zeus conceived his

desire for her. Ios dreams were full of loving whispers from

Zeus. They told her to go to the fields of Lerna, where later

in its swamps Heracles would fight the Hydra. As they

intertwined together, Hera intruded, and Zeus quickly

turned her into a heifer to protect her. Hera, however, set the

monster Argus, whose hundred eyes see everything, to

watch over her. Not to be put off, Zeus sent Hermes to kill

Argus, and Zeus finally enjoyed Io fully as he wanted.

Hera and Zeus, brother and sister, husband and wife,discovered each other as children. Homer tells of their

secret love:

And Zeus who gathers the clouds saw her, and when he saw


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her desire was a mist about his close heart as much as on

that time they first went to bed together and lay in love, and

their dear parents knew nothing of it.

Zeus petted Hera for three-hundred years, on an amazing

bed. Hera, of course, is the goddess of the bed, the playpen

erotic devotion. At the temple of Hera in Argos, it is said

that the worshipper could see an image of Heras mouth

closing over the phallus of Zeus. No other goddess, not

even Aphrodite, was allowed to be seen in such an image at

her shrine.

So what does Io have to do with all this? It was Zeuss first

adultery, and the betrayal was perpetrated on a woman who

was closest to Hera herself, a woman very close to her, a

copy, a duplicate.

Hera punished this woman who was most like herself. Io, in

the form of a heifer, became a beast consecrated to thedivine. She was forced to wander from Heras sanctuary

throughout the world. Hera used the gadfly as the

instrument of her vengence. This little insect goaded her on

and on, forcing Io to ford every stream, wandering from

place to place. She even meets Prometheus, also suffering,

and tells him that she wants to die. This obsession ends at

the banks of the Nile in Egypt. She prays to Zeus, and Zeustransforms her back into a woman by skimming his hand

lightly over her. United with the god again, Io would have a

son named Epaphus, meaning the hands light touch. The

boy would become king of Egypt one day and he would


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have a great ox himself, Apis.

Connected with this constellation are two other tragedies:

The Hyades were five daughters of Atlas. They loved theirbrother Hyas immensely, that when he was killed by a wild

boar, in their grief, they pined away and died. Their names

are Phaoia, Ambrosia, Eudora, Coronis, and Polyxo. Others

add Pedile, Phyto, and Thyone, as well. Some say that they

were former Dodoanian nymphs. (Dodona was the home of

the oracle of Zeus, a very special oracle completely unlike

the one at Delphi. At Dodona, one speaks to the Oak of

Zeus to ask to which god one must sacrifice. There is not

point in making a sacrifice if it is to the wrong god.)

According to Hyginus who paraphrases Pherecydes, they

brought Liber, another name for Dionysos or Bacchus, to

Ino. As a reward, Zeus placed them in the heavens.

The rising of the Hyades in the sky as well as their setting isattended with much rain, hence their name.

Now there were other daughters of Atlas and Aethra, the

daughter of the great Oceanus, the great image of necessity

who girdles the globe. The sisters of the Hyades are the

Pleiades. These seven sisters some say discussed what had

happened to their sisters, and decided to kill themselves intheir honor.

However, there are other considerations. Alcyone, Merope,

Maia, Electra, Taygete, Steope, and Celaeno are their


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names, but only six are easily discernable. Mortal Merope is

said to have married Sisyphus and bore Glaucus, who may

be the father of Bellephron, and she was placed on in the

heavens with her immortal sisters. Because she was mortal,her star is very faint.

The other sisters are credited with different divine

husbands: Zeus is said to be the father of Dardanus by

Electra; father of Hermes by Maia; and of Lacedamon by

Taygete. Poseidon is the father of Hyreus by Alcyone,

Lycus and Nycteus by Celaeno. Ares is the father ofOenomaus by Sterope.

Others claim that the faintest star is not Merope, but Electra

who, after the fall of Troy and her descendents through

Dardanus were driven in exile, removed herself out of the

Pleiades out of grief. She is believed to lead the Pleiades in

their circular motion around the polar regions, where, with

her hair loosed, she is observed mourning. She is called

Cometes ("long-haired").

In ancient times, the Pleiades were outside of Taurus, and in

connection with the story that they were the daughters of

Pleione and Atlas. Pleione is said to have been traveling

through Boetia with her daughters when Orion the Hunter

was aroused by her and tried to possess her. She fled, andOrion pursued her for seven years, but was not able to find

her. Pitying their condition, Zeus placed the daughters in the

sky as the bulls tail. Orion, of course, appears to follow


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them as they set in their flight.

Another variant of the story is that Orion, a very handsome

man, fell in love with Merope, who was the daughter ofDionysoss son Oenopion who had promised Merope to

him. However, Orion had to rid his island of its dangerous

wild beasts. Of course, he did, and brought all the pelts to

Merope. Needless to say, her father said that there had been

rumors of beasts still about and refused to let Orion have

Merope. Finally, after drinking a great deal of wine, Orion

raped Merope in her bedroom. Calling on Dionysos forhelp, Oenopion, helped by the satyrs, made Orion so drunk

he fell asleep and they blinded him when he was helpless.

