Pisces: Aphrodite and Eros as Fishes (Catasterism)

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/117-pisces-aphrodite-eros-catasterism

Cycle: Local and lesser — astral aetiology / Aphrodite

Version line: Catasterismic handbook — Aphrodite and Eros (or Syrian fish) as Pisces

Sources: Eratosthenes, *Catasterismi* 21; Hyginus, *Astronomica* 2.30; Ovid, *Metamorphoses* 5.319–331 (**Roman** Typhon-flight notice); Syrian cult aetiologies in the handbooks

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/117-pisces-aphrodite-eros-catasterism.md

Characters

Derceto — Syrian cult analogue in handbook notes
Eros — goddess who flees as / with fish
Philotes — places the fishes in heaven
Pisces — two fishes; stellified Aphrodite and Eros (or their rescuers)
Typhoeus — pursuer

Places

Egypt — river of the escape
Path of the sun — Pisces
Syria — cult background for fish-goddess

Themes

Narrative

In the Greek and Greco-Syrian catasterismic tradition, when Typhon attacked, Aphrodite and her son Eros (or the Syrian goddess and her child) leapt into the Euphrates (or Nile) and became fishes—or were borne to safety by fishes. Zeus placed those fishes in the heavens as Pisces, tied together by a cord in the star maps. Alternate notices make the fishes sacred to Derceto/Atargatis in Syrian cult and only later Hellenized as Aphrodite’s escape. Catalogue Pisces as the double-fish zodiac sign of Aphrodite’s flight; Typhon’s war and Capricorn’s goat-fish are parallel but separate stellifications.