We’re all aware that each of the zodiac signs has a symbol connected with it. Leo is symbolized by a lion. Scorpio is accompanied by a scorpion. Cancer, for example, has a crab. But how did they come to be in the first place? It’s not just due of their appearance. Every zodiac sign has a unique narrative to tell. On your individual star map, you might be able to see some of the zodiac star signs.
The symbols of the star signs frequently have several meanings. Different civilizations interpreted symbols differently, and even within the same culture and symbol, there can be multiple interpretations. The most well-known stories about the signs of the zodiac originate from Ancient Greece, and the most popular version has been repeated below.
Pelias, Aeson’s brother, took the throne of Iolcos. Pelias saw Jason, Aeson’s son, as a threat, so he dispatched him on what he thought would be an impossible errand. He gave him the task of retrieving the Golden Fleece from Colchis’ King Aetees. Jason then put together a team of warriors and heroes to assist him. The Argonauts were a group of heroes who included the mythical Hercules.
With the help of the goddess Hera, the king slew two fire-breathing bulls and stone warriors born from dragon’s teeth, but he still refused to give up the Golden Fleece and planned to have them slain. Medea, fortunately, directed them to the oak tree where it was hung. Jason reclaimed the throne when they came home. The Golden Fleece came from a ram, which became connected with the constellation Aries.
The tale of the Cretan Bull inspired the Taurus bull’s name. Minos, the son of Zeus and Europa, pleaded to Poseidon for confirmation that he was King Asterion’s real successor. Minos became King of Crete after Poseidon sent him a white bull. Minos was aware that he should sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but instead chose to sacrifice a weaker bull. Poseidon, enraged, enlisted the aid of Aphrodite, who, in turn, cursed Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, with uncontrollable passion for the bull. Asterion, the half-man, half-bull Minotaur, was born after she became pregnant by the bull.
This was simply the start of the bull’s adventure. The bull was driven insane by Poseidon, and it wreaked havoc on the Cretan countryside, destroying property and killing people. Hercules was successful in wrestling the bull and returning it to Mycenae. The bull was then either unleashed or it fled and wreaked devastation across Greece to Marathon.
Androgeus, King Minos’ son, was ordered to slaughter the bull, but he was gorged to death himself. This sparked a battle between Crete and Athens, which ended when the hero Theseus defeated the bull and took it to Athens to be sacrificed to the goddess Athena, bringing the warring cities back together. In the labyrinth beneath King Minos’ palace, Theseus would also kill the Minotaur.
Castor and Pollux were twins who were born to the same mother (Leda), but had different dads. Castor was mortal because his father was Tyandarus, King of Sparta. Pollux, on the other hand, is the son of Zeus, making him immortal. The brothers embarked on numerous adventures, including the search for the Golden Fleece and fighting in the Trojan War together.
Castor, the mortal brother, died in the end. Pollux, bereft of life, implored Zeus to take his life and grant Castor immortality. This act of love moved Zeus so much that he granted them immortality and a seat in the skies as the constellation Gemini.
While there are various myths about the crab of Cancer, it is a simple story in Greek mythology, which some say was created later to make the Twelve Labors of Hercules correspond with the twelve zodiac signs. Every star sign has at least one myth associated with Hercules (though the Ancient Greeks alone had a number of stories for each).
Hera (the goddess who both despised Hercules and had sent him on this quest) commanded a crab to attack Hercules on his mission to destroy the Hydra, a multi-headed sea monster. Hercules knocked the crab out of the sky after it squeezed one of Hercules’ toes with its claw. Hera, grateful for the crab’s loyalty, drew the crab’s image into the stars, but did not brighten any of them because it had failed to stop Hercules.
The Nemean lion is the lion of Leo in Greek mythology. The Nemean lion was Zeus and Selene’s offspring. Its skin was impenetrable, and its claws and fangs were as hard as iron. It terrified Nemea, and Hercules was dispatched to put it to death as his first task.
Hercules tried to shoot the lion with an arrow, but the shot only rebounded off its rock hard skin. The lion cut off one of Hercules’ fingers, but he managed to stun the lion with an incredible club strike before strangling it to death. Zeus, on the other hand, chose to immortalize the lion in the sky.
