The gate of the year

Medallion representing the Zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram, from the Church of Saint-Lazare, Avallon, Bourgogne, France, XII century.
The ram was regarded as an animal particularly associated with generative power: the exaggerated size of its genitals, as well as its horns, were deemed as exterior signs of its reproductive capacity. The authors of medieval bestiaries maintained that a single ram could fecundate forty sheep, and some of them reach up to one hundred. According to some traditions, the ram slept lying on its right side, but, when the spring equinox approached, it turned on the left side to sleep (Pastoureau 2012, p. 138-139). Such a belief cannot be dissociated from the fact that the sun enters the Zodiacal sign of the Ram just in correspondence with the spring equinox. For this reason, it was believed that the lambs born in the spring were bigger and fatter than the others.

[Image: http://www.amolenuvolette.it/root/image/abrupt_clio_team.folder/merveilles% 20des%20%C3%A9gllises% 20romanes.folder/]




Animals

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Medallion representing the Zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram, from the Church of Saint-Lazare, Avallon, Bourgogne, France, XII century. The ram was regarded as an animal particularly associated with generative power: the exaggerated size of its genitals, as well as its horns, were deemed as exterior signs of its reproductive capacity. The authors of medieval bestiaries maintained that a single ram could fecundate forty sheep, and some of them reach up to one hundred. According to some traditions, the ram slept lying on its right side, but, when the spring equinox approached, it turned on the left side to sleep (Pastoureau 2012, p. 138-139). Such a belief cannot be dissociated from the fact that the sun enters the Zodiacal sign of the Ram just in correspondence with the spring equinox. For this reason, it was believed that the lambs born in the spring were bigger and fatter than the others. [Image: http://www.amolenuvolette.it/root/image/abrupt_clio_team.folder/merveilles% 20des%20%C3%A9gllises% 20romanes.folder/]