According to some people, astrology is a pseudo-science; it is simply a quackery and quick money-making process.
On the other hand, some person believes that astrology is an ancient science.
Hence, these people have huge faith on astrology.
The debate, that astrology is trickery or true science shall continue forever.
But though we believe astrology or not, it is almost obvious that we know the names of different zodiac signs.
We hear from our friends, colleagues and others that he or she belongs to the sun sign "Cancer" or "Scorpio" and hence he or she possesses such characters and many more.
But have we ever thought that from where did the zodiac sign name originate? The zodiacal signs originated long time back, near about 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia.
During the prehistoric period, the ancient astronomers recorded the Sun's movement from one celestial body to the other.
Though astrology is ancient, but still the modern names of different sun-signs originated from medieval zodiac.
According to medieval astrologers, our planet Earth travels from one constellation to the other in an elliptical pathway.
The elliptical pathway consists of 12 constellations and they are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces consecutively.
The meaning of the term "zodiac" comes from Greek language that means "the circle of animals".
The Greek mythology places 12 animals in the sky as 12 constellations for their great acts of sacrifice and great courage.
Origin of the zodiac signs Aries (the Ram) - it is the first zodiac sign among the 12 zodiac signs.
It marks the Vernal Equinox, i.
e.
- the beginning of spring.
The first point of Aries is the place where the Sun traverses the heavenly equator.
The Greek mythology depicts a beautiful story behind the origin of this sun sign.
The Greek mythology story "The Golden fleece" depicts that the Olympian queen of the Gods and Goddesses of women and nuptials was Hera.
She produced Nephele, a woman who was almost alike Hera and forced king Athamas to marry Nephele.
King Athamas and Nephele had an unhappy marriage and hence Athamas married another woman called Ino who disliked her step-daughter Helle and step-son Phrixus and made a plot to kill them.
She started parching the wheat as the crop production will fail.
When Athamas appealed to Delphic Oracle, Ino bribed the messenger and asked to bring a false reply that Phrixus should be sacrificed to save wheat yield.
On reaching When Athamas was about to sacrifice Phrixus to Zeus, then Nephele came to save her son by sending a winged ram with a golden fleece.
Phrixus climbed the back of the ram; his sister Hellas also joined him.
But suddenly her grip failed and she fell down and died.
After reaching Colchis, Phrixus sacrificed the ram in gratitude to Zeus.
In return, Zeus placed the ram in the sky as a beautiful constellation for his heroic deed that we see even today as a constellation.
Taurus (the Bull) - the constellations of Taurus lies in the winter milky-way and has many appealing objects for the amateur astronomers.
For over 5000 years Taurus constellation is associated with a bull.
The legend story depicts- the God Zeus fell in love with Europa.
Being aware of the fact that his appearance will frighten charming Europa, Zeus took the disguise of a white bull and knelt in front of Europa while she was playing in the garden.
The splendid bull captivated Europa as she couldn't stop herself from climbing up the back of the bull.
Zeus, as a bull took Europa to Crete and made her his mistress.
To remember this affair Zeus placed the bull in the sky as a constellation.
Gemini (the Twins) - with spring approaching, the deep sky observers will see Gemini constellation.
This constellation also has a Greek story behind its origin.
According to the story, Gemini represents two twin brothers- Castor and Pollux who had the same mother Leda, but different father.
Castor was born of Tyndareus and Leda.
Pollux was born to the God Zeus and Leda.
Pollux was immortal and Castor was a mastered horseman.
The twins together became great warriors.
But unfortunately Castor died in a battle.
Pollux was so much upset after his brother's death that he asked his father Zeus to bring back Castor to life.
Zeus became stirred by such brotherly love that he brought the twins side by side as a constellation in the sky to stay together forever.
Cancer (the Crab) - the sign originated from the Greek story of twelve labors of Hercules.
The cancer constellation links to the second labor of Hercules.
Hercules is the greatest hero of Greek mythology who appointed by Eurystheus, killed the giant Lerna Hydra, a horrifying water snake with hundred heads.
While Hercules was struggling with hydra, Hera sent a giant crab to ruin his effort.
Hercules being irritated by the crab crushed it under his heel.
Hera was grateful to the crab for its support.
As recognition of the endeavor of the crab to help her, Hera pleased the crab by placing it in the sky as a constellation.
Leo (the Lion) - Leo is present adequately far away from the Milky Way to let us gaze into extra-galactic space.