They threw on the seashore and left him there for further

adventures. Of the four or five different myths that are

combined in Orion, none truly matter when we look up in

the night sky and see his presence. Of all the constellations,

Orion continues to be one of the most prominent andrecognizable of all.

The Pleiades are called Vergiliae, the spring stars, by the

Romans, because they rise after the spring equinox. To the

Romans, they were considered sweet and wonderful

indications of spring.

But even today, many astrologers consider that any planet inconjunction with the Pleiades, at about twenty-nine degrees

of Taurus, entails a fate worth weeping about.


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Gemini the Twins (View the stars in the constellationGemini)

This constellation is of the Greek Discouri ("striplings of

Zeus") brothers, known as Castor and Pollux in Latin, and

Polydeuces in Greek. They were the most loving of

brothers, and never fought against each other, whether it

was over kingship or anything else. They never did anything

without the others consent. They were among the most

popular of the ancient cult divinities, and their worship

spread all over Greece and even to Sicily.

They are the brothers of Helen, the wife of Menelaus who

ran off with Paris to Troy, precipitating the Trojan War that

wiped out the age of heroes.

The boys and Helen are often said to be born of Leda to

whom Zeus appeared as a swan, a frequent image in the

history of art.

However, there is a more profound story relating to their

birth. Of the various forms of Necessity (Adrasteia, Tyche,

Moira, Ananke, Ate, Aisa, Dike, Erinyes, Heimarmene, allof whom are female and against whom no one, not even the

gods may rebel), Nemesis, the daughter Nyx or night, is the

most beautiful. She is that horrible force that brings down

vengeance on the impious and the evil, while the other


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forms of Necessity, like chance, push us and everything in

the world. They are from the time of Kronos.

Nemesis has long dark hair and wears white clothes. She isaccompanied by her friend, Aidos, shame, everywhere she

goes. Aidos keeps people from offending, while Nemesis

punishes those who do. One day Zeus was watching

Nemesis and he felt that tinge inside him. He never felt any

desire for any form of necessity, but he suddenly felt a deep

desire for Nemesis and he pursued her. She fled from one

country to the next, into the waters of the earth, and in theskies. Nemesis changed into various shapes into every form

of animal. Exhausted, Zeus caught her when she was a swan

and he coupled with her as birds, passionately. It is Zeuss

greatest moment, for he has overcome necessity itself.

Nemesis and her friend Aidos are torn against by necessity

and shametorn apart by herself.

From that nights adventure came the egg from which

Castor and Polydeuces, as well as Helen, who combines

both beauty and necessity, were born.

The twin boys were model young men. When Helen was

twelve and abducted and willingly, happily, sodomized

byTheseus on one of his many adventures, the twins went

and recovered her, capturing Athens in the process.

Moreover, they made Menstheus king of that city. They

were part of the great hunt for the boar killed by Meleager.

Castor is credited with teaching Heracles to fence. Together

with Peleus, Achilless father, and with Jason, the Dioscuri


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laid waste to Iolcus. They were famous for the boxing and

fighting skills. They carried off the daughters of Leucippus

and wedded them (Castor had Anogon by Hilaria, while

Polydeuces had Mnesileus by Phoebe).

But their glory rests in the sadness of the death of Castor,

the mortal of the twins. In a war between Sparta and Athens,

Castor was killed in Aphidnae. Grief-stricken, Polydeuces,

Homer tells us, gave his brother half-of-his life. Thus, part

of the year, Castor goes beneath the earth, as the

constellation sets.

They symbolize the dual night/day character of the sky,

evening and morning star. They were believed to come to

the aid of mariners in distress, and they were associated

with what later became known as St. Elmos fire, a

favorable omen when it appeared in two flames, unlucky as

one.

Twins were considered a great problem in the ancient world.

But if we are to examine the problem with some care it is

obvious that they represent the problem of the copy or

image and its relationship to the original. The image and the

original are like the Dioscuri brothers, who cannot do

without each other, even though one is immortal, the

original, and the other is mortal, the perfect copy.


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Cancer the Crab (View the stars in the constellationCancer)

The side-moving crab is the one that attacked Heracles atthe swamp of Lerna, when he was he fighting the dreaded,

multi-headed and very poisonous Hydra. The crab moved

up and pincered Heracles on his foot. Angrily, Heracles

crushed the crab with his foot. Hera remembered how

devoted the crab was and set it into the stars.

Of course, this crab had been sent by Hera to help in theeffort to defeat Heracles , whose name means "glory of

Hera". This sobriquet means to be hated by her more than

anything else. It all begins with what one might call a kind

of necessity. Ate, one of the Necessities, had the horrible

habit of bringing all measures of evils to men and, for that

matter, the gods. She is never noticed, because Ate treads

with the lightest of feet. Zeus is boasting that Alcmene isabout to be bear him a son (part of a womb with twins). Ate

is there already. Zeus with immense paternal pride swears

that the first-born would rule over the kingdom and all his

neighbors. Ate has done her work well. In a moment, Hera

alights on earth and makes sure that Eurystheus is born first,

and Heracles ends up being his servant. Later, Zeus would

get so angry at Ate that he hurled her off of Olympus ontothe earth. She would land on that spot that would later be

called Troy.