Zeus sent Pandora, a lovely woman, to beguile Prometheus’ brother in retaliation for taking fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. Pandora was then handed a box, which she was told she should never open. Pandora’s curiosity got the best of her one day, and she dug up the box and opened it. As a result, the world was filled with anguish and misery, and all of the gods were forced to leave the planet one by one. The goddess of innocence and purity, Astraea, was the last to depart. She is commemorated in the Virgo constellation, and legend has it that she will return when the Golden Age returns.
Libra is the only star sign with an inanimate object as its symbol. The scales of Libra are held by Themis, the goddess of justice in Greek mythology (who is generally shown wearing a blindfold). Astraea’s mother is Themis (the goddess of Virgo). In the night sky, their constellations are near each other, and Themis is expected to return with Astraea during the next Golden Age.
Orion, the son of Poseidon and Euriale, was a talented huntsman who drew the goddess Artemis’ attention. Orion committed the deadly error of having sex with Artemis (who was a sworn virgin). Artemis dispatched a scorpion to kill Orion in retaliation, which it eventually did with its venomous sting. Both the scorpion and Orion were then kept as constellations in the night sky by Artemis. They are continually embroiled in combat with each other.
Crotus was the archer of Sagittarius in the original Greek story. He was the son of Eufeme (the Muses’ nurse) and the demigod Pan, who was half-goat. Crotus, who was half goat and half man (a satyr), was a gifted musician and huntsman who is credited with creating the bow and arrow. The Muses requested that Zeus place him in the heavens, where he can be seen practicing his archery.
Crotus (the Sagittarius archer) was fathered by the half-goat, demigod Pan, who is associated with the Capricorn goat. Pan was the offspring of Hermes, the god, and a forest nymph. Pan’s mother despised him and abandoned him, leaving him to fend for himself among the forest nymphs.
Pan tortured the nymphs, always attempting to catch and seduce them. Syrinx, one of the scared nymphs, begged the gods to transform her into a reed, which Pan fashioned into a ‘Pan flute’ because he was a gifted musician. However, he was immortalized as the constellation Capricorn for aiding Zeus in his war against Typhon.
Ganymede was a lovely and young prince of Troy. Anyone who glanced at him, whether a man or a woman, was absolutely enthralled by his attractiveness. He was not only attractive on the appearance, but he was also thought to be even more beautiful on the inside. No one dared to press their feelings on him since he was a royal. Zeus, on the other hand, was completely enamored with Ganymede and flew down in the form of an eagle to carry him up to Olympus.
Ganymede was a popular addition to Olympus, as he enchanted all of the gods and goddesses who lived there. Zeus flew in the face of his marriage to Hera, anointing Ganymede as his cupbearer, overcome by love (and lover). Ganymede requested Zeus to assist him deliver rain to the parched inhabitants on Earth out of compassion. Ganymede was deified as Aquarius, the deity of rain, and became a constellation once Zeus agreed.
Following the Titans’ defeat by the gods of Olympus, commanded by Zeus, Gaia (Mother Earth) teamed up with Tartarus (the underworld) to create Typhon, the most unholy of creatures with one hundred dragon heads, blazing eyes, and black tongues. As retaliation for the Titans’ deaths, Gaia dispatched Typhon to destroy the gods of Olympus. Fortunately, Pan (the Capricorn demigod) foresaw it coming and informed the other gods, who all transformed into different animals.
The monster, on the other hand, caught Venus and her son Cupid off guard. Venus enlisted the aid of the water nymphs. They were changed into two koi fish with their tails connected together by a cord so they wouldn’t get separated. The constellation Pisces was formed as a result of this metamorphosis.
Knowing the origins of these twelve zodiac signs can help you bring your UnderLuckyStars night sky chart to life. Whether you ordered a star map for an anniversary, wedding, birthday, or any other special occasion or location, understanding about the stars will give you a whole new perspective on your star map.
You might also wish to brush up on your knowledge of the sky or learn how to locate constellations. Hundreds of other stories inscribed in the stars are connected to the narrative you’ve chosen to remember with your personalized star map.
In This Article...
What is the origin of the zodiac sign?
Babylonian astronomers split the ecliptic into 12 equal “signs” at the end of the 5th century BC, analogous to 12 schematic months of 30 days each. The first known celestial coordinate system was created when each sign contained 30 degrees of celestial longitude. According to contemporary astronomical estimates, the zodiac was first used between 409 and 398 BC, during Persian dominance, and most likely within a few years of 401 BC. Unlike modern astrologers, who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the position of the Sun at the Northern Hemisphere’s vernal equinox (March equinox), Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars, placing the beginning of Cancer at the “Rear Twin Star” (Geminorum) and the beginning of Aquarius at the “Rear Star of the Goat-Fish” ( Capricorni).
