The Legend of Aries
Aries: important constellation in the years approximately 2,000 years before the birth of Christ because it was the position of the equinox, previously the position held by Taurus. The change was due to the precession of the axis and became evident throughout the mythologies of several areas as the cult of the ram overtook that of the bull. The constellation was at one time called the Prince of the Zodiac. This slow precession has since shifted the sun's position from Aries to Pisces.
Mesopotamia: the Sumerians called the sun, Subat, meaning the Ancient Sheep or Ram and the planets the Celestial Herd. The bright star in Aries, Hamal, meaning the lamb, represented one of the stars in the Scimitar, a celestial weapon that protected against the Seven Diabolic Spirits of the Storm. The Babylonian priest Berossos who lived around 275 BC said that the world was created when the Sun was in the Ram.
Egypt: during the time of Dionysus and his campaigns in Africa, his troops were traveling through a sandy desert. They ran out of water and were worn out struggling through the sand. A ram appeared before them, rose up in the air and landed behind a dune. When scouts followed the animal, they came upon a spring of water, but no ram. Dionysus ordered the building of a temple to Zeus Amon on the spot where the spring rose. A likeness of the ram was placed in the temple and the ram was placed in the heavens in a position of great importance.
The cult of Aries had its beginning here since its position at the zenith coincided with the rising of Sirius in the east and the flooding of the Nile. The Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak bore the likeness of the supreme sun-god with the horns of a ram. The road to Karnak was formed from the wings of two granite sphinxes bearing the head of Aries.
Greece: Zeus' wife, Hera, had a suitor named Ixion who was tricked by Zeus into impregnating a cloud that had the likeness of Hera. The cloud, Nephele, bore a child and Ixion, as punishment for his attempted indiscretion with Zeus' wife, was attached to a flaming wheel and forced to roll around the heavens for eternity. This is an early reference to the line of the ecliptic, the path of the sun as it moves through the sky. The child was the first centaur. Nephele was lonely and eventually fell in love with Athamas, the king of Böeotia and brother of Sisyphus. She had two children, Phrixus and Helle, who Athamus eventually tried to have sacrificed after he fell out of love with their mother. Hera sent a golden ram to their aid. They jumped on its back and were carried out of harm's way, but not necessarily to safety. Helle lost her grip and fell to her death into the part of the sea that became known as the Hellespont. Phrixus landed at Colchis on the Black Sea and sacrificed the ram in honor of Zeus. He took the fleece of the ram and hung it in a sacred wood in his honor as well, leaving as its guard a dragon sometimes represented by the constellation Draco. This fleece became the stuff of which legends were made as it was sought by countless men not unlike the Holy Grail. The golden fleece of the ram was the treasure sought by Jason and his Argonauts.
