Mythic Monday: Mermaids and Ondines

The mythology of Pisces hails from ancient Syria in the form of the mermaid goddess Atargatis, also known as the goddess of love and fertility. She is the Goddess of the Sea, akin to the later Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus. Her lover is Hadad, and her animals are the fish and the dove.

Numerous tales from the era revolve around a female who becomes pregnant, throws herself in the water, is transformed into a mermaid, and is then saved by two fish and attended by doves. The stories clarify why the Syrians of the day refused to eat fish.

Greek mythology tells a similar story about Aphrodite, who turned into a fish to escape the monstrous Typhon. The negative aspect of the fertile sea goddess is the ondine or undine, a sad but dangerous elemental spirit or water nymph who gave up her magic and immortality for love, but was betrayed by her lover and now seeks revenge. To read the 1811 fairy tale novella by Friedrich Heinrich Karl La Motte-Fouqué, click here.

Pisces is depicted by two entwined fish, swimming in opposite directions. In astrological terms, one heads toward the mortal world of mundane necessity and the other toward the dreamlike subconscious depths of art, mystery, and magic. Pisces’ ruling planet is Neptune. To the left is Stefan Stenudd’s glyph for Pisces.

Visit this site for a dynamic description of the zodiac glyphs and how they progress each unto the other: http://dennisklocek.com/articles/glyphs-zodiac

http://www.pisceszodiacsign.net/piscessymbol.htm

http://pisces-sign.blogspot.com/2008/10/origin-of-pisces-glyph.html

http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/mythology-of-pisces.html

http://songsdomain.tripod.com/piscesmyth/

http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/atargatis.html