Zodiac myths · Pisces
Pisces is love and its mother, tied together so they could not be lost
Fleeing a monster, Aphrodite held her son's hand and went into the river. Two fish carried them out, bound by one cord.
Johann Bayer, Uranometria, 1603
At a glance
In Greek myth Pisces is Aphrodite and her son Eros fleeing the monster Typhon. At the Euphrates, two fish carried them to safety, and the fish were set in the sky tied by a cord.
- The figure
- The two fishOvid, Fasti 2.457-474
- Sign dates 2026
- Feb 18 to Mar 20, 2026Sun enters Feb 18, 2026, 15:52 UTC
- Sun in the stars, 2026
- Mar 13 to Apr 18, 202637 days inside the IAU Pisces
- Best seen at midnight
- Sep 15 to Oct 22, 2027best night about Oct 3, 2027
The myth
A mother, a son, and a river
Try this today
- Who are you tied to, even when you swim in different directions? Send them a line.
- Under a dark autumn sky, find the Circlet below the Great Square of Pegasus.
- Write down two things you want that pull opposite ways. Then write the cord that holds them.
This story begins where Capricorn's does: Typhon, the hundred-headed storm-giant, has come for the gods, and they are running.
Ovid tells it in the Fasti. Dione, Ovid's name for Venus here, flees with her little son Cupid (Eros) and reaches the banks of the Euphrates in Syria. Typhon is close behind. She cannot see a way across. She takes the boy's hand, calls on the river nymphs for help, and goes into the water.
Two fish come up beneath them and carry them through. For that, Ovid says, the fish were placed in the stars, and the people of Syria would not eat fish, so as not to harm the gods' rescuers.
Hyginus, citing an older writer named Diognetus of Erythrae, tells it slightly differently: mother and son changed themselves into fish to escape. In both versions the figure in the sky makes sense: two fish, swimming in different directions, joined by a long cord so they cannot be separated in the current. That knot is a real star, Alrescha, "the cord."
Other tellings
The goddess of the lake, and the fish below
The Catasterisms attributed to Eratosthenes connect Pisces to a third fish, the Southern Fish (Piscis Austrinus), and through it to Derketo, a Syrian goddess with a fish's body who was said to have fallen into a lake and been saved by a great fish. The Pisces fish are its offspring, in that telling. It is a reminder that the Greeks were borrowing from the Near East here, too.
The Babylonians had a pair of figures in this area, a Tails or ribbon (DU.NU.NU) linking a swallow and a goddess of the fishes, Anunitum. So the cord between two figures is older than the Greek fish. Pisces may have one of the oldest knots in the sky.
In the sky
Finding Pisces: Sep 15 to Oct 22, 2027
Pisces is faint and spread out. Look for the Circlet, a small ring of stars beneath the Great Square of Pegasus that marks the western fish. The knot star, Alrescha, sits at the point of a long V.
2026: sign Feb 18, 2026, 15:52 UTC to Mar 20, 2026, 14:46 UTC. Sun in the stars: Mar 13 to Apr 18, 2026 (37 days). (Why the 23-day gap.) Pisces peaks at midnight near Oct 3, 2027.
Pick your telling
The cord between two figures is older than the Greek fish.
3 versions of the two fish.
Pisces, 3 ways
Carried by fish
Fleeing Typhon, Venus (Dione) and Cupid enter the Euphrates; two fish carry them across and are placed among the stars.
Source: Ovid, Fasti 2.457-474
See it yourself. Pisces: Sep 15 to Oct 22, 2027.
More to read
One shorter read. It opens in place.
In astrology
Why the fish are the last sign
Jupiter rules Pisces in traditional astrology, with Neptune as its modern ruler, and it is read as the sign of empathy, imagination and dissolving boundaries. It is the last sign of the tropical zodiac, and, because of precession, the spring equinox point now sits among its stars. The myth's best gift is the cord: two creatures pulling different ways, still bound by love. Look for that in your Pisces placements.
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Pisces by the numbers
| Dates | Days | |
|---|---|---|
| Sign | Feb 18 to Mar 20, 2026 | 30 |
| Sun in the stars | Mar 13 to Apr 18, 2026 | 37 |
| Midnight season | Sep 15 to Oct 22, 2027 | 38 |
All times are UTC. In the Americas the local date can be a day earlier; in Asia and Australia a day later.
Quick answers
What is the Greek myth of Pisces?
Aphrodite (Venus) and her son Eros (Cupid) fled the monster Typhon to the Euphrates river. Two fish carried them to safety, or they turned into fish, and the fish were placed in the sky tied together.
Who is the Greek god of Pisces?
Aphrodite and Eros are the figures in the myth. Astrologically Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, with Neptune (Poseidon) as its modern ruler.
Why are the Pisces fish tied together?
So that mother and son would not be separated in the river, in the usual reading. The knot is marked by the star Alrescha, "the cord."
Why do the Pisces fish swim in opposite directions?
That is how the stars fall: one fish runs below Pegasus, the other up toward Andromeda, with the cord meeting at a point. Astrologers read it as a sign pulled two ways.
Is the spring equinox in Pisces?
In the constellation, yes. Precession has moved the equinox point out of the stars of Aries and into Pisces. The tropical sign Aries still begins at the equinox by definition.