Since Babylonian times, the time of year when the Sun is in a certain constellation has altered due to equinox precession; the point of March equinox has moved from Aries to Pisces.
They formed a perfect system of reference for making predictions about a planet’s longitude since they were divided into 30 equal arcs. However, Babylonian observational measurement techniques were still in the early stages of development. They measured the position of a planet in relation to a group of “normal stars” near the ecliptic (9 degrees latitude) as observational reference points to aid in planet placing inside the ecliptic coordinate system.
A planet’s location in Babylonian astrological journals was usually stated in terms of a zodiac sign alone, rather than particular degrees within a sign. When degrees of longitude were given, they were stated in terms of the 30th degree of the zodiac sign, rather than the continuous 360 ecliptic. The positions of prominent astronomical phenomena were estimated in sexagesimal fractions of a degree in astronomical ephemerides (equivalent to minutes and seconds of arc). The daily locations of a planet were less important in daily ephemerides than the astrologically significant times when the planet moved from one zodiac sign to the next.
When did the zodiac signs begin?
The constellations that represent the 12 astrological signs each take up a quarter of this belt in principle, although they aren’t properly proportionate in shape or size in reality. They’ve also moved around since the Babylonians initially recorded the zodiac sign system around 450 BCE.
Is there any truth to the zodiac signs?
Is astrology accurate? Reading horoscopes is a popular pastime, but is there any scientific evidence that they are accurate?
When you’re enticed by a familiar interruption and your willpower weakens, problems can occur.
Every day, up to 70 million Americans consult their horoscopes. At least, that’s what the American Federation of Astrologers claims. According to a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll conducted twenty years ago, 25% of Americans believe that the positions of the stars and planets have an impact on our daily life. In 2012, the General Social Survey indicated that 34% of Americans think astrology is “extremely” or “kind of scientific,” with the percentage of individuals who think astrology is “not at all scientific” dropping from two-thirds to about half.
Astrology is the concept that astronomical phenomena, such as the stars over your head when you were born or the fact that Mercury is retrograde, have the potential to influence our daily lives and personality traits. Of course, this is distinct from astronomy, which is the scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the physics of the cosmos.
A particular facet of astrology, the foretelling of a person’s future or the provision of daily counsel via horoscopes, is gaining in popularity. The Cut, for example, recorded a 150 percent rise in horoscope page views in 2017 compared to 2016.
Clearly, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to read the stars for guidance. Understanding the positions of the stars is the foundation of astrology, which appears to be a scientific discipline in and of itself. Is there any scientific evidence that astrology has an impact on our personalities and lives?
But, since I still have five minutes of this six-minute podcast to fill, let’s take a look at how astrology has been put to the test.
What is the age of the Zodiac killer?
- Joseph aka Giuseppe Bevilacqua, former manager of the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, was named as a suspect in both the Zodiac and Monster of Florence murder cases by Italian journalist Francesco Amicone in 2018. According to Amicone, Bevilacqua confessed to being the killer in both incidents on September 11, 2017. The investigations into Bevilacqua emanating from Amicone’s inquiry were closed in 2021 at the request of the Attorney in charge of the Monster investigation, Pm Luca Turco. “This journalistic inquiry is marked by ideas, assumptions, stated intuitions, and it does not contain any factual element likely to rise to the dignity of a clue,” Turco said in defending his request. Pm Turco also filed a lawsuit against Amicone for defamation of character against Bevilacqua.
- Richard Gaikowski, a newspaper editor, was the subject of a 2009 episode of the History Channel television series MysteryQuest. Gaikowski worked for Good Times, a San Francisco counterculture publication, at the time of the murders. His look matched the composite sketch, and a tape of Gaikowski’s voice was identified as the Zodiac’s by Nancy Slover, a Vallejo police dispatcher who was contacted by the Zodiac immediately after the Blue Rock Springs Attack.
