Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/513

Rh Virgo, and emblematic of the season when the sun enters that sign.

Rhea was the daughter of sky and earth, the mother of Jupiter, and wife of Saturn, and also known as "Kronos" or "Time."

The association of Virgo with Rhea is of interest to Masons, as the goddess Rhea is the emblem of the Masonic Third Degree.

"Early Christian thought," says Maunder, "recognised a reference to the promise of the 'seed of the woman' of Genesis iii., 15, in 'the ear of corn' the Virgin carries in her hand, and the expression in Shakespeare's play of Titus Andronicus 'the good boy in the Virgin's lap,' refers to the mediæval representation of the sign as the Madonna and Child."

In the Hebrew zodiac Virgo is assigned to Napthali, whose standard was a tree, and in the land of Judæa Virgo was called "Bethulah."

Allen thinks that the custom of the Kern-Baby, that is still seen along the borderland of England and Scotland, was derived from the myths associated with Virgo, and that the tossing of the Corn Mother, a custom of La Vendée, was derived from a similar source.

Among the Peruvians Virgo was known as "the Magic Mother," and "the Earth Mother." The month festival was called "the Queen's festival," and was dedicated to the maize as well as to women in general, who in this month only predominated in the ritual.

Virgo has been associated with the Ashtoreth of the book of Kings, the Astarte of Syria, the Hathor of Egypt, and the Aphrodite of Greece.

In Assyria it was known as "Bel's Wife." In the Euphratean star list we find it styled "the Proclaimer of Rain."

Dr. Seiss identified this constellation with the Virgin Mary, and Cæsius associated Virgo with Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz. Schiller thought that the constellation 25