Abbreviation: Vir
Genitive: Virginis
Right Ascension: 13.21 hours
Declination: -3.73 degrees
Virgo, the Virgin, can be seen in spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
Virgo the Goddess probably originated when the Sun was in Virgo during the spring equinox, the time of the Egyptian harvest. She is usually drawn holding a palm branch and an ear of wheat.
To the Babylonians she was the goddess Istar, Queen of the stars, and the lover of the god of corn, Tammuz. Tammuz was cut down in his prime in the autumn, and so Virgo travels the underworld to bring him back. While Virgo is in the underworld, winter reigns, when she returns with him in the spring, the season renew.