Heracles is the last great hero whose entire life is nothing

more than being a plaything of the gods. He works under


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astral compulsion in a way that we in the modern way

cannot understand. In the zodiac of his twelve labors, in all

of his adventures, Heracles simply does what he has to do

without understanding and without joy. He is stronger thanall other men, but he is a man nevertheless, ignorant and

wishing that he could stop. But Heracles is a different kind

of man of force. Plutarch writes in his life of Theseus, "That

age produced a sort of men, in force of hand, and swiftness

of foot, and strength of body, excelling the ordinary rate and

wholly in capable of fatigue; making use, however, of these

gifts of nature to no good or profitable purpose for mankind,but rejoicing and priding themselves in insolence, and

taking the benefit of their superior strength in the exercise

of inhumanity and cruelty, and in seizing, forcing, and

committing all manners of outrages upon everything that

fell into their hands; all respect for others, all justice, they

thought, all equity and humanity, though naturally lauded by

common people, either out of want of courage to commitinjuries or fear to receive them, yet no way concerned those

who were strong enough to win for themselves." It is

Heracles, along with Theseus, who is the first man to be

heroic on behalf of others, but at the cost of having no real

life of his own. Eventually, this constant heroism would

drive him insane and to his death.

Among the stars of Cancer is a small grouping called the

Asses, who appear on the back of the crabs shell. Hera had

driven the god Dionysos insane, not particularly odd

perhaps for the god who is discovers the vine. He roamed


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Egypt and Syria in his madness. It is said that attempted to

recover by going to Dodona to ask the oracle of Zeus what

to do. As he came to a large swamp, he encountered two

asses, captured them, and he rode them over the swampwithout getting wet himself. Dionysos was then cured, and

rewarded the asses by putting them in the heavens.

Hyginus also tells us that Dionysos gave one of the asses a

human voice. Later this ass would be killed by Priapus, a

son of Aphrodite by Hermes or Adonis, in an argument over

the size of their penises. Priapus was a particularly uglychild and man with deformed limbs, and with a rather large

male member. In pity for the dead ass, Dionysos put the ass

in the skies with defiance. Wanting to show that he did so as

a god, Dionysos placed the ass above the crab that Hera had

put there.

Finally, Eratosthenes tells us that during that war between

the Olympians and the Titanic giants, Dionysos,

Hephaestus, and the Satyrs rode into battle on asses. Their

braying and the confusion they caused made the giants flee.

For these reasons, they were given a place in the heavens on

the western side of the crab.

The ass was one of the most important symbols throughout

history, not in ancient Greece and Rome, but in the MiddleEast among the Jews and others there, and even well into

European history up through the Renaissance. In all

likelihood, the asses were much more important than the

crab; however, somehow that part of constellation has not


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carried forth into our time. The ass is both wisdom and

stupidity; power and humility; demonic and beneficent; and

it always has a lasciviousness, lubricity, and unmistakable

phallic character. It is life and death (part of Hades is namedafter the ass). Moreover, it is a symbol of the turn of fate

itself. Sadly, this wonderful creature no longer inhabits our

imagination except when we call someone an ass or

consider something asinine.

It is odd how modern astrologers have missed the obvious:

The Cancer convergence of cardinal and water traitsstubbornness, the desire for life to be exciting, the

willfulness, possessiveness, unhurriedness, the gifted

insight, the unpredictability, and even its opportunism,

calculation, and self-centerednesshave never belonged to

a crab at all, but the Ass so associated with Dionysos.

Leo the Lion (View the stars in the constellation Leo)

There seems to be no controversy about this constellation,

and almost nothing to say about it. It is there because Zeus

considered the lion as the king of beasts. At one time, lionsroamed around Greece, but by the time of the Roman

Empire it was hunted to extinction. However, recently,

scholars have maintained that there is no genuine evidence

that lions were present in Greece.


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Needless to say, this constellation is also associated with the

Nemean lion that Heracles killed on his first labor. Heracles

strangled the beast, and then skinned and wore it around

him as a trophy. However, this feat is not just killing anylittle cat. Apollodorus reports that the lion was the progeny

of Typhon, the great monster. At first, Heracles attempted to

shoot at it with its arrows. But they simply bounced off. So

Heracles picked up his club and tracked it down. The lion

hid in his cave, and it took Heracles two months to find it

and finally choke it to death. He used its own claws to skin

it.

Yet this feat by Heracles is also performed in a similar

fashion by Gilgamesh or the Sun god. Some say that the

association of the lion with the Sun is owing to the

coincidence of the lion in the Babylonian zodiac with the

summer solstice.

