The Aquarius is seen how a young man that pours the divine nectar
from a vase, from which it draws the Southern Fish. This constellation
has ancient origins: for the Egyptians it represented the god of the
Nile, but the Greek inherited it not attributing her any reference
to the sacred river.
The Arabs assigned to the brightest stars that compose it
some unusual names: alpha aquarii became so sa'd al-malik
(today Sadalmelik), "the fortunate stars of the king"; beta aquarii
was called sa'd al-su'ud (today Sadalsuud), "the most fortunate of
the fortunate ones"; finally gamma aquarii became sa'd alakhbiya
(today Sadachbia), perhaps "fortunate stars of the curtains.
" Nobody knows however with certainty the motive for such denominations.
In the mythology Greek-Roman, the constellation of the Aquarius identified
the young Ganimede, the most beautiful boy in the Earth, child of the King
Tros from which taken name the mythical city of Troy. Zeus fell in love
of him and, changed him in eagle (whose constellation is in fact as soon
as above the Aquarius), he abducted him bringing him him in the Olimpo:
down there the youth became the drawer of the gods, that is who
poured the divine nectar in the cup of the numis and the top god, with
great jealousy of his wife. According to another version
she would have been Eos, the goddess of the aurora, to abduct him
but Zeus stole him to you. Ganimede became in Greece the divine symbol
of the homosexuality, to Rome instead the symbol of the corruption, gives
the orientation "puritanical" of the italic population.
According to Germanic Caesar he treated instead of Deucalione the child of
Prometeo that repopulated the Earth with his wife Pirra after the
universal downpour: he is represented in the action to pour the water from
which he ran away.
Igino speaks of Cecrops instead, one of the first kings of Athens, that
in the sky offer in sacrifice to the gods the water, only drink of his
kingdom when wine was not known yet.