 |
Aries Astrology - Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac and the herald of the Astrological New Year. Aries name is Latin for "ram" and the aries symbol is horns. The ancients believed that the image of a ram resembled the outline of the Aries constellation.
In Greek mythology, a golden ram saved King's Athamas children from their stepmother, Ino, who wanted to kill them. The legend tells that Athamas, King of Croneus, and his first wife, Nephele had with two children: a son named Phrixus and a daughter named Helle. Growing tired of Nephele, Athamas sent her away and married Ino. Together they had two children and, over time, the new queen grew horribly jealous of her stepchildren, as she wanted the kingdom for her own sons.
Ino made up a devious plot to kill the two innocent children. As corn was the major crop of the realm and a plentiful harvest meant that the people and animals in the region would be well-fed in the months to come, Ino convinced the women of the kingdom to roast the seeds of corn before the men planted them in the fields.
When the ruined corn failed to grow, king Athamas consulted an oracle in order to find out what could be done to bring back the crops. He sent messengers to the oracle at Delphi, but Ino bribed them into lying about the advice given.
According to the message they brought back, Phrixus and Helle were the cause of the famine and would have to be sacrificed to the gods before the kingdom would once again have corn.The king obeyed, as he did not want to cause his kingdom to starve.
The rumors of the truth were heard by Nephele and she sent a ram with a gold fleece to protect her children. The ram told them to climb upon its back and to hold on tightly. He flew away across the ocean to the land of Colchis, which was the homeland of Argonauts and Amazons.
During their flight Helle fell off the ram and drowned in the sea, but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where King Aeëtes, the son of the sun god Helios, took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage.
In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in the holy grove of Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept. To commemorate ram's bravery, Zeus put him on the sky, and there it shines to this day as Constellation Aries.
|
 |
