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STARS IN YOUR EYES
20th April 2010 at 2200 hours looking South
Interestingly the Moon, Mars, Regulus, Saturn and Spica are almost in a straight line with each other. Spica is the brightest star in the sky and is part of the constellation called Virgo. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo.
Virgo is the second largest constellation and is often represented as a “maiden” (as its name indicates). In ancient history, she may have been Isis, the Egyptian goddess.
However, in Roman times Virgo was considered to represent Ceres, who was the goddess of the growth of food plants and harvests, and particularly corn. Her festival was in the second week of April, the same time that the constellation appears in the Spring skies. The Romans had simply adopted an earlier Greek goddess called Demeter. The Greeks considered that Demeter, goddess of agriculture, was of the highest birth: born to Chronus and Rhea, she was the sister of Zeus. Her name has been found on a tablet from Pylos dating to the thirteenth century B.C.
The goddess Ceres (or Demeter) was nearly always shown carrying a sheaf of wheat. However, her influence carried not only to cereal crops, but to all kinds of food crops. Not surprisingly, perhaps, she was also the goddess of health,
and of births and marriages.
It is therefore fitting that her constellation should contain the brightest star in the heavens.
Thanks to our resident astronomer J.G.