Leo is the fifth zodiac sign and its origin links to the first labor of Hercules of the tale of twelve labors of Hercules.
Lion of Nemea was a dreadful beast that stayed in the forest of Nemea.
Zeus assigned Hercules to kill this wild beast.
Hercules did his job with ease and killed the ferocious lion with bare hands.
In the memory of this horrible battle Zeus placed the proud and obsessive lion in the sky as a constellation to evermore signify the challenges of kinship.
Virgo 9 (the Virgin) - it is the sixth zodiac sign.
Virgo is the only zodiac sign that is not represented by an animal.
Virgo represents "virgin".
The story of Virgo correlates to the Tale of Pandora.
Pandora had a box that when opened, poured out all the sorrows, miseries and all the evils in the earth.
The Gods left earth in such a condition and fled to heaven.
Astraea, the Goddess of purity and innocence, returned to heaven last of all.
As a tribute to innocence that was lost from the earth, Astraea became the constellation of stars and remained immortal forever.
Libra (the Scales) - it is the seventh Zodiac that is the only zodiac sign that is not represented by any person or animal.
It is the golden scale by that the Goddess of justice, purity and innocence- Astraea weighed the good and the evil.
As the corrupted civilization started to boom in the Earth, Astraea decided to leave this place and return to heaven.
She was in much hurry while leaving the Earth that she left her golden scale of justice.
The Romans, in fear of her judgment, gave Libra a major place in the sky to show that they give attention to proper justice, equity and balance.
Scorpio (the Scorpion) - scorpion is the eighth sign in the Zodiac.
It is among the 12 constellation of the Zodiac.
According two Greek mythology, two myths depict the story of origin of the constellation scorpion.
According to some people, Orion boasted that he can kill all the animals in the World as he is the best hunter.
But the Goddess-hunter Artemis sent a scorpion to kill Orion.
Thereafter Zeus placed scorpion in the sky as a constellation as a regard after scorpion won the battle.
According to another story, Orion claimed that he is a better hunter than Artemis.
Artemis's twin brother, Apollo, became angry and decided to kill Orion.
Hence he sent Scorpion to kill Orion.
Zeus placed Scorpion and Orion in the opposite side of the sky so that they do not create any further problem and clash.
Sagittarius (the Centaur) - it is the ninth zodiac sign representing a centaur Chiron releasing an arrow.
According to Greek mythology, people considered Chiron as a beast as he was half-horse.
But Chiron was very tender, soft-hearted and was a brilliant physician, musician and archer.
Even he trained great heroes as Hercules and many others.
One day suddenly by accident Hercules shot an arrow to Chiron.
The arrow contained deadly poison of the Lernean Hydra.
The poison was much deadly and even being a physician, Chiron could not heal up himself.
Being immortal, yet pain-stricken Chiron could not find release thorough death.
Hence he offered himself as a substitute for Prometheus when Prometheus was going to die.
Zeus became moved by this selflessness of Chiron and placed him in the sky as a constellation.
Capricorn (the Goat) - it is the tenth sign of the zodiac.
A fallen or dying goat with the tail of a fish symbolizes Capricorn.
Hence, it is a half-goat and half-fish.
The goat is Pan, the robust and wicked God, normally described as a whiskered, frizz-haired human with legs, tail and horns of a goat.
After Pan threw himself into the Nile River to flee from the father of dangerous wind, Typhon, his upper part became entirely a goat but the submerged parts became resembling a fish.
Aquarius (the Water Bearer) - it is the eleventh sign of the zodiac and a young man bearing a pitcher or cup of water represents this sun sign.
The young man is Ganymede, who was supposedly the most beautiful young man of Troy.
Zeus took fancy to Ganymede and took him and made him the cup-bearer, to the Gods that was until that time the duty of Hera's daughter, Hebe.
Hera's temper at this rudeness to her daughter irritated Zeus, who placed Ganymede in the sky as Aquarius constellation and made him immortal.
Pisces (the Fish) - it is the twelfth and last zodiac sign and two fishes represents them.
These two fishes are two Gods- Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and beauty and Eros, the God of love.
While they were passing through the river Euphrates, suddenly the monster Typhon met them.
Aphrodite and Eros appealed to Zeus to help them to escape the danger.
Hence, Zeus converted Aphrodite and Eros into a pair of fishes so that both of them are able to swim in the river safely.
To memorize the two Gods, Athena placed them in the sky as a constellation.