Doves sat on the egg and from it hatched Aphrodite who, in gratitude, put the fish in the sky. The mythologists said that because of this story the Syrians would not eat fish, regarding them as gods or the protectors of gods.Īn alternative story, given by Hyginus in the Fabulae, is that an egg fell into the Euphrates and was rolled to the shore by two fish. In one version of the story, two fish swam up and carried Aphrodite and Eros to safety on their backs, although in another version the two refugees were themselves changed into fish. Holding Eros in her lap she called for help to the water nymphs and leapt into the river. The goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros took cover among the reeds on the banks of the Euphrates, but when the wind rustled the undergrowth Aphrodite became fearful. Pan himself jumped into the river and changed his form into a goat-fish, represented by the constellation Capricornus, also inherited from the Babylonians. Pan saw him coming and alerted the others with a shout.

Gaia sent this fearsome monster to attack the gods. Fire blazed from the eyes in each of these heads, and from them came a cacophony of sound: sometimes ethereal voices which only the gods could understand, while at other times Typhon bellowed like a bull, roared like a lion, yelped like puppies, or hissed like a nest of snakes. She coupled with Tartarus, the lowest region of the Underworld where Zeus had imprisoned the Titans, and from this unlikely union came Typhon, the most awful monster the world had ever seen.Īccording to Hesiod in the Theogony, Typhon had a hundred dragon’s heads from which black tongues flicked out. Mother Earth, also known as Gaia, had another nasty surprise in store for the gods. The story follows an early episode in Greek mythology, in which the gods of Olympus had defeated the Titans and the Giants in a power struggle. The mythological events concerning this constellation are said to have taken place around the Euphrates river, a strong indication that the Greeks inherited this constellation from the Babylonians.

Origin: One of the 48 Greek constellations listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest

Pisces constellation