But in conjunction with the story of Virgo, it is important to

note that at the tail of Leo, there is a group of seven stars in

the shape of a triangle. They are called the lock of Berenice

by Callimachus and the mathematician Conon of Samos.

When Ptolemy married his sister Berenice, in the customary

Egyptian way, he went off to war. Berenice vowed that if

Ptolemy would return victorious, she would make a votive

offering of a lock of her hair.

After he returned, Berenice did just that at the Temple of

Aphrodite Arsinoe Zephyritis. The next day, a fretting

Ptolemy searched for the lock, for it had disappeared.


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However, Conon pointed out that the lock had been placed

among the stars, the seven stars representing the lock.

Virgo (View the stars in the constellation Virgo)

The Virgin is one of the most intriguing of the

constellations, for there appears to be an exoteric and

esoteric side to her.

Hesiod in the Theogony associates the constellation with

Dike or Justice, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, who was

once the mistress of all-divine order and law before the

Olympians. Dike once lived among men, but withdrew from

them when they no longer upheld justice.

Other associated the constellations with Demeter, the

mother of Persphone, and the goddess of the harvest,

because the constellation holds sheaf of grain. Others say

Virgo is Isis, other Aragatis, and some consider her to be

Tyche, luck, but in Greek is has a much more random

character. This association with Tyche comes about because

Virgo apparently has no head. Another possibility is

Apollos daughter by Chrysothemis, who was called

parthenos ("virgin"), and who because she died young was

placed in the heavens.

Yes, these examples are all good possibilities, but the more


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likely candidatewho also fits in the character of the

astrological sign itselfis Erigone, the daughter of Icarius,

about whom almost nothing is known.

Icarius was a poverty-ridden farmer of great piety and

justice, who once entertained Dionysos who came

incognito, with the greatest hospitality that a man like

himself could muster. Perhaps to reward him, Dionysos

introduced him to wine, something new to humanity. He

had Erigone pour cup after cup of the marvelous drink for

her father. Demeter may have given men bread, but winewas something special as it could dissolve a mans sorrows,

put him to sleep, or even make him powerful. As

Triptolemus had been given the task to bring bread to the

rest of humanity, Icarius was now to spread the gift of wine

to men.

It is not known whether Dionysos had seduced Erigone

while Icarius drank. Ovid gives us a hint in the tapestry that

Arachne wove in competition with Athena. In that tapestry

that included many victimized women and the multitudes of

shameful acts by the gods, this doomed woman, soon to be

a spider, included a picture of how Dionysos had hidden in

a bowl of grapes and tricked Erigone. Some say Erigone

would later give birth to a child, Staphylus, "a bunch of

grapes".

Icarius obeyed Dionysos, and with his cart set off around

Attica to reveal to them what the god had given him. One

night, while he was drinking with some shepherds, some of


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them fell into a very deep sleep and they feared that Icarius

was up to something horrible, possibly poisoning them to

steal their sheep. They surrounded Icarius (remember, they

had been drinking), and one picked up a sickle, another anax, and another a shovel, and the fourth a large stone. They

hit with their weapons, and to finish the job off they put a

spit through him from the cooking pit.

As Icarius lay dying, he remembered how Dionysos had

taught him out to plant the vines and care for them, and how

he would have to squeeze the grapes. One day, a goat cameby and ate all the tender shoots he had planted with such

loving care. The angry Icarius killed the goat, skinned it,

filled it with air, and then tied it around him. He then invited

his neighbors, and they danced around it. Eratosthenes says,

in that kind of almost riddling laconic sentence, "Men first

danced around the goat of Icarius."

Dying, Icarius realized that the goat he had killed was

himself.

What Icarius did not realize, however, was that this incident

was the origin of all tragedy. From Eratosthenes we find that

Icarius and his neighbors danced around the goat. However,

Aristotle says that the origin of tragedy was the singing and

dancing of the goats. Of course, they are talking of the samething. To dress up as a satyr, you have to kill the goat and

skin it. So all tragedies begin with the slaying; stretching its

skin into a wineskin; and Icarius and his friends dance

around the goat and stamp on the wineskin while wearing


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the skins. It is a dance of goats around a goat. All our great

tragedies, our plays, come from this death.

What of Erigone? She was the poorest of all who were everenshrined in the skies. She wandered around the earth

looking for father, with what we would think of as

Virgonian duty. She roved like a beggar, like Isis did when

she searched for the dead Osiris. Accompanying her on her

wanderings was Icariuss dog, Maera. One day, the dog

tugged at her, and led Erigone to a well beneath a tree where

the shepherds had thrown her fathers body. Erigone buriedhim, and then climbed this tree, the great vast cosmic one

spreads over the entire earth, and hanged herself. Maera

stayed there to watch over the two bodies until he starved

himself to death.

According to Hyginus, "Meanwhile, many maidens in the

Athenian land committed suicide by hanging for no

apparent reason, for Erigone, dying, had prayed that the

daughters of the Athenians should be afflicted with the same

death she was about to suffer, until such time as the

Athenians found the murderer of Icarius and punished him."

The Athenians instituted a ritual of sacrifice in her name.

