First from the east, the Ram conducts
the year; Whom Ptolemy with twice nine stars adorns, Of which two only
claim the second rank, The rest, when Cynthia fills the sign, are lost.
Aries has been called the "Prince of the Zodiac," the "Prince of the
Celestial Signs," and the "Leader of the Host of the Zodiac." It has
also been associated with the ram into which Zeus changed himself to
escape the pursuit of the giants. He fled to Egypt, and there the
constellation was called "Jupiter Ammon." In Chaldea, where the
constellation is supposed to have originated, the ram simply represents
the favourite animal of the shepherds. Considering the fact that Aries
is in an inconspicuous part of the heavens, and comprises only three
stars of any importance, it is surprising the wealth of lore and legend
that surrounds it, and the attention paid to it by the ancients, unless
we attribute to it some extraneous claim for notoriety, such as the
position of these stars as regards the sun at a certain period of the
year. There is little doubt that this is the real cause of the
importance of this constellation. "If," says Plunket, " we find Aries
equally honoured by several nations in very early times, either these
nations, independent of each other, happened to observe and mark out the
sun's annual course through the heavens at exactly the same date, and
therefore chose the same date, or we must suppose thatthey derived their
calendar and knowledge of the zodiac from observations originally made
by some one civilised race." It is easyto see, as Brown avers, that the
comparison of the sun to a ram or bull is a line of thought which nat-
urally and spontaneously arises in the mind of archaic man.
In the Euphratean Valley, the
probable birthplace of the constellations, the sun was styled a "Lubat,"
meaning old sheep, and ultimately the planets were called "old sheep
stars." Hence the symbolic view of the sun as an old sheep or ram is
necessarily of a remote antiquity. v In Aries we have very clear proof
that many of the con- stellations must be regarded as mere symbols, and
in nowise to be thought of as owing their names to a fancied resemblance
to some creature or object, for the obtuse angle formed by the three
principal stars in Aries could only resemble at best the hind leg of a
sheep or ram, and so we are bound to the conviction that the ram is
simply a symbol.
One theory holds
that the solar ram, the sun who opened the day, was in time duplicated
by the stellar ram, who in 2540 B.C. opened the year, and "led the
starry flock through it as their bellwether."
Unfortunately
for this theory, as Maunder points out, we know that the constellations
were mapped out at a far earlier epoch, when the equinox fell not in
Aries, but in the middle of the constellation Taurus.
In mythology Aries has always represented the fabled ram with fleece of gold. Manilius thus describes it: “First Aries, glorious in his golden wool, Looks back and wonders at the mighty Bull”
The
old fable is as follows: Phrixus and Helle were children of Athamas,
the legendary King of Thessaly. Their step-mother treated them with such
cruelty that Mercury took pity on them, and to enable them to escape
their mother's wrath sent a ram to bear them away. Mounted on the ram's
back the children sped over land and sea, but unfortunately Helle
neglected to secure her hold, and fell
from
her seat while the ram was flying across the strait which divides
Europe from Asia. In memory of this catastrophe this strait was
afterwards known as the Hellespont.
Manilius thus refers to this episode:
First golden Aries shines, who whilst he swam Lost part of 's freight and gave to sea a name.
Longfellow also alludes to Helle's fall:
The Ram that bore unsafely the burden of Helle.
Phrixus
landed safely at Colchis, at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Out of
gratitude for his safe deliverance, he sacrificed the ram and gave the
golden fleece to the king of the country, who hung it in the sacred
grove of Ares, tinder guard of a sleepless dragon. The golden
fleece has always been associated in Greek mythology with the voyage of
the ship Argo, and the celebrated Argonautic expedition which set forth
in search of it.
