Story of Virgo

THE MYTH OF VIRGO

The constellation of Virgo was often linked to Greek and Roman goddesses of Agriculture, Demetres and Ceres. Still, the primal connection of ancient Greeks connected this constellation to Astraea, the celestial virgin, who was the last immortal to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the five deteriorating ages of man. She abandoned the human race and left the Earth to flee from the wickedness of humanity.

The more intense myth linked with this constellation is the one of Erigone, daughter of Icarus. Icarus got killed by shepherds because they got drunk on his wine and thought he tried to poison them. As he was dying, he remembered how Dionysus taught him to care about the vine, and that one day a goat ate everything he has planted and grown with love and devotion. Angry, Icarus killed the goat, skinned it and invited other people to dance around it. At the moment of death, he realized that by killing the goat, he actually hurt himself.

His daughter Erigone with her dog Maera, found her father’s body under a tree and hanged herself over him. The dog stayed there sad for his owner, until he was dead too. But the story doesn’t end here. Since Dionysus was so angry because of this unjust act, he punished Athens by making all of the city’s maidens commit suicide in the same way, until the shepherds who killed Icarus were finally found and punished.