Detailed History of Gemini Sign - By: Tauqeer Hassan

The Gemini sign is the third sign of zodiac year in the astrological study. It affects those people who are between May 21st and June 21st. Gemini is considered the child of zodiacal year in the astrological world of the zodiac. This sign bears a sign of two personalities. Gemini people are thought to be lively and they quickly alter from one course to the other without thinking too much about it.

The Zodiac sign is fairly new in recent history; its origin goes back to the Ancient Greek times. However a lot of historians have proved that the key signs of zodiac are relatively older dating back to the early times of human writing. During those times, most of the written material was in the form of historical records. It is certain that the zodiac signs existed before writing was invented, moving to the time when oral accounts of humanity’s history was passed from one generation to another being almost unchanged for centuries.

According to some historians, cave drawings of people have been discovered which can also be an early representation of signs or gods. While the zodiac signs like Gemini seems to be discovered recently but they have been in this world for a longer time. In the view of astrology believers, it is proved that the destinies and trait inherit in zodiac signs have a quite long history of being believed and known. It was not just made in the fresh history as it is often believed by people who think astrology to be nonsense. New research findings have suggested that astrology is a method of predicting the future is much older as compared to many known religions.

Gemini sign has a special position among the Greek zodiac signs. It can be traced to the legendary story of two twin brothers called Castor and Polydeuces also known as Pollux. Castor was mortal and Polydeuces was immortal who was born in Queen Leda of Sparta. Castor’s father was King Tyndareus while Zeus, the king of Gods was the father of Polydeuces. They were inseparable in life and remained inseparable in death. They are depicted by a constellation that shows the name Gemini depicting the stars - Castor and Pollux, forming the heads.

The legendary story of Castor and Polydeuces is an epic worthy of times. It tells how Castor and Polydeuces came to be in the heavens, Castor was an expert on horseback with a bow while Polydeuces specialty was using his fists for boxing. The twins were accompanied with Jason who was on his quest to bring back the Golden Fleece. It was long after when the two got tired of their adventures and made up their minds to marry and have kids that their story really becomes their unique one. The twins fell in love the daughters of Hilaeira, Phoebe and Leucippus, who were unfortunately promised to the sons of Idas, Lynceus and Aphareus.

The sisters were kidnapped by Castor and Polydeuces and they brought then to Sparta where they were quickly married and expected children within a little time. The sons of Lynceus wanted to steal back their promised brides and they were determined in their cause. They ambushed Castor and Polydeuces. When Castor was lying dead, Polydeuces pleaded to Zeus for giving him back his. Zeus agreed on one condition that they would share the immortality of Polydeuces. Therefore the twins had to spend hlf of their day in Hades and the remaining in Olympus. The mortals could only see them when they rose early at dawn from Hades to Olympus.

Regardless of the knowledge of Gemini sign as representing the twin brothers, Castor and Polydeuces or Castor and Pollux as Romans used to know about them. The reality is that the story is not directly related to the two heroes.
The real meaning of the story is related to the stars having the same name of the boys which are the first to rise early in the morning at dawn. More importantly, the two stars only rise in the spring. Gemini sign has a particularly special position because of its association with rebirth and spring equinox.

The Gemini zodiac is confined to the northern hemisphere with mostly early civilizations from Asia, Europe, North Africa and North America which gives extraordinary importance to the rising of twin stars during spring equinox. Those people who migrated across the equator to Asia and Africa still have myths related to the twins that fight for immortality. However in Australia where the ancient and the early branch of humanity was present. The Aboriginal people don’t have any knowledge about the immortal twins, the myths shared by a lot of cultures were originated from the north when the humanity extended from Africa nearly 75000 years back.

Before the story of Castor and Polydeuces was told by the Greeks and Romans, other civilizations around were already aware of the twin stars. The twin stars were seen by Early Egyptians as two goats who return to their goat herd at dawn, including the two stars in their Ramissede Hour Tables. It was a useful scientific measurement of time during the day.

No one is sure when astronomy was studied and myths around stars were created by ancient Egyptians. However it is known that during the same time, the twin stars were referred as Gilgamesh and Enkidu by the ancient Babylonians. The twin stars were together known as Mastabba Galgal, they were also twin brothers and two heroes who fought a series of classic battles against the gods for attaining immortality. They were curiously worshipped for the same reason as the Greeks leading to the story the story of the Gemini twins Babylon was borrowed by Greeks and changed the story to suit their own history.

In the ancient Vedic books of India, the twin stars appear as Sahadeva and Nakula who were two of the Ashvin horseman of Indian folklore. The Indian constellation called Mithuna, it shows two horseman and it almost same hardly coincidental with the Greek constellation of Gemini. This means that Greek Zodiac signs must be having their origins back in the early oral history of humanity even before the invention of writing.

About the Author

Being a history student, I like to write about topics like history of Gemini sign and who discovered Gemini.

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