The theory has
been advanced that the stellar symbols were intended simply as a record
of this famous expedition. Even so good an astronomer as Sir Isaac
Newton held this view, but Maunder on the contrary claims that there was
nothing in the story of the neighboring constellations to support the
legend of the golden fleece. Curiously enough Aries is the leading
sign in all the systems of astrology which have come down to us through
the Greeks, and it figures as the leading sign in most of the
explanations of the constellation figures which are on record. Maunder
considers that this fact proves that these astrological systems, and
these theories concerning the constellation figures, not only took their
rise at a later epoch, but that when they did so, the real origin and
mean- ing of the designs had been wholly lost. One peculiar fact
respecting
Aries for which there is no apparent explanation, is that the ram is
always represented with reverted head. On a coin type of Cyzicus, about
500-450 B.C., the ram is thus depicted. Allen notes as an exception to
this almost universal figure, the ram erect in the Albumasar of 1489.
Berosus,
a Babylonian priest in the time of Alexander the Great, said that the
ancients (those ancient to him) believed that the world was created
when the sun was in Aries.
Pliny
said that Cleostratos of Tenedos first formed Aries, but there is no
doubt that the constellation origin- ated many centuries before this.
Plunket informs us that in the Egyptian calendars no reference is made
to Aries, but in Egyptian mythology the importance of the ram is
revealed. Amen or Amon, the great god of the Theban triad, is sometimes
represented as ram-headed. The great temple to him in
conjunction
with the sun, i.e., to Amen-Ra, is approached through an avenue of
gigantic ram-headed sphinxes. At the season of all the year when Aries
specially dominated the eclip- tic, the statue of the god Amen was
carried in procession to the Nekropolis, from which place the
constellation Aries was fully visible. "The preparations for this great
festi- val began before the full moon next
to
the spring equinox, and on the fourteenth day of that moon all Egypt
was in joy over the dominion of the Ram. The people crowned the Ram with
flowers, carried him with extraordinary pomp in grand procession, and
rejoiced in him to the utmost." The ancient Persians, who called Aries
"Bara," had a similar festival. Between 1400 and 1 100 B.C., when
Rameses II. dedicated the temple of Aboo Simbel, the sun when it
penetrated into the shrine of the temple was in conjunction with the
first stars of the constellation Aries, and this fact doubtless led the
King to honour Aries in connection with the god Amen. The Egyptians
called Aries "the Lord of the Head.' Not only the Egyptians, but all the
great civilized nations of the East, had traditions of a year beginning
when the sun and moon entered the constellation Aries.
Jensen
is of the opinion that Aries may have been first adopted into the
zodiac by the Babylonians when its stars began to mark the vernal
equinox. Plunket on the contrary, thinks that the choice of the
constellation as Prince and Leader of the signs was made, not when its
stars marked the spring equinox, but when they indicated the winter
solstice. According to this view Aries, Cancer,
Libra,
and Capricornus marked the four seasons and the cardinal points in 6000
B.C. In the Rig- Veda, the first lunar station in the Indian series is
named "Aswini." The two chief stars in the station are the twinstars as
they may be called, £ and y Arietis. Joyous hymns were addressed to the
twin heroes, the Aswins, which may properly be.called New Year's hymns,
composed in honour of these stars, whose appear- ance before sunrise
heralded the approach of the great festival day of the Hindu New Year.
Next to Agni and Soma, the twin deities named the Aswins are the most
prominent in the Rig-Veda. They .are celebrated in more than fifty
entire hymns, while their name occurs more than four hundred times.
These twin heroes of Hindu myth- ology correspond to the famous twins of
Grecian mythology, Castor and Pollux.
The
Arabs, whose first manzil or lunar station was formed by these same two
stars, knew them as "the two tokens," that is to say of the opening
year. They called the constellation Aries "Al-Hamal," the Sheep, while
the early Hindus called it "Aja," and "Mesha."
The
Hebrews called the constellation "Tell," and as- signed it in their
zodiac to either Simeon or Gad. Dr. Seiss, following Csesius, regarded
Aries as symbolizing the Lamb of the World.
Aries,
the April sign according to Hagar, was known in Peru as "the Market
Moon" or "Kneeling Terrace." At this season the early crops were
harvested and borne home on the backs of llamas. The festival was called
"Ayri huay" or that of the axe, and referred, to the reaping of these
crops. This conception of the constellation is decidedly at variance
with the Eastern idea of it.
The Syrians called Aries "Amru" or "Emm," while the Turkish name for the constellation was "Kuzi."
