The symbol for Aquarius, the Water Bearer or Carrier, suggests the willingness of the Aquarian to 'pour out refreshment' to people, especially to those in need, freely.

Zodiac Origins

Traditionally Aquarius is a Zodiac constellation between Pisces and Capricorn and the eleventh sign of the Zodiac. The symbol for Aquarius, the Water Bearer or Carrier, suggests the willingness of the Aquarian to 'pour out refreshment' to people, especially to those in need, freely.

The symbol is found in several cultures in antiquity, including the Babylonian and Egyptian. The presence of the symbol in Babylonian culture is much older than its Egyptian use, since astrology did not develop in Egypt until the 6th Century BC, over 2000 years after its beginnings in Babylon. The symbol of the Water Bearer was well known in ancient Greece.

The Greeks took their mythology into the heavens by identifying constellations with their gods and heroes. The myth of Ganymede is recorded in Homer's Iliad, Book V, about the 9th Century BC, but was a much older oral tradition before then. In the Greek myth of Ganymede, Zeus, the king of the gods, fell in love with the grandson of the founder of Troy, Ganymede, and spirited him away to be the immortal cup bearer of the gods, where he took his place as cup bearer in the 12 starred constellation of Aquarius.