Meanwhile, the murderers had gone to the island of Ceos in

the dog days when Sirius was in the ascendant. The island

suffered a horrible heat wave, and everything burned up and

died. Apollo spoke to the king of the land and told him that

the murderers had to be punished. Once they were executed,

the cool breeze that makes life possible in the summer


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reappeared as they do every year during the Dog Days.

Maera became either Canis Major or Minor, depending on

whom we read. Icarius may be Bootes, but not far fromVirgo near the Dog, Erigone tore out a lock of her hair in

mourning. Erigones lock lies on top of the lock of

Berenice, the same lock of hair that so many women have

taken out of their hair in mourning or as the votive offering.

Nonnos, the last great epic poet before the end of the

classical world, uses the word lock, botrys, as well to mean

a bunch of grapes.

Scorpio and Libra(View the stars in the constellationScorpioand Libra)

Libra did not exist in the ancient world until very late.

Before, Scorpio spread over two-twelfths of the zodiac and

what we call Libra today was the Scorpions claws. As we

can see from the night time sky, Scorpio is next to the great

hunter Orion. Modern scholars assume that Scorpio had

come from ancient Babylonian to the West. While that may

be true, there is a question which we must always ask:"Why did the Greeks keep this monster and adopt it from

the Middle East?" It is impossible to know.

As for Libra, they were the Chelae or Claws before they

were transformed into the scales or balance. The change to a


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separate and different constellation appears to have

occurred during Roman times when the claws were referred

to as Jugum, the Voke or Beam, of the Balance. It was

probably transformed, because of the autumnal equinoxwhen Libra weighs and balances night and day. It appears

that Libra does appear in the Julian calendar when it is

instituted by Caesar who was then Pontifex Maximus.

As for Scorpio, the fundamental story is that Artemis had

brought out the scorpion to kill Orion while on the island of

Ceos. Eratosthenes mentions that Orion had usedunbecoming force against her, while Hyginus says that

Orion was killed because he had boasted his hunting

prowess to Artemis of Latona, bragging that he could kill

any creature on earth.

In all likelihood, there is a grain of truth to both stories. For

Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon, is a hunter herself. But

while she hunts, her divinity protects all animals as well.

Had Orion killed all the wild animals on Ceos, we would

have to assume that Artemis would not be amused. Such

wanton destruction is not allowed to any man and, for that

matter, to most gods as well.

Thus, Artemis sent a scorpion to kill Orion, and they fought.

The contest was a lively one that caught the attention ofZeus, and placed them both in the heavens to serve as a

reminder for men to curb their hubris, or the very least to

show their strength and power. The standard explanation is

that when Orion is in the sky, the scorpion is below the


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horizon, that is, beneath the earth. As the scorpion rises,

Orion goes beneath the earth to his death.

But as with many of these ancient stories, there is an eroticone as well involving the great Orion. Eos, the goddess of

the dawn, is a slut, as well she should be as she

reinvigorates the erotic longing of all each day. She is found

in bed with all kinds of men and gods. Rosy-fingered she

rises every morning to announce the arrival of her brother

Helios, the sun. Some say that Eos took a liking to Orion,

which annoyed Artemis. She then shot him to death.

Then there is the story that Orion had pursued one or all of

the Pleiades and Artemis sent the scorpion to kill him for his

attempting to violate these women. Of course, as we know,

the Pleiades are not virgins, so it is not clear as to why she

might want to protect these women.

Ares or Mars, the god of war, is associated with thisconstellation, because of the star Antares, which is believed

to be from the Greek anti Ares, similar to or rival to Ares.

Moreover, this star is red, so that since the most ancient of

times until just recently, Mars is considered the ruler of

Scorpio. Now, however, the new planet Pluto, the god of the

underworld, is given the honor.

Sagittarius (View the stars in the constellation


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Sagittarius)

There is a bit of controversy regarding this constellation of

the archer. It is over whether the stars represent Centaurus.The archer does not seem to have four legs, and appears to

be standing shooting his bow. The confusion over

Sagittarius mirrors the kind of confusion one would have

over being half-man, half-horse.

The non-centaur view is that the figure in the heavens is the

hunter and horseman Crotus, who lived on Mount Helicon

and either nursed or kept company with the Muses. He is

credited with being a good hunter and musician (the string

of the bow is the foundation of the harp, in all likelihood).

Because he was go gifted as a musician, the Muses asked

Zeus to place him among the stars. Hyginus says that Zeus

wished to represent all of Crotuss abilities together, so he

gave him horses legs and arrows for the archery skills.

Moreover, he was given a satyrs tail because the Muses

delighted in him in the same way that Dionysos enjoyed the

satyrs.

Eratosthenes, in addition, mentions one delightful quality of

Crotus: as he listened to them, he expressed his enthusiasm

to their rhythmless song by clapping his hands, a habit that

is even used today in our concerts. That Zeus endowedCrotus with horses legs means that the case that he is truly

a centaur is very likely. However, as the centaur is the

symbol of the animal and the human side of human nature,

perhaps Crotus is the man who climbed down from the


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horse and chose to live as a man with human powers,

including the power to shoot the bow and enjoy the arts,

rather than the wild ride over the countryside.

