PISCES: The (Two) Fish
Once, there lived a goddess named Gaia, Mother Earth. After Zeus defeated Cronus and all of Gaia’s other children, she decided to take revenge. Gaia gave birth to a monster named Typhon. He was the largest and most frightening creature that ever lived, with legs of snakes and arms that stretched for miles on end. Let loose by his mother, Typhon charged towards the Olympians declaring war against them. Scared, the Gods disguised themselves as animals. Zeus took the form of a ram, Hera became a cow, Artemis became a cat, Hermes turned into an ibis and Ares became a boar. Lastly, Aphrodite and her son, Eros, swam deep into the ocean and took the
forms of twin fish. When Typhon was finally captured and the Olympians transformed back to their godly selves, Aphrodite, eternally grateful to the fish who had lent her and Eros their forms, decided to place their images in the sky.
The 12-sign zodiac is based on dividing the ecliptic into 12 equal parts. However, the traditional astrology dates are out of sync with the appearance of their constellational namesakes in the sky, having been artificially separated into 30- day intervals. In September 2016, NASA put out a table of amended dates which raised quite a fuss amongst horoscope followers! (Click here to view NASA’s response to the fuss!)
In actuality, the signs are anything but evenly distributed across the sky and there is in fact a thirteenth constellation - Ophiuchus - which is ignored by traditional Astrology.
If you are interested in more constellation mythology, click here.
The Zodiac Signs:
Astrological vs Astronomical
(by Meari Kajiya)