‘Virgo’ plate 21 in Urania's Mirror, a set of celestial cards accompanied by A familiar treatise on astronomy ... by Jehoshaphat Aspin. London. Astronomical chart, one print on layered paper board : etching, hand-colored. By Sidney Hall.
Let’s continue observing the night sky in the west at around 9:45 p.m. As usual, things have shifted to the north quite a bit. When you look in the west, hopefully you’ll be able to see what looks like a sideways diamond that has been squashed, between clouds. That is the constellation Corvus. You might recall, we observed it around this time last year. Right above it is Virgo. To the right or north of Virgo is Leo and to the left or south of it is Libra. The year before last, at around this time, we observed Leo so let’s take a closer look at Virgo.
Virgo in Latin name means “virgin” and is second largest constellation. As with most of the zodiac signs, it was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century, making it an ancient constellation.
The zodiac sign is also called, Virgo the virgin, so it’s always been associated with the image of a of a woman or maiden, as they called woman in olden times. In the ancient illustration of the constellation of Virgo, she has wings and is holding a bundle of wheat in her left hand and a palm branch in her right hand.
Since it’s a Zodiac sign, it belongs to the Zodiac family of constellations, along with Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. The entire Zodiac family of constellations are on the ecliptic path. That means that the sun is in certain constellations during the equinox. During the September equinox, the sun is in the constellation of Virgo, as a result, it is the constellation of the harvest. (For the spring equinox, it is in Pisces.)
Since it’s such an old constellation, there are many different stories on who the maiden actually is. Many will agree that she is the daughter of Zeus and either Themis, his second wife, or of Demeter, a companion. Their daughter is named Astraea, who also went by the name of Dike. Some say she is the Goddess of Innocence. Legend says that at the beginning of mankind, we lived in perpetual spring, peace, prosperity and people never aged. It was called the Golden Age. It’s also said that she was born as a mortal and placed on Earth to rule over human justice.
As humanity stopped honoring the gods and sank into corruption, she left our planet and went to the skies. When she left, it ended the Golden Age and perpetual spring and people began to suffer through disease and sickness. But as the daughter of Zeus, she was still a symbol of hope that can be seen in the darkest of skies!
Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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