The maiden and the ear of wheat
Virgo is the maiden of justice who left the earth when people turned wicked. She holds an ear of wheat, marked by the bright star Spica.
In the tradition
Aratus tells how Dike, Justice, lived among people in the golden age, withdrew to the hills in the silver age and fled to the sky in the bronze age. Ovid calls her Astraea, the last of the gods to leave the earth.
Spica means ear of grain in Latin, and Virgo’s season is the harvest. Hyginus also lists other names for her, among them Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain.
In the cards
The Empress sits in a ripe wheat field, and Waite reports that Justice was said to be Astraea.
Sources
- Aratus, Phaenomena (3rd century BCE). The Greek poem on the constellations that most later star lore follows.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses (8 CE). The Latin poem of transformations, the best-known telling of many of the zodiac myths.
- Hyginus, De Astronomia (1st century BCE or later). The Latin handbook of constellation myths, often giving several versions side by side.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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