More about the Capricorn

Season 5, Episode 1: Capricorn

The Capricorn is often called a goat-fish or a sea-goat as it has the front half of a goat and the back half of a fish.

Image from askastrology.com

It's most commonly known as a constellation, especially since it's one of the constellations of the zodiac.  (December 22nd-January 19th)  According to Cosmopolitan (the experts), people born under the sign of Capricorn are "practical, self reliant, stoic and ambitious.  You'd want them in your corner... but maybe not at a party."

Imagery of sea-goats dates back to Babylonian times, but there isn't a whole lot of information about their myths.  Sea-goats are often associated with the Egyptian god Khnum, who is part man, part goat.

There's one story (with a bunch of variants) where after the Greek Olympian gods defeated the titans, one titan, Typhon, was unhappy about this and attacked, forcing the gods to flee to Egypt and go into hiding as various animals.  Dionysus turned into a goat and while hanging out in Egypt jumped/drunkenly fell into the Nile.  As the titan was about to land a killing blow against Zeus, a drowning Dionysus called out in surprise, and the titan was distracted, wondering what that alarmed goat noise was, enough for Zeus to finish him off.  Zeus was so pleased with Dionysus' quick thinking (sure, Zeus, we'll call it that) that he turned Dionysus into a constellation and let him ride through the heavens forever.  This story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because Dionysus is still kicking around on earth long after this event, so sometimes instead of Dionysus, it's the god Pan, and since Pan and Dionysus are so similar they get interchanged a lot.

But my favorite story about sea-goats is about Pricus, the immortal father of the sea-goat race.  He and his children lived in the ocean, but enjoyed pulling themselves up onto the beach with their front hooves to sun themselves.  However, as the sea-goats spent time on land, they became more goat than sea-goat and they forgot how to reason and speak until they were eventually just regular old goats.  This made Pricus very sad, and he forbade all his children from going on land, which just made them churlish and determined to go on land anyway.  You can't tell me what to do, dad!  But!  Pricus was created by Chronus, the god of time, and so Pricus possessed magic time powers, where he was able to turn back time and no one would know except him. This brought his wayward goat children back into the ocean where he would have a second chance to keep them off land.  Then a third chance.  And a fourth.  Eventually he realized there was no stopping them, and he stopped turning back time.  He begged Chronus to let him die, but Chronus said no and instead turned him into a constellation so he could watch his mindless goat children do goat things for all eternity.

There's a lot going on there!

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure: my mom is a Capricorn.  Capricorns and moms are linked in my brain for all time, so this story caught my attention because the Capricorn is a parent.  So I, of course, called my mom, told her all about it, and then asked what she thought about it, as a Capricorn.  She said it certainly fit with her understanding of Capricorns, in that they're stubborn, and if their babies turn into goats, they'll just try again and again and again until their babies cut it out.  Then she asked me, as the daughter of a Capricorn what I thought of it.  I said that I didn't know, because she's always been very supportive of my decisions and has never told me to not turn into a goat.  "That's true," she said.  "I've never told you not to turn into a goat."  She then said that if I did want to turn into a goat, she would try to be supportive, and then listed several reasons why it would be a bad idea.