Aries / Taurus
Astro
by Elikozoe
♈ — Aries
March 21st ‐ April 20th
The constellation of Aries (The Ram) is associated with the premises of the Greek myth of the Argonauts and their quest to find the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece was that of the ram which was divinely sent to fly Phrixus and his sister Helle away, so that they could escape their stepmother Ino.
While Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, his sister fell in the sea, giving the location her name (Hellespont). When he arrived in Colchis, Phrixus was greeted and kindly treated by King Æëtes, the son of the sun god Helios, giving him his daughter in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Æëtes hung in a tree in the holy grove of Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept.
♉ — Taurus
April 20th ‐ May 20th
Taurus is usually associated with the Greek myth of the bull-form taken by Zeus in order to win the beautiful Phoenician princess named Europa. While Europa and her female attendants were gathering flowers, she saw the tamed white bull and eventually got onto his back. Zeus took that opportunity and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete. Revealing his identity, Zeus then made her queen of Crete.
In other interpretations, the bull is also seen as the Cretan bull of Hercules’ labours, having fathered the beast known as the Minotaur.
The constellation of Taurus contains one of the brightest stars in the night sky: Aldebaran. Located in the bull’s head, with a reddish colour, the star has been also named “the Bull’s Eye”, its colour sometimes reinforcing the belief of anger tied with the bull.
In the tradition of the astrological ages, the Taurean age was associated with the beginning of agriculture, bronze, and with civilisations of bull worshiping cults, like in Egypt (with the bull Apis), Assyria, and Crete.
The age of Aries on the contrary is associated with iron, and the beginning of monotheism replacing polytheism (Abraham’s sacrifice)…