If, however, the constellation is a centaur, then traditionally

it is Chiron, not the wild ones who tend to get drunk at

weddings and break all the furniture. They are also very

uncontrolled in their sexual desires. However, the most

accomplished of all the centaurs, Chiron is credited with

teaching many heroes, including Achilles, Jason, Aeneas,

and tutoring Asclepius, the first great doctor. Chiron knewthe arts of healing using herbs and medicinal plants. He was

expert at music as well.

Chiron was also immortal, and it is his immortality that is at

the heart of his tragedy. During a visit to his cave by his

good friend Heracles, wine was served. The neighboring

centaurs smelled it, and decided to boorishly gate-crash the

party. A fight naturally ensued, and Heracles picked up his

bow and shoot arrows dipped in the Hydras poison, killing

them all. However, during the scuffle, an arrow accidentally

fell on Chirons knee or foot, wounding him severely. After

the battle, Chirons pain was insufferable and there was no

cure even among the great medicines he had developed.

Immortal, he could not die of the poison, but he would feel

it nevertheless. He cried to out Zeus to relieve him of his

immortality. Apollodorus reports that Prometheus offer

himself to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron was

allowed to die and was placed among the stars.


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There are many variants of the battle that Heracles fights

with the centaurs, the most notable is in Ovid which is

completely different from the one related here. What is

important, however, is not so much the actual story, but theproblem of the immortality that Chiron gave up. The

morality of the centaur is in his body, and it appears that

what is human has a kind of immortality to it. However, like

humans, there is no way to get out of that body, although it

does seem that human beings can enjoy a life that is not as

irrational as the body part of the centaur. In the end, no

human being can remain immortal as long as he iscombined with the animal part of himself.

Capricorn (View the stars in the constellationCapricorn)

What we call Capricorn is Aegocerus or the "goat horn" and

is related to Aegipan, a name of the god Pan, because he

had a goats feet. One account is that Aegocerus was the

goat who was brought up with Zeus and fought with Zeus

against the Titans. Aegocerus is thought to have invented

the trumpet known as panikos from which we drive the

word "panic". The sound of this trumpet inspired the Titansto flee. Panic is that horrible and inexplicable fear that

seizes people suddenly and throws them into flight. The fish

tail of Aegocerus is his attributed because he discovered the

trumpet in the sea, no doubt as a shell, perhaps like that of a


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Triton. However, Hyginus says that Capricorn showered the

enemy with murex shells, his lower body has the shape of a

fish.

The Titans were overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians,

which made the Olympians very new gods. Moreover, the

Olympians had decided to take human form as gods, a very

risky thing to do because it was very easy to mistake human

for divine and divine for human. Originally, the Titans are

also uranian gods, and after they were defeated they were

placed underground in Tartarus. But as they had set, there isalways the fear that they rise again over the horizon.

Hyginus also tells us that according to some accounts,

especially from Egypt, that when the gods had gathered

together at the Nile the giant monster Typhon attacked

them. The frightened gods turned themselves into shapes:

Zeus into a ram; Hermes into an ibis; Apollo into a raven;

Artemis into a cat. The Egyptians hold the animals to be

sacred, because they are images of the god. During the

attack, Pan jumped into the river, presumably the Nile, and

changed his hind parts into a fish and the rest of his body

into a goat to escape the monster. As Zeus thought this very

clever, he later placed that image among the stars.

The great satirist Lucian implies that the Egyptians made upthis story to account for the worship of their animals. He

quotes a famous line from a now lost Orphic poem about it:

"Wouldst thou entire the cause of these doings in order to

know it." (Those who were no initiated into the mysteries


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were required to go indoors and hide as the emblems of

Dionysos were going to pass through the streets.) The

Greeks and Romans were very prejudiced against the

Egyptians for worshipping animals, and considered it verybarbaric. One can sense the near nausea that attends some of

these writers when they speak of how Egyptians actually

can worship a cat. As the cat is sacred, when fires struck an

Egyptian home, the cats had to be saved first, even before

the children, and they have the horrible habit of running

back into his homes, all nine-lives blazing. They had to be

rescued again.

Pan figures in another celestial mystery that is not directly

related to Capricorn per se. Plutarch reports of the death of

the god Pan:

"As for the death of such beings, I have heard the words of

a man who was not a fool nor an imposter. The father of

Aemilianus the orator, to whom some of you have listened,

was Epitherses, who lived in our town and was my teacher

in grammar. He said that once upon a time in making a

voyage to Italy he embarked on a ship carrying freight and

many passengers. It was already evening when, near the

Echinades Islands, the wind dropped, and the ship drifted

near Paxi. Almost everyone was awake, and a good many

had not finished their after-dinner wine. Suddenly from the

island of Paxi was heard the voice of someone loudly

calling Thamus, so that all were amazed. Thamus was an

Egyptian pilot, not known by name even to many on board.

