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Aries

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Aries

Leo

See also sign interpretations

Aries Sign #1
Symbol	Ram
Element	Fire
Mode	Cardinal
Opposite Sign	Libra
Part of Body Ruled	The head

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Approximate dates of when Sun transits Aries
Tropical zodiac	March 21-April 19
Sidereal zodiac	April 19-May 13

Dignities & Debilities of Planets in Aries
	Modern	Ancient
Domicile	Mars	Mars
Exaltation	Sun	Sun
Detriment/Exile	Venus	Venus
Fall	Saturn	Saturn

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Aries is a fire sign (along with Sagittarius and Leo). It is the domicile of Mars and the Exaltation of the Sun. It is also one of the four Cardinal signs (along with Libra, Capricorn, and Cancer). Its polar opposite is Libra. Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Aries rules the head. The symbol for Aries is the ram.

Mythology

When including fainter stars, visible to the naked eye, the area resembles the head of a ram. In Greek mythology, this is believed to represent the ram which carried Athamas's son Phrixus and daughter Helle to Colchis to escape their stepmother Ino. Helle fell off into the sea which later became the Hellespont. On reaching safety, Phrixis (rather ungratefully) sacrificed the ram and hung its golden fleece in the Grove of Ares, where it turned to gold and later became the quest of Jason and the Argonauts. It appears that Babylonians, Greeks, Persians and Egyptians all agreed on the name of the Ram for this constellation.

The main area of the sky constituting the sign of Aries, containing part of Pisces, the Pleiades, and the constellation of Andromeda, may be the origin of the myth of the girdle of Hippolyte, which forms part of The Twelve Labours of Herakles.