The
Romans generally called the constellation "Aries," but Ovid named it
"Phrixea Ovis" and "Cornus." Other Latin names for it are "Vermis
Portitor," the Spring- bringer, and "Arcanus."
As
one of the zodiacal twelve of China, Aries was first known as "the
Dog," and later as "the White Sheep." At the time when it was sought to
reconstruct the constellations on Biblical lines, Aries was selected to
represent Abraham's ram caught in the thicket, or St. Peter.
The
Anglo-Normans of the 12th century called Aries " Multuns," and the poet
Dante refers to it as " Montone." In Italy, Prance, and Germany, Aries
is called respec- tively, "Ariete," "B&ier," and "Widder." The
symbol of the constellation T probably represents the head and horns of
the animal. In this region of the sky a brilliant temporary star
appeared in the year 1012a.d.
Astrologically
considered Aries is the house and joy of Mars, and signifies a dry
constitution, long face and neck, thick shoulders, swarthy complexion,
and a hasty passion- ate temper. It governs the head and face, and all
dis- eases relating thereto. It reigns over France, England, Germany,
Switzerland, Denmark, Lesser Poland, Syria, Naples, Capua, Verona, etc.
It is a masculine sign, and
is
regarded as fortunate. According to Eleanor Kirk, who is a great
authority on the subject, people born under Aries, that is between Mar.
20th and Apr. 19th are usually very executive, earnest, and determined.
They are leaders, and dominate those about them. They are noble,
generous, progressive, and have occult power. They are good scholars,
bright, genial, and witty.
The
natal gem of Aries is the bloodstone, the symbol of good luck; the
natal flower, the violet; the metal, iron. Alpha Arietis was called
"Hamal" or "Hamel" by the Arabs, meaning a sheep, and the name "
Al-Nath" has also been found for it on msome of the ancient Arabic
globes. 44 Arietis' ' is another name for this star.
Among
the Greeks in early times, Hamal held the im- portant office of sunrise
herald, at the vernal equinox. In Ptolemy's list it is described as
"The one above the head" (of the Ram), and astrologers regarded it as
dan- gerous and evil, denoting bodily hurts.
Brown
asserts that the stellar Ram was in the first place only the star
Hamal, the constellation being formed around it afterwards. Chaucer
refers to the star as "Alnath," that is to say the "horn push," a name
more commonly associated with the star in the tip of the northern horn
of the Bull, a star common to the constellations Taurus and
Auriga. Other Buphratean names for this star have been "Lu- lim" or
"Lu-nit," the ram's eye, and "Simal," the Horn Star. It was also called
" Anuv" and "Ku," meaning the Prince or the Leading One, the ram that
led the heavenly flock.
Of the
Grecian temples, at least eight, at various places, and of dates ranging
from 1580 to 360 B.C. were oriented to this star, and it is the only
star to which Milton makes individual allusion.
Hamal
is much used in navigation in connection with lunar observations, and
culminates at 9 p.m. on the nth of December. It is approaching our
system at the rate of nine miles per second. According to Miss Clerke, 1
Hamal is distant from the earth about forty light years. The star
Beta Arietis was known to the Arabs as "Sharatan," meaning "a sign,"
this star having marked the vernal equinox in the days of Hipparchus.
Gamma
Arietis has been called the "First star in Aries" as at one time it was
nearest to the equinoctial point. It is a beautiful double star, easily
visible in a small tele- scope, and was discovered to be double by Dr.
Hooke in 1664. This star was known to the Arabs as " Mesarthim," meaning
the "two attendants," a reference to Beta and Gamma Arietis, these two
stars being considered as attendants on Hamal. The Persians called these
stars "The Protecting Pair."
The
faint stars east of Hamal on the back of the Ram form a little group
known as "Musca Borealis," the Northern Fly. The figure appears in
Burritt's Atlas. According to Allen the inventor of this asterism is
unknown. Musca has been also styled "the Wasp" and "the Bee." It comes
to the meridian on the 17th of December at 9 P.M.
Source:
”Star lore of all ages; a collection of myths, legends, and facts
concerning the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere”, 1911 by
Olcott, William Tyler
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