Twice he was called and made no reply, but the third time


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he answered; and the caller, raising his voice, said, When

you come opposite to Palodes, announce that the Great Pan

is dead. On hearing this, all, said Epitherses, were

astounded and reasoned among themselves whether it werebetter to carry out the order or refuse to meddle and let the

matter go. Under the circumstances Thamus made up his

mind that if there should be a breeze, he would sail past and

keep quiet, but with no wind and a smooth sea about the

place he would announce what he had heard. So, when he

came opposite Palodes, and there was neither wind nor

wave, Thamus from the stern, looking toward the land, saidthe words as he had heard them: Great Pan is dead. Even

before he had finished there was a great cry of lamentation,

not of one person, but of many, mingled with exclamations

of amazement. As many persons were on the vessel, the

story was soon spread abroad in Rome, and Thamus was

sent for by Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius became so convinced

of the truth of the story that he caused an inquiry andinvestigation made about Pan; and the scholars, who were

numerous in his court, conjectured that he was the son born

of Hermes and Penelope."

It should be noted that thousands upon thousands of people

had seen the death of the god, more than had ever seen

death of Jesus or any other god in history. The bestexplanation of this mystery comes from de Santilla and von

Dechend. If we see the story allegorically, and we must

consider all stories allegorically, the great boat is the Argo

and the pilot on the stern is Thamus, the Egyptian king of


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Platos Phaedrus, who drives home to Thot-Hermes. This is

the boat of the dead with Osiris on board. The Great God

Pan is a star, possibly Sirius, the dog star, that rose at the

same time and place every year, between July 19 and 20 onthe Julian calendar, the Egyptian New Year. For ages, it

defied the precession of the equinoxes.

One year, that star failed to rise. One of the youngest of the

ancient gods, the Great God Pan, the all, had died.

Aquarius the Water Bearer (View the stars in theconstellation of Aquarius)

From Homer we find that Aquarius is associated with

Ganymede, the first mortal ever to become immortal. Hewas taken to Olympus by Zeus to be the cup-bearer of the

gods. He stands with what appears to be either nectar, the

drink of the gods, or water coming out of the cup.

Roman homosexuals had made it appear that Zeus, the most

heterosexual of all gods with no flings with men, had taken

Ganymede as an eagle to Olympus for sexual reasons. It is

more likely, of course, that Eos, the Dawn, had abducted

him, and that Zeus took him away from her. Eos is not very

good at keeping her lovers. Needless to say, Hera was quite

vexed at the insult as Ganymede had replaced her daughter

Hebe. Zeus and Hera quarreled, as often they did, and


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finally the frustrated Zeus simply put Ganymede in the

heavens.

But the story is much more mundane than that: Ganymede,who was the son of King Tros (who gives his name to Troy)

was the most beautiful youth alive, and the gods wanted

him as their cupbearer. In turn, King Tros was given some

very fine gifts.

It is also said that Aquarius is not Ganymede at all, but

Cecrops who ruled Attica before there was wine and

therefore water was poured during sacrifices instead.

Cecrops was originally from Egypt, and introduced good

laws and perhaps some Egyptian gods to Greece. Although

he has a wonderful reputation, some make him a monster,

half man and half snake. No doubt that he spoke two

languages and perhaps had much commerce with his old

land of Egypt he must have been a monster.

Modern astrologers associate Aquarius with the Eleventh

House and with it "ideals" or "aspirations" or some kind of

idealization. While in part this is true, it is perhaps much

more subtle than that. The glyph for Aquarius (m) is a

modification of the Egyptian sign for the waters, the waters

above and the waters below. Aquarius symbolizes the entire

realm of the metaphysical, where the invisible and heavenlywaters spill over onto this earth and we human beings. Just

as the soul is poured into the inanimate materiality of the

human body, so does what is above pour into the earth

below. What is above is immortal and it is what is alive and


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brings us life to us.

That Ganymede was the first mortal to be given immortality

means that he was the first man to be able to realize and tounderstand the waters above and to bring them to others.

The modern notion of the "ideals" is nothing more than the

corruption of the Greek eide whose pure and eternal unities

are likened to being above us in the heavens.

Between the lines in Platos Philebus, we discover that the

gods are nothing more than the ancient reports of the eide.

But as all things are made of the eide, the genera, and the

good that is beyond all being, we have the gods to lead to us

an understanding of that world above that is the cause of life

and all our intellectual understanding.

Pisces the Fish(View the stars in the constellationPisces)

Of the constellations, this one is most difficult to

understand. Modern mythographers avoid it all together in

Greek and Roman terms, and go to the Babylonians (the

Fish are the twelfth sign in their zodiac) and other climes

for explanation. The ancients evidently are not the only ones

who equate what is old with what is wise.

Hyginus, however, gives us an extraordinary clue and it is


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very discreet, as it has to be under the circumstances. He

writes that Aphrodite and her son Eros were at the

Euphrates River when Typhon suddenly appeared. The two

deities leaped into the river and changed themselves intofish to escape the danger. Hence, the Syrians keep the fish

taboo from eating.

