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Stargazing 101 Aries The Ram Analysis

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Stargazing 101: Aries the Ram I really hope you have all enjoyed my Stargazing series! These stories about the constellations and the facts behind them are so incredibly interesting and I’ve had such a wonderful time sharing them with you! The Mythology Aries, a Latin word for “ram,” is often identified with the story of the Golden Fleece (which you might remember from the story of Carina, the ship. http://clapway.com/2015/07/07/stargazing-101-carina-the-ship/) It’s often that we hear about Zeus and his extra marital affairs, but very rare that we hear of Hera having any. In the story of Aries, Ixion, King of Lapiths, attempted to woo Hera. Zeus learned of Ixion’s intent to make Hera his lover and declared that his plan would not come to fruition. Zeus coerced a cloud named Nephele to take Hera’s shape and trick Ixion into thinking he …show more content…

Ixion, of course, thought he had succeeded in seducing Hera but quickly found out that he had actually impregnated Nephele. Ixion was punished for attempting to steal Zeus’s wife, and Nephele gave birth to the first centaur. She later had two more children with Athamas, another king, who tried to have the children killed. She came to Hera for help in saving them, so Hera sent a golden ram to aid the children in their escape. Unfortunately, one of the children fell off the ram’s back and died, however, the other survived and made it to safety. Once on the banks of Colchis, the surviving child sacrificed the ram to Poseidon. Poseidon them instructed him to present the ram’s golden fleece to the king of Aeete, who hung up the fleece in a secret garden where it was protected by a dragon. It was at this same time, you might recall from Carina the Ship, that Diomedes’s land had overthrown him as heir to his father’s throne. Pelias, the man who took Diomede’s throne in his absence, is the cousin of the boy who sacrificed the ram that saved him to the god of the sea. Hera

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