Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/162

 Dipper. It rises about an hour later than Arcturus (who first appears at sunset during the latter part of March), and travels in a curve through the south. These two stars contrast beautifully as they swing through the sky like gold and silver globes of fire strung on an invisible thread. A tale current among ancient people was that Virgo, the Virgin, was once Astræa, Goddess of Purity and Justice, who lived on earth during the Golden Age when all men were happy. During the Silver Age contentment still prevailed and the Gods lingered although men were less perfect and the world less tranquil. When the Bronze Age was ushered in men became so inferior that the work of Astræa's office was ignored and she fled in sorrow to the sky.

Somehow the goodness and purity of Astræa were incorporated in one beautiful star called Spica, and this star shone with such exceeding whiteness that the whole constellation became Virgo, the Virgin. The pictures drawn on the maps vision a goddess with wings carrying a palm branch in one hand and an ear of wheat in the other. In some of the older maps, the goddess carries a balance or a pair of golden scales with which to weigh the fate of mortals, but this is now a separate constellation