At Cyclops Publishing, we love all things about stars! We are inspired by their amazing science, their beauty and the glorious enormity of the night sky every time we look at it. And we think that it is no wonder that from time immemorial, people have been looking at the night sky and the stars to study them, but also to seek all kinds of guidance – directions and orientation when they travelled, solace and fortitude when navigating the paths of daily life.
One thing most people know about or have heard of, which relates to the stars, are the zodiac signs. We all have one, depending on the date we were born.
But do you know the stories associated with their names? Well, we love stories as you know, so we thought we’d bring the stories of the zodiacs to you in this series, in case you’d like to share them with your little stars at home!
Aries is the first sign of the zodiac cycle, and is the one we are currently going through till the 29th of April. But where does the name Aries come from, why did the ancients named this group of stars like that?
Aries is the Latin (i.e. ancient Roman) name for ram. The shape of the main bright stars of this constellation, looks like the head of a charging ram -admittedly with a generous dose of abstract and vivid imagination 🙂 – hence the name. The Romans took it and translated it from the ancient Greeks, who called it Κριός (pronounced Kreos) and still call it the same to this day. So the question becomes why did the Greeks call it like that.
Once upon a time, in the ancient Greek kingdom of Boeotia, lived a good king called Athamas. As was often the case back in those mythical times, he fell in love and had an affair with an exotic creature, a cloud nymph called Nephele. They lived together for a while and their love produced a pair of twin children, a boy they called Phrixus and a girl they named called Helle.
But a love affair between a human and a nymph could not last and become a typical relationship and marriage. Nymphs cannot live like humans, esp. a nymph of the clouds. So although their love never ended, their relationship did. Athamas kept the children with him, as their part-human nature would not allow them to join the world of nymphs and he married again, this time to a human girl called Ino. He had more children with Ino and was a good father to all of them. But Ino, unfortunately, proved not to be a good step-mother to Phrixus and Helle. She was jealous of them and of their mother. Her envy consumed her and twisted her soul, so she came up with a devious plan to kill the children.
One year, she crept into the warehouse were they kept the crop seeds of the whole kingdom for the next harvest and little by little she managed to roast all of them, so they would not grow. Famine spread to the whole kingdom and panicked farmers and the people run to the Oracle to seek guidance and assistance. Alas, Ino had bribed the priests so they gave a terrible lie as a prophecy: for the good times to return, a sacrificed was required by the Gods! King Athamas, had to sacrifice his twin children, or the city would be doomed!
So the grief-stricken king agreed to the sacrifice, to save his city and his people. But their mother, Nephele, who was always watching over them from the clouds above, wasn’t going to let this happen. She run to mount Olympus where the Gods lived and told them of the heinous crime. And the Gods, who had never asked for such a sacrifice, intervened immediately. On their orders, God Hermes - the messenger of the Gods- summoned a magical golden ram, which appeared from the sky right when the sacrifice was about to take place! It stormed the gathering, scattering the guards and the crowd.
Phrixus and Helle jumped on its back and the ram took to the sky, carrying them away to safety.
Needless to say that no famine hit the city, as the Gods were never angry with it. So the good times returned and the people of Boeotia were even more happy with the fact that in the end the children did not die. The Golden Ram became a symbol of fertility -as the crops grew again- and salvation, both of the children and the city. It became famous throughout all Greece, as its story travelled far and wide – the fact that its fleece was made of gold may also had something to do with it! 😉
The legend says the Golden Ram carried Phrixos to the mythical land of Colchis, were he married the daughter of the local king Aeetes and lived happily ever after, raising a family of four children with her. The ram was eventually sacrificed to the God of War Ares, and his golden fleece has given by Phrixos to king Aeetes as a gift for his friendship and generosity. As it was made of gold and was so precious, king Aeetes hung it in a tree in the holy grove of Ares’ temple and put a huge dragon that never slept to guard it. And there it stayed, until the wheels of time turned again and again and they reached the time of the Argonauts, who would mount an expedition to steal it and bring it back to another kingdom in Greece! But that adventure is another story, for another time 🙂.
So, the Golden Ram never came back to Boeotia. But at some point in the years after, the people looked to the sky and noticed that every year, towards the end of March, when the fields start turning green as the winter crops appear from the ground, a set of bright stars that looked like a ram always appeared in the sky! Now, that could never be a coincidence, surely! The ram that brought fertility to their crops and saved their city in such a spectacular way, could only have gone back to its divine origins and the sky all divinities inhabit!
They named this group of stars Aries (or Kreos, in Greek to be more precise) and ever since they refer to them with that name. And there it remains to this day, to remind us year after year of some of the wonderful miracles of our existence and of our world: Earth’s fertility, the miracle of the yearly spring rebirth and the circle of life we all are part of. And above all, of mother’s endless love, that always shelters and protects! 🤗
We hope you liked our little story. For us, the only thing left to say is:
Happy birthday to all the little Aries around the world!
🥳🥳🥳🎈🎈🎈🎈🎂🎂🎂🎂
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