Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Virgo star sign has long been associated with fertility, both in humans and of the land.
The history of the Virgo astrological sign begins with the ancient Babylonians, a thousand years before the birth of Christ. They first identified twelve constellations, and began the origins of the Zodiac. They identified the constellation of Virgo, as we know it today, with the goddess Shala, who was a goddess of war as well as of grain and harvests. The brightest star in the constellation, Spica, is sometimes still known as “Shala’s grain of corn”.
The ancient Greeks continued the association with Virgo and crops, by associating it with the goddess Demeter. As well as being associated with agriculture, she was also the Greek goddess of the sanctity of marriage and of the natural life cycle and birth and death. She appears in Homer, and also is the mother of Persephone. Persephone’s relationship with Hades, the god of the underworld, was used by the Greeks to explain the changes in seasons.
Later, the Romans appropriated most of Demeter’s qualities for their goddess Ceres. Like Demeter, Ceres was a custodian of faithful marriages, fertile lands and the agrarian cycle. She was worshipped at events in spring and in harvest time, and was one of the main Roman goddesses.
There are, however, rival explanations for the identity of Virgo in the ancient world. Astraea, a Greek goddess associated with purity and innocence. She was a daughter of Zeus, the main Greek god. Astraea was one of the last immortals to live with humans, but eventually fled to the heavens when she became sickened by human greed and corruption.
Similarly, the Greek goddess Dike, who represented justice, also lived amongst humans but left when she found mankind unable to adhere to basic moral principles.
Finally, Erigone is also associated with Virgo. Erigone’s father, Icarius, was given wine by Dionysus, the Greek god of the grape. He shared the wine with the people of Athens, who then killed Icarius in a fit of drunken suspicion that they had been poisoned. When Icarius discovered her father’s body, she hung herself in the spot where it lay. Dionysus was angry with the Athenians and punished them by enchanting their women to commit suicide, and honoured Icarius and Erigone – in Erigone’s case, she ascended into the heavens to become Virgo.
In both cases, Astraea and Dike were said to have ascended into the heavens and become the Virgo constellation, which holds Libra, or the scales of justice.
The role of goddesses and of Virgo may have been blurred to begin with. However, things got even more confused with the advent of Christianity. The early church did as much as it could to erase the worship of pagan gods and goddesses and transfer the loyalties of the converted to the Virgin Mary – who combines many of the attributes associated with Ceres, Demeter, Erigone, Dike and Astraea.
The Middle Ages saw the Renaissance. As well as advances in science, theology and many other areas, the Renaissance saw a renewed interest in classical times. This included ancient ‘magic’, as well as the use of Greek and Roman subjects in art and sculpture.
Renaissance scholars simplified and standardised the ancient zodiac symbols into the star signs that we know today. Although no-one is exactly sure which mythological figure Virgo is meant to represent, it may be that she was intended to combine the elements of faithfulness, fertility, seasonality and purity – after all, many societies have female goddesses that are said to embody these attributes, and have done since the beginning of time.