zodiac serie

Zodiac is a serie of illustration focused on each zodiac sign according to the Greek Myth they're associated with.

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ARIES : the Chrysomallus, the flying ram that rescued Phrixus and Helle, the children of the Boeotian king Athamas and provided the Golden Fleece which Jason set himself to find with the help of Medea to reclaim the throne of Iolcus.
 

TAURUS : The Capture of the Cretan Bull, the seventh of Heracles’s Twelve Labor.
 

GEMINI : Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers of Helene of Troy ; and for the Greek the sign is associated to Remus and Romulus the brothers raised by a wolf who fought to know who would build the empire of Rome . (I decided to represent Janus the two headed Roman god of beginning, ends, choices and paths meeting with Bellona goddess of war.)

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CANCER : During Heracles's second task, fighting the Nine-Headed Hydra of Lerna, he accidentally stepped on a crab. So as an apology, Hera put the crab and the hydra in the sky.
 

LEO :  The Nemean lion killed by Heracles on his first labour by strangling him with his bare hands and then using his skin to protect himself during the rest of the labours. ( I decided to draw the Greek Sphinx; mythological creature part woman, part lion and part bird who eats anyone doesn’t answer her riddle. In Œdipus story she asks “what walks on four legs in the morning, two during the day, and three in the evening”, by answering this riddle Œdipus becomes king and fatally marry his mother.) 
 

VIRGO : Themis, a Titania daughter of Ouranos and Gaia, gardian of justice. She birthed the horai, the moirai, and Astraía (the seasons/hours, the fates, and the last goddess living on earth who gives up on humanity during the Iron Age).
 

LIBRA : The Libra constellation was at first considered to be the pincers of the Scorpio constellation; but during Virgiles era, the astrologues decided to add another sign and link it to the Trojan War. According to the story, during the war Zeus decided to leave the fate of the Greeks to Themis and her scale of justice. (I decided to represent Augustus Octavus. Why ? Because now, with a new sign, Virgile and Octavus are now both libras and he will reference his astrological sign in Georgica (-29) and Aeneis (-19) to create a divination of Octavus through Aeneas (his supposed ancestor) and the stars.)
 

SCORPIO :  The first myth is that Gaea sent a fire scorpion to kill the hunter Orion. The second one, is that Apollo sent the Scorpion because Orion seemed to like Artemis a bit too much. In any case, Orion got attacked by the scorpion and when both of them got turned into constellations they went to opposite sides which make the Scorpius constellation rises when Orion’s going down.

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SAGITTARUS : Chiron was called the "wisest and justest of all the centaurs”. Born from the titan Chronos and the nymph Philyra, he was made into Heracles’s tutor until Heracles accidentally shot him with an arrow poisoned with Hydra’s blood. At his death, Chiron was raised to the sky and became the Sagittarus.

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CAPRICORN : when Typhon, son of Gaia and primordial divinity of winds and tempests, attacked Olympus, the gods fled and Dionysus (or Pan depending of the versions) transformed into a goat/fish mermaid kind of hybrid 

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AQUARIUS : Ganymede was the son of Tros, king of Troy, who caught Zeus’s eye (sigh) before he decided to seduce and kidnap him by transforming into an eagle. On Olympus, Ganymede became Zeus’s cupbearer hence the name Aquarius: the water carrier.

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PISCES :   when Typhon, son of Gaia and primordial divinity of winds and tempests, attacked Olympus, the gods fled and  Aphrodite and her son, Eros, quickly transformed into fishes to flee.

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