GEMINI- THE TWINS

 

GEMINI- THE TWINS 

SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC 

By C.J. BLAKE 

THE year of the Zodiac did not begin in January, as ours does; the first month, of which as you will remember, Aries, the Ram, was the sign was the month of March. We are accustomed to begin the year in the midst of winter, but to the ancients who regulated everything by what they saw in the natural world around them, the spring with its budding and blossoming of fresh life, appeared the most fitting time for a new year to begin. The third sign. that of the Heavenly Twins. therefore indicates the month of May. 
The notion of double or twin stars was a very common one amongst the ancient astronomers, and indeed many stars are so called to-day. These double stars are not really close together, they are often thousands of miles apart .Still they are not separated by the immense distances in space, which divide other stars, and as seen from our earth, even through powerful telescopes, they appear to be so close to one another, as to deserve the name of twin stars.

When, in process of time, the knowledge of the signs of the Zodiac passed from the Chaldeans and Egyptians to the other great nations of antiquity, the Greeks and Romans made interesting legends about the two infant boys who were represented as the third sign. The Greeks thought that they stood for Castor and Pollux , two sons of their great god Zeus or Jupiter. They said that these boys, because of their heavenly parentage were wonderfully strong powerful; that Castor as he grew up became able to accomplish all possible feats of horsemanship to tame and drive or ride the most fiery and unmanageable steeds, and that Pollux was the champion of all boxers and wrestlers. The Greeks as well as the Romans, believed that in their battles two mysterious warriors, riding on white horses, armed with spears and wearing stars in their helmets, often appeared to encourage and aid the soldiers, and that these two visitors from another world were Castor and Pollux, the heavenly twins. 

 Then the Romans had another story, in which the twins stood for Romulus and Remus, the supposed founders of the city of Rome. They told how these children, when infants were deserted by their mother, and how a she-wolf nursed them, and took care of them, until they were found by a good old shepherd named Faustulus, who took them home to his wife. 

When these boys grew up, they too were very strong and warlike. They agreed together to build a city, and when they had done so, Romulus resolved to fortify it, and to this end built a wall, and dug a ditch or trench round, to keep it safe. But Remus laughed at his brother's efforts, and jumped over the ditch to show how worthless was such a protection. This so enraged Romulus, that he killed his brother Remus and reigned over the city himself. 

We cannot now place faith in such stories as these, but the people of old believed them, and thought of them, when hen they looked up to the stars, or when they made the sign of Gemini upon their plans of the heavenly sphere. CJ BLAKE 

References:

Chatterbox 1903