Questions and bridges

Where Zodiac Names Come From

Zodiac names come from the constellations the Sun passes through along the ecliptic, the Sun’s apparent yearly path. The star patterns were shaped by Mesopotamian and Greek traditions and wrapped in myth, and their official Latin names today are fixed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The names are cultural heritage, not a description of how the stars really look.

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Libra… these names feel familiar to almost everyone, yet we rarely ask where they came from. The answer is a long story involving ancient sky-watchers, Greek storytellers, Roman writers and modern astronomy.

The names come from constellations along the ecliptic

The ecliptic is the Sun’s apparent yearly path against the background stars. The Moon and planets also stay within a narrow band around that path. People noticed long ago that this band runs through the same series of star patterns, and these are what we call the zodiacal constellations.

The word “zodiac” itself is Greek. It is related to the word for a “living being” or “animal”, and roughly means a “circle of animals”. That fits most of the names: ram, bull, crab, lion, scorpion, fishes. There are exceptions, such as the Scales (an object) and the Water Bearer (a human figure), so the “animals” explanation is handy but not complete.

The roots of this tradition reach back to Mesopotamia. Babylonian astronomers described star patterns along the paths of the Sun and Moon, and the Greeks later adopted and reworked many of those images. Historians still discuss the exact timing and routes of this borrowing, so the honest summary is that the connection is well known but not a simple straight line. For the wider picture, see the history of astrology.

Greek and Roman myths behind the images

Ancient authors told stories about many constellations. It helps to remember that one constellation often has several versions, and that a myth was sometimes invented later to “explain” a name that already existed. Some of the best-known links:

• Aries is linked to the ram with the golden fleece from the myth of Jason and the Argonauts.
• Taurus is linked to Zeus, who in the myth takes the form of a bull to carry off Europa.
• Gemini is linked to Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers of Greek mythology.
• Cancer is the crab sent, in the story, to hinder Heracles in his fight with the Lernaean Hydra.
• Leo is linked to the Nemean Lion, the first of Heracles’ labours.
• Scorpius is often connected with the story of the hunter Orion and the scorpion that defeats him.

For Virgo, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, the versions vary even more. Virgo has been linked with several goddesses of harvest and justice. Sagittarius is an archer, often pictured as a centaur. Capricornus is a “sea-goat” with a fish tail, an image of very old origin. Aquarius is a water carrier, sometimes associated with Ganymede. In one told version, the Fishes are Aphrodite and Eros, who turn into fish to escape a monster.

The Romans carried most of these images into Latin, and through Latin into European culture.

Latin names fixed by the IAU

Today the sky is divided into 88 constellations, and the official authority is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). In the first half of the twentieth century it fixed the list and the boundaries, so every point on the sky belongs to exactly one constellation. The official names are in Latin, which was for a long time the shared language of science.

The Latin names of the twelve zodiacal constellations are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. Note that astronomers write Scorpius and Capricornus, not “Scorpio” and “Capricorn” as astrological texts often do. Each constellation also has a short three-letter abbreviation, such as Ari or Tau.

One detail is worth knowing: the IAU map also includes a thirteenth constellation crossed by the ecliptic, Ophiuchus (the Serpent Bearer). That is why the question of how many zodiac constellations there are is more subtle than it seems (see why there are 12 zodiac signs).

A quick tour of the twelve

In brief, here is what each name means:

1. Aries: the ram.
2. Taurus: the bull.
3. Gemini: the twins.
4. Cancer: the crab.
5. Leo: the lion.
6. Virgo: the maiden.
7. Libra: the scales, a weighing instrument. In older tradition this area was called the “claws” of the Scorpion.
8. Scorpius: the scorpion.
9. Sagittarius: the archer.
10. Capricornus: “goat-horned”, the sea-goat.
11. Aquarius: the water bearer.
12. Pisces: the two fishes.

You can explore each one in its own article, for example Aries or Scorpio.

What this knowledge can and cannot tell us

The names tell us a great deal about the cultures that watched the sky, but almost nothing about the stars themselves. The stars in a constellation are usually not physically related and lie at very different distances from us. The pattern is a human impression, not a natural object. So the link between a constellation’s name and an astrological “sign” is historical and cultural. In the astrological tradition, signs are divisions of the circle that start at the spring equinox, and over time they drift relative to the actual constellations (see why zodiac signs do not match the constellations).

Likewise, the myths are beautiful stories, not scientific facts. We can read them for inspiration and enjoy the fact that a name like “Gemini” carries more than two thousand years of human imagination. For the difference between science and tradition, see also astronomy versus astrology.

Positions in Astronativa are astronomically exact. The interpretation is for inspiration. · Glossary · Terms · Privacy