Pisces represents two small fish tied by their tails by two long 'star lines' which meet at a common star sometimes called Al Rischa or the "Knot Star."
"Their tails point to an angle
Filled by a goodly star."
—Aratus.
Although the constellation occupies a large space in the heavens it has no conspicuous stars in it. It is best seen when the parallelogram of Orion is in the sky and may be located above and to the west of Cetus. Look for it on the first of January about 8 P. M. although it is also viewed to good advantage when passing the meridian during the evenings of October and November. Pisces lies in a region which in early times was known as "the Sea" because several other sea-creatures such as the Dolphin, which lies west of the Square, the Sea-goat and the Whale are found here.
Some authorities claim that when the fire-breathing giant Typhon appeared in Thessaly, the horrible creature so frightened the inhabitants of Olympus that they fled to the Nile where they concealed themselves under assumed shapes. Here the great god Jupiter
"was changed into a Ram
From whence the horns of Libyan Ammon came."
and the fun loving Pan into a sea-goat, now the constellation Capricornus, while the goddess Venus and her son Cupid threw themselves into the river and were changed into two fishes, which are now represented by Pisces, in the sky. The fate of Typhon has already been mentioned, and even modern Sicilians have seen Etna burst its crown to let out his fiery breath.
Just below Andromeda and above the head of Cetus is a long slim triangle-shaped figure called Triangulum, the Triangle, and a crooked line formed by a large star and two smaller ones called Aries, the Ram.
In legend, Aries was a great ram with a golden fleece and possessed the ability to fly. Mercury brought this beautiful creature to Helle and Prixus, the persecuted children of the King of Thessaly, so that they might climb upon its back and escape across the sea from their cruel stepmother. On the way over, Helle lost her hold on the fleece, sank under the waves and was drowned. Commemorating this tragedy, the sea was ever after called the Sea of Helle or the Hellespont but in modern days, the Dardanelles. The Dardanelles is a narrow channel separating Europe from Asia, and is the "Hellespont" that Leander so faithfully swam when visiting Hero, his sweetheart. Prixus, coming safely to the end of his journey, dedicated the ram to Jupiter who placed it among the stars. It is now a zodiacal constellation with the horns of the ram for its sign: ♈︎. The golden fleece, while on earth, was of course very desirable so that it was fastened to an oak tree in the sacred grove of the War-god Mars at the eastern end of the Black Sea and a sleepless dragon was wound around the tree-trunk to protect it. It was to obtain this fleece that, in 936 B. C., Jason built a fifty-oared galley—the first of ships—and invited the heroes of Greece to go with him on the expedition. This adventurous undertaking was afterward known as the Argonautic Expedition. The ship Argo was placed in the sky as a southern constellation, or at least a part of it was for the bow is said to have been lost when passing through the Bosporus.