Het sterrenbeeld Ariës (Ram) is één van de oudste sterrenbeelden. De Ram maakt deel uit van de dierenriem.

De ram met de gouden vacht is het "kind" van de god Poseidon en Theopahne, de dochter van Bialus. Het verhaal gaat dat Poseidon haar veranderde in een schaap om haar zo weg te houden van haar vele aanbidders. De god zelf, nooit weg van een avontuurtje, veranderde zich in een ram. De ram die het resultaat was van dit avontuurtje kennen we niet hierdoor.

De ram droeg de kinderen Phrixus en Helle van koning Athamas van Boetia op zijn rug over het water dat wij nu kennen als de Hellespont. Volgens Eratothenes hadden de kinderen de ram gekregen van hun moeder Nephele (de naam betekent "wolk"). Na de oversteek over de doorgang tussen Europa en Azië verloor de ram en het meisje Helle en een hoorn. Poseidon redde het meisje van de verdrinking.

Hyginius verteld ons dat de jongen Phrixus veilig het koninkrijk Cholchis bereikte. Als dank hiervoor offerde hij de ram met de gouden vacht aan Zeus. De gouden vacht kreeg een plaats boven het altaar in de tempel. Erasthostenes daarentegen zegt dat de ram zijn vacht als een souvenir aan de jongen gaf. De ram staat nu als sterrenbeeld aan de hemel. De sterren van het sterrenbeeld zijn zwak en moeilijk herkenbaar. De helderste ster van de ram haalt net magnitude 3, de rest is zwakker.

De gouden vacht van de ram is later bekend geworden van de avonturen van Jason en de Argonauten.

Mythological Background:

There are two stories about the heavenly Ram:
1.Once Athamas was king of Bootia. He and his wife Nephele had a son called Phrixus and a daughter called Helle. When time went by Athamas left Nephele and married Ino. But Ino fell in love with Phrixus, yet he didn't want her. This rejection made her so angry that she tried to kill him and his sister. But Phrixus and Helle were safed by their mother, who sent a ram to tell them to fly and go to Kolchis (Hyginus, Fabulae).
This ram was Chrysomallus, the son of the sea god Neptun and Theophane. He accompanied brother and sister. But only Phrixus reached Kolchis; his sister drowned on their way (the part where she drowned was named after her: Hellepontos; Apollodorus, c.Cf. Tzetzes ad Lycophr. v.22). Once in Kolchis Chrysomallus told Phrixus to sacrifice him (Schol. Apollonius ad. L.I.256). He gave his golden coat as farewell present and after his death he immediately went up to the stars and placed himself between the stars. Because he has no longer his golden coat, he is not very conspicious (Hygninus, Poeticon Astronomicum, L.II.c.20 and Eratosthenes, Catasterismi.
2.When Bacchus and his suite wandered through the lyberian desert, they were rescued from certain death by a ram, who showed them the way to a well. As a reward Bacchus set the ram under the stars and chose the place in a way, that whenever the sun wanderes through it everything on earth becomes green again and starts to flower (see: Hermippus and Hygenius; Poeticon Astronomicum lib.II.c.20).

3. Beschrijving van het sterrenbeeld Ram door de Hawaiian Astronomical Society

Two traditions lie behind Aries. The first identifies it with the Golden Fleece that Jason and the people of the Argo sought to recover. Before Aries was a fleece, it was a ram that played an important role in the lives of two children. It begins as the usual evil stepmother story. One of Jason's uncles, Athamas, king of the Minyons, married Nephele, goddess of the clouds. He had two children by her, Phrixus and Helle. Athamas then fell in love with Ino, later to become the goddess of sea foam. She hated Nephele's children and urged Athamas to sacrifice Phrixus to the gods to end a famine. Nephele appeared in a vision to Phrixus the night before the sacrifice, bearing a ram with a golden fleece. Phrixus and Helle escaped on the Ram's back. Helle fell off and drowned as the ram crossed the sea. That particular location is sometimes still called the Hellespont (more often the Dardanelles, after Dardanus, one of the founders of Troy). Phrixus continued to the eastern end of the Black Sea (called the Euxine in ancient times), settled in Colchis (current western Georgia), sacrificed the ram and placed the ram's fleece under the care of a never sleeping dragon.

Ino was the daughter of Cadmus, incurring the wrath of Hera for agreeing with Zeus to help raise Dionysus. Depending on the source, either she, Athamas, or both were driven mad through Hera's actions and killed their own children. Melicertes her son alone escaped by jumping into the sea ahead of Ino. Ino changed into a goddess, later helping Odysseus on his journey home. She is also known as Leucothea. Melicertes' body was carried by dolphins to his uncle Sisyphus of Corinth, who founded the Isthmian games in his honor. Melicertes may be linked with the Phoenician god Melqart (the Canaanite Baal of Tyre, sometimes called Baal Amon), which brings us to the second tradition.

Baal Amon (or Hammon) is derived from the Egyptian god Amon. Amon merged with the sun god Re (or Ra) as early as the late third millennium B.C. His cult was based in Thebes, the city ostensibly founded by Cadmus. Amon was usually depicted in human form, with the exception that he sometimes had a ram's head. His cult survived the attempt by Amenhotep IV (or Akhenaton) to replace his worship with the worship of Aton (the solar disk) in the 14th century B.C.. Worship of Amon declined sharply in the 1st century B.C., replaced by the cult of Isis, Osiris, and Horus.