- In his book The Black Dahlia Avenger, retired police investigator Steve Hodel claims that his father, George Hodel, was the Black Dahlia perpetrator, who murdered Elizabeth Short. The book prompted his father’s Los Angeles district attorney’s office to produce previously concealed files and wire recordings, revealing that the senior Hodel was certainly a main suspect in Short’s murder. In a letter published in the amended edition, District Attorney Steve Kaye stated that if George Hodel were still alive, he would be prosecuted for the crimes. In a follow-up book, Hodel suggested that his father was also the Zodiac Killer, based on a police sketch, the Zodiac letters’ closeness to the Black Dahlia Avenger letters’ style, and a questioned document study.
- Kathleen Johns, who claimed to have been kidnapped by the Zodiac Killer, identified Lawrence Kaye, afterwards Lawrence Kane, in a photo lineup. Don Fouke, a patrol officer who may have seen the Zodiac Killer after the death of Paul Stine, said Kane looked a lot like the man he and Eric Zelms saw. Kane worked at the same Nevada motel as Donna Lass, a suspected Zodiac victim. After sustaining brain injuries in a 1962 accident, Kane was diagnosed with impulse control disorder. He was arrested for prowling and voyeurism. In 2021, Fayal Ziraoui, a French-Moroccan business expert, claimed to have cracked the Z13 cipher, claiming that the solution reads “My name is Kayr,” a possible misspelling for Kaye. Others questioned Ziraoui’s ability to crack the code.
- Richard Marshall was accused of being the Zodiac Killer by police informants who claimed he had informally hinted at being a killer. Marshall lived in Riverside, California, in 1966 and San Francisco, California, in 1969, close to the Bates and Stine killings. He was a silent cinema buff and projectionist who screened Segundo de Chomn’s The Red Phantom (1907), a picture whose title was allegedly borrowed by the author of a 1974 Zodiac letter. “Marshall makes good reading but not a very good suspect in my judgment,” Detective Ken Narlow said.
- Louis Joseph Myers confessed to a friend in 2001 that he was the Zodiac Killer after learning that he was dying of liver cirrhosis, according to a story in February 2014.
- Upon his death, he demanded that his friend, Randy Kenney, report to the police. Kenney apparently had trouble getting cops to participate and take the allegations seriously after Myers died in 2002. Myers went to the same high school as victims David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen, and apparently worked in the same restaurant as victim Darlene Ferrin, therefore there are multiple possible links between him and the Zodiac case. Myers was stationed overseas with the military during the years 1971-1973, when no Zodiac letters were received. According to Kenney, Myers admitted that he targeted couples because he had a horrible split with a partner. While cops involved in the investigation are suspicious, they believe Kenney’s allegation is plausible enough to examine if he can offer reliable proof.
- Robert Ivan Nichols, also known as Joseph Newton Chandler III, was an identity thief who killed himself in Eastlake, Ohio, in July 2002. Investigators were unable to identify his family after his death, and it was determined that he had stolen the identity of an eight-year-old kid murdered in a vehicle accident in Texas in 1945. The efforts to which Nichols attempted to conceal his identity fueled speculation that he was a dangerous criminal on the run. On June 21, 2018, the US Marshals Service announced his identification at a press conference in Cleveland. Some Internet sleuths speculated that he was the Zodiac Killer because he looked like the Zodiac in police sketches and had resided in California, where the Zodiac operated.
- Ross Because of the suspected link between the Zodiac Killer and the death of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, Sullivan became a figure of suspicion. Coworkers suspected Sullivan, a library assistant at Riverside City College, after he went absent for many days after the murder. Sullivan wore military-style boots with tracks similar to those found at the Lake Berryessa crime site and matched sketches of the Zodiac. Sullivan was admitted to the hospital several times due to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- Dennis Kaufman claimed his stepfather Jack Tarrance was the Zodiac back in 2007. Kaufman handed up many artifacts to the FBI, including a hood identical to the Zodiac’s. According to news reports, the FBI’s DNA analysis of the objects in 2010 was judged inconclusive.
- Former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty claims the Zodiac Killer was a 91-year-old man named George Russell Tucker from Solano County, California. Lafferty located Tucker and presented an alleged cover-up for why he was not pursued using a group of retired law enforcement personnel known as the Mandamus Seven. Tucker died in February 2012 and was not identified because authorities did not believe he was a suspect.
- Gary Stewart claimed in his book The Most Dangerous Animal of All, published in 2014, that his quest for his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., led him to the conclusion that Van Best was the Zodiac Killer. The novel was converted into a documentary series for FX Network in 2020.