Pisces.
Pisces
Aphrodite and Eros — turned into fish to escape the monster Typhon.
Feb 19 – Mar 20
Pisces · 889 sq° of sky, brightest star Eta Piscium
Pisces (Pisces) covers 889 square degrees and contains the vernal equinox point — the Sun's spring crossing of the celestial equator. Its brightest star is Eta Piscium, also called Alpherg, a yellow giant 350 light-years from Earth.
Pisces, the Fish, represents two fish swimming in opposite directions with their tails bound together by a cord — a figure attested in Babylonian astronomy as the constellation called "the cord" (DU.NU.NU).
In Greek myth the goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros were on the banks of the Euphrates when the hundred-headed monster Typhon attacked the gods. To escape, mother and son turned themselves into fish and dove into the river.
"Aphrodite and Eros tied their tails together so as not to lose one another in the dark water."
They tied their tails together with a cord so as not to lose one another in the dark water. Athena placed the joined fish among the stars to mark their narrow escape — and Pisces still contains the vernal equinox, the Sun's spring crossing.
Where this comes from.
Mythology
- Aratus Phaenomena 240-246
- Hyginus Astronomica 2.30
- Ovid Fasti 2.457-474
Paintings & illustrations
- The Birth of Venus — Sandro Botticelli (c. 1485) · Wikimedia · PD
- Pisces — Sidney Hall (engraver), Jehoshaphat Aspin (text) (1825) · Wikimedia · PD
For fun · sources cited. We don’t publish horoscopes, personality readings, or compatibility takes — just astronomy + classical mythology, with public-domain art where available. See all 88 constellations.