Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Two Fish | Pisces – PICE-eez, PISS-eez Piscium – PICE-ee-um, PISH-ee-um | 889 | 148 |
Main Star (brightest one):
| Designation | HIP number | name in IAU-CSN | brightness |
| eta Psc | HIP 7097 | Alpherg | 3.62 mag (V) |
Our (modern) Explanation
Initially, this constellation was named The Swallow in ancient Babylon as it marks the position in the year when the swallows return to the northern latitudes. It was positioned next to the goddess of love (And) and the god of wisdom and witchcraft (Aqr). In some West Asian cultures, a fish was depicted next to the goddess as her attribute. Other (small) fish surrounded the god depicted next to heavenly waters. Reflecting many transformations and reinterpretations in the Graeco-Babylonian world of the first millennium BCE, the huge swallow was first reinterpreted as a small bird next to Aqr and the original swallow tail of the huge image was changed into a connecting ribbon between this small swallow and the fish next to the goddess. This image of a bird and fish connected with a mysterious ribbon was then reinterpreted as stockfish, two fish connected with a ribbon, by changing the swallow into a fish. Greek mythology, unable to explain the foreign images (of gods and swallow-fish etc.), has a story of Aphrodite/ Venus.
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
Ancient Lore & Meaning
Aratus
Reference:
English translation by Douglas Kidd (1997).
Aratus: Phaenomena, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 34
Pseudo-Eratosthenes
they are offsprings of the giant fish, they are spearated from one another but have a connecting band
References:
French translation by:
Jordi Pàmias i Massana and Arnaud Zucker (2013). Ératosthènes de Cyrène – Catastérismes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris
English version in:
Robin Hard (2015): Eratosthenes and Hyginus Constellation Myths with Aratus’s Phaenomena, Oxford World’s Classics
Early Modern Interpretation
Contemporary
As one of their first tasks in the 1920s, the newly founded International Astronomical Union (IAU) established constellation standards. The Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte was assigned to the task to define borders of constellations parallel to lines of declination and right ascension. They were accepted by the General Assembly in 1928. The standardized names and abbreviations had already been accepted in 1922 and 1925.
