Pisces signs marble relief on the 12th century C.E. Sacra di San Michele (Saint Michael’s Abbey) - Porta dello zodiaco (zodiac door). Look at the middle of the two sides of the capital on the right. There's no connecting cord between the fishes, and they swin in the same direction, contrary to the usual depiction.
Picture is courtesy of “gattopollo” from Flickr
The Sacra di San Michele is located on the south side of the Val di Susa, Piedmont, Italy
Pisces sign appears (bottom left) on a marble capital along with the planet Jupiter and the Aries sign at the Palazzo Ducale (1309 to 1424) in Venice:
Picture is cropped from Wikimedia commons entry: Category:Capitals in the Doge's Palace (Venice) - 18 - uploaded by Giovanni Dall'OrtoThe Twelve important Indian Rivers are connected to the Zodiac Signs:
Ganges is connected to Aries; Reva river is connected to Taurus; Saraswati is connected to Gemini; Yamuna is connected to Cancer; Godavari is connected to Leo; Krishna is connected to Virgo; Kaveri is connected to Libra; Bhima River is connected to Scorpio; Radhya Saga is connected to Sagittarius; Tungabhadra is connected to Capricorn; Indus is connected to Aquarius; Pranahitha is connected to Pisces;
Pushkaram is a celebration near each of these twelve rivers which occurs once in every 12 years. Millions of people participate in each celebration, taking a dip in the river in order to purify their souls and bodies.
Pisces sign (constellation) with the connecting cord (stars) appears on a 14th century C.E. illustration from an Arabic manuscript , which is dedicated to astrology, astronomy and geomancy and which was compiled by Abd al Hasan Al Isfahani. This illustration answers quite impressively the question why does the traditinal Pisces sign appear mostly with the connecting cord.
I copied this image was from Wikimedia Commons, entry: Category: Kitab al-Bulhan; uploaded by: “Peacay”.
Pisces sign along with all the other zodiac signs appears clearly on the Farnese Atlas, which is kept at the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy. Actually, it is one of 41 ancient Greek constellations, which are shown in relief. We can’t see the Pisces from this angle but one of the two fishes has a ribbon that goes from its tail to the head of Cetus constellation.
Image was copied from Wikipedia entry Farnese Atlas Uploaded by Gssq
Even though astrology/astronomy started in the Near East (Sumer, Babylon, Egypt) the signs of the zodiac as we use them today find their (more or less) complete explanation in the context of Greek mythology. An excellent website brings a few versions of the same basic story. Here's the story according to Roman author Hyginus (ca. 64 BC – AD 17) in his book Astronomica 2. 30:
Diognetus Erythraeus says that once Venus [Aphrodite] and her son Cupid [Eros] came in Syria to the river Euphrates. There Typhon, of whom we have already spoken, suddenly appeared. Venus and her son threw themselves into the river and there changed their forms to fishes, and by so doing this escaped danger.
And here’s a more detailed version of Roman Poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD), Metamorphoses 5. 139 ff (translated by Melville) Completed in 8 AD, (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.):
Typhoeus, issuing from earth’s lowest depths, struck terror in those heavenly hearts, and they all turned their backs and fled, until they found refuge in Aegyptus and the seven-mouthed Nilus . . . Typhoeus Terrigena (Earthborn) even there pursued them and the gods concealed themselves in spurious shapes; `And Juppiter [Zeus] became a ram’, she said, `lord of the herd, and so today great Ammon Libys’ [Zeus-Ammon] shown with curling horns. Delius [Apollon] hid as a raven, Semeleia [Dionysos] as a goat, Phoebe [Artemis] a cat, Saturnia [Hera] a snow-white cow, Venus [Aphrodite] a fish and Cyllenius [Hermes] an ibis.'
See also: Scorpio Sign Origin
Pisces sign (without the connecting cord) is one of the 12 zodiac signs, which appear on a Roman Mosaic Floor from the third century C.E. The Floor is exhibited at the Bardo Museum in Tunis.
To the best of my knowledge this is the only Roman Mosaic that contains both the zodiac signs and the hexagram.
Copyright: AntonioR [from Flickr] 2008
Pisces is Baden Powell's Zodiacal sign. This stamp belongs to series with Famous People and their astrological Signs issued by Fujeira in 15 March 1973.
Colum Hourihane from Princeton University edited the book (2006)
Time in the Medieval World
Occupations of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art
The book has 328 pages and 656 illustrations. It includes the most extensive list of zodiac signs, in sculptures, mosaics, leather, ivory, fresco, illustrations etc. It is an amazing scholarly achievement!
