Pisces · Star Almanack

{% capture constellation_story %} The two fish of Pisces do not swim as a compact pair. Their outlines spread across a large region, linked by long cords that meet at a common point. It is an unusual image: separate animals held in a relationship that the intervening stars make visible. Ancient stories associated the fish with Aphrodite and Eros during the terrifying appearance of Typhon. Even the gods sought safety from the monster. In one version, the goddess and the young god reached the Euphrates and were carried to safety by two fish. A different telling made the gods become fish themselves. Rescue and transformation are distinct ways of explaining the pair. Both place the escape in water, turning the river into a refuge from a power that threatens the divine world. The fish were subsequently commemorated among the stars. Their role is helpful rather than predatory, a contrast with the monsters surrounding so many other celestial adventures. Where a hero might survive by defeating a beast, these gods survive through concealment or assistance. The cords have invited further explanation, but they should not be used to turn every version into one story. The historical image of bound fish and the surviving literary accounts do not fit together so neatly that every line on a chart can be assigned an unquestionable episode. Pisces is one of the quieter zodiac constellations to learn. Its fame as a name can exceed its visual prominence. The small ring of stars commonly called the Circlet provides a manageable beginning, after which a chart can help trace the longer shape. Its astronomical territory also contains Messier 74, a spiral galaxy seen nearly face-on. In observatory images, two principal arms curl outward from a bright central region. Dust lanes and areas of star formation give those arms their structure. M74 lies roughly 32 million light-years away. Its low surface brightness makes it a more demanding visual target than its handsome photographs might suggest. Seeing a galaxy’s image in a book and finding its diffuse light at an eyepiece are different experiences. The fish and the galaxy share a direction on the sky without sharing a physical setting. One is a figure made from foreground stars; the other is an immense stellar system far beyond the Milky Way. Pisces begins as a story of getting away from danger. Looking into its faint field can lead much farther, from a river in an ancient narrative to the open spiral arms of a distant galaxy. ## Sources - [ICHTHYES (Ichthyes) - Fish of Aphrodite in Greek Mythology](https://www.theoi.com/Ther/Ikhthyes.html) - [Pisces - All Skies Encyclopaedia](https://ase.exopla.net/index.php/Pisces) - [Messier 74 - NASA Science](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-74/) {% endcapture %}{{ constellation_story | markdownify }}