We have encountered Typhon before in Capricorn and we

found that Pan too had transformed himself into a fish to get

away from this horrible monster. To find the answer, we

must to go Nonnos, the last great epic poet of the classicalworld, which was about to be subsumed and destroyed the

Christians.

After Zeus had taken his sister from Sidon to Crete, Cadmus

went in search for her, looking for the bull that no one could

find. Cadmus, who would bring to Greece those strange

scrawlings for sounds, known as the alphabet, came to the

Cilician Mountains whose highest peak is Mount Taurus.

There was an ominous flock of birds and other creatures in

the air above him.

At this time, Zeus had gone in a neighboring cave to seduce

the nymph Pluto. Ge, seeking vengeance, gave her son

Typhon the monster another chance at Zeus. For this time,

Zeus, as he was very busy lovemaking, had put down hislightning bolts, his great power. Typhon quickly grabbed the

weapons, and all the gods, seeing what had happened, fled

for Egypt. They turned into various animals and flew away.

It is at this point, quite possibly, that Aphrodite and Eros,


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turned themselves into fish. Imagine that two of most

powerful forces of love and desire are themselves powerless

against such a creature, a monster of hundreds of heads and

mouths and thousands of snakes. Typhon is a monster togive an Olympian god a nightmare, a monster that exists

only in the deepest reaches of the cosmos.

The monster coiled around the helpless body of Zeus,

prying out his sickle, and cutting out the sinews of his hands

and feet, leaving Zeus completely helpless wrapped in a

bearskin and guarded by Delphine, half-girl, half-snake.Cadmus came upon the scene, all alone, armed with nothing

but intelligence. Cadmus remembered something he had

learned from Apollo. It was music. In a nearby grove of

trees, he began to play some pipes, and the sweetness of the

sound intoxicated and intrigued the monster. Part of the

monsters many arms and the only human head it had came

out to speak to see him. The monster challenged Cadmus,the monsters thunder versus Cadmuss music. The monster

took pride in his strength and power that he had no

achieved. Moreover, for the song, the monster promised to

take Cadmus to Olympus and offered him any of the

goddesses, even the virgins Athena and Artemis, everyone

but Hera, whom he would keep for himself. Frightened, but

resourceful, Cadmus boasted that "what would you do whenI strike out a hymn of victory on the harp of seven strings,

to honor your throne?" Forget about the pipes, Cadmus said,

he could compete masterfully with the harp, whose seven

strings, obviously play the music of the seven spheres, the


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seven sacred vowels. Unfortunately, however, Cadmus

didnt have the sinews to make a harp. The monster, acting

like every grand seigneur and wanting to hear the magic

music, went into the cave and came out carrying Zeusssinews in his hands and gave them Cadmus, who handled

them as if he were some great professional musician testing

out the wares before he strung them into his instrument.

Cadmus went off to build his instrument, hiding the sinews

under a rock. Back into a thicket of trees, and he began to

play his pipes again.

Nonnos writes: "When a sailor hears the Sirens perfidious

song, and bewitched by the melody, he is dragged to a self-

chosen fate too soon; no longer he cleaves the waves, no

longer he whitens the blue water with his oars unwetted

now, but falling into the net of melodious Fate, he forgets to

steer, quite happy, caring not for the seven starry Pleiades

and the Bears circling course; so the monster, shaken bythe breath of that deceitful tune, welcomed with delight the

wound of the pipes which was his escort to death."

The monster heard the tune, but did not understand it or

hear it very well. He was straining to hear the composition

that Cadmus promised him, an opus to celebrate the fleeing

of the gods from Olympus. Typhon finally came out of the

cave to hear the song, with all his hundred heads distracted.

"But now the shepherds reed breathing melody fell silent,

and a mantling shadow of cloud hid the piper as he cut off

his tune. Typhoeus rushed head-in-air with the fury of battle

into the caves recesses, and searched with hurried madness


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for the wind-coursing thunderbolt and lightning

unapproachable; with inquiring foot he chased the fire-

shotten gleam of the stolen thunderbolt, and found an empty

cave!"

Before Cadmus took on Typhon in his musical battle, Zeus

appeared to him in the form of a bull. The god was

anguished, fearing that the cosmos would roar with laughter

from his once defeated father, Kronos. "I fear Hellas even

more," the bull said, for he feared that all the great myths

about him would be retold with Typhon enjoying all theglory. The bull, too, promised "I will make you savior of the

worlds harmony, and the husband of the lady Harmonia.

You also, Eros, primeval founder of fecund marriage, bend

your bow, and the cosmos is no longer adrift."

Rearmed Zeus, chased Typhon to Sicily and finally killed

him by throwing Mount Etna on top him. The volcano is

what is left of the monster.

So from just a leap of Aphrodite and Eros into the water in

fear of Typhon, we find that the Fish are the remembrance

of how the entire cosmos is restored to order, to what it was

and what it ought to be in the end.

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