Colum Hourihane wrote about Pisces:
Pisces is represented by two fishes and is linked to the month of February… The two fishes nearly always swim in opposite directions and are often linked together by a cord from both of their mouths. They usually swim horizontally but can also be shown going vertically… Water is sometimes shown around them, but there can also be a blank undecorated area, and occasionally… the two are suspended above a lake. Occasionally they are mirror images of each other…
Pisces name and sign (without the connecting cord) appear on a postage stamp Issued by Bosnia Herzegovina in 2004
Pisces Sign constellation and and Glyph on a postage stamp issued by Greece in 2007
14th century Pisces sign on a marble floor in a unique design of intertwined fishes from Italy, Milan-Duomo (Cathedral), where at midday, a ray of sun hits the right zodiacal sign. The usual sign shows two fishes swimming in opposite directions with a connecting cord.
Picture is courtesy of mixedmediaexpressions.com from Flickr.
Pisces-sign (looks like a kid) and Pisces glyph appear on a 2008 Ukraine Zodiac Postage Stamp. Picture is courtesy of Dobush from Kfar Aza, Israel.
Picture of Pisces Sign sketch is courtesy of Scurzuzu from Flickr. It looks as if this Pisces is what’s left on the plate after dinner.
Zodiac glyphs on the 15th century Prague upper clock and on the bottom clock we see zodiac signs with the twelve apostles and with scenes of country life for each month. The equation between the signs and the twelve apostles seems to change from one interpreter to the other – here’s a version I found on the web-page of anglefire
Picture is courtesy of hugovk from Flickr.
Pisces sign in Palermo Sicily Cathedral as part of 1690 meridian line and solar calendar (heliometers). Picture is courtesy of maha-online from Flickr. Above there’s a small hole in the roof. on midsummer's day the light from the hole falls on Cancer and six months' later on Capricorn.
Pisces sign medallion on the floor of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. -picture is courtesy of Marjorie Lipan
Pisces sign appears (first from left, among all the other astrological signs) on the zodiac of Kilometer Zero in front of Saint George's Church in Bucharest, Romania. Sculptor Constantin Baraski created the statue in 1938.
I copied the picture from the Hebrew Wikipedia entry for Kilometer Zero, which copied it from the Romanian Wikipedia, where Lucian Amarandei uploaded it.
Kilometre Zero is a point from which distances between cities are measured.
This Pisces glyph illustration is courtesy of "Tlusa" from Wikipedia entry Pisces (astrology)
The glyph of Pisces is based on another symbol called The Vesica Pisces, which was embraced by Early-Christians and used frequently in Christian churches. In Latin it means "mouth of the fish". It looks like a human eye or a fish without a tail. Vesica Pisces is also known as Ichthys, Jesus Fish and Mandorla (almond in Italian).
You can draw it by intersecting two circles with the same radius like this:
This Illustration is courtesy of Jossifresco from Wikipedia entry Vesica Piscis
The following painting of Jesus within a Vesica Pisces (Zoom in) is copied from a medieval illuminated manuscript (c. 1220) kept today in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Germany Cod. Bruchsal 1, Bl. 1v. Picture is courtesy of “AnonMoos” who uploaded it to Wikipedia entry Vesica Piscis.
Pisces, Aries and Taurus signs are seen on the zodiac ring of Prometheus sculpture, which was created in 1934 by Paul Manship (1885 - 1966) at the Rockefeller Center New York, which is one of the most famous sculptures in the world. Picture is courtesy of “peterjr1961”. Zoom in by clicking the “all sizes" command above the picture in Flickr.
Pisces appears here on a detail from a miniature zodiac, which is held today by the Vatican (Vaticanus graecus 1291).
The Picture is copied from Wikipedia entry: Byzantine art uploaded by “Javits2000”
Source: Ptolemy's Handy Tables
Dated from 813-820 C.E. (during the reign of Constantine V).
Center: Helios in his chariot identified by the Cross as Jesus.
12 naked female figures represent the hours.
12 dressed male figures (The Apostles) represent the twelve months.
Labels: month names in Greek
Zoom in by clicking the “All Sizes” command above this zodiac picture in Flickr.
The design of Merréll O'Brian's book cover shows that there is a connection between the zodiac and the six-pointed star. This is also the subject of my research
In this blog I emphasize the Christian zodiac.
Merréll O'Brian designed the Zodiac signs each on a separate Six pointed star on the cover of his book The Council of Twelve. He wrote to me that
The Son of EL whose star shown in the east and was calculated by the astrologers of Ba'al Hadad has a birth-chart in the shape of exactly a hexagram. It accounts of His birth on August 4th. He was a Leo. A Lion of the Tribe of Judah, specifically. You may find it on the Internet by searching for "Christ-star". I didn't name it. Please don't blame me.
