The yellow 3rd magnitude star on the upper end of the corner in Virgo has for many ages been called Vindemiatrix, which means "Grape-Gatherer."
It is believed that the star was given this curious name because it was observed to rise before the sun in the season in which grapes ripened. Vindemiatrix has a minute distant companion of a deep red color. The star at the other end of the corner has the interesting name of Zavijava, while the point is noted as a binary having a period of 185 years.
Spica, the "jewel of the Virgin," is best located by dropping an imaginary line through Arcturus from the handle of the Big Dipper. It rises about an hour later than Arcturus (who first appears at sunset during the latter part of March), and travels in a curve through the south.
These two stars contrast beautifully as they swing through the sky like gold and silver globes of fire strung on an invisible thread. A tale current among ancient people was that Virgo, the Virgin, was once Astræa, Goddess of Purity and Justice, who lived on earth during the Golden Age when all men were happy. During the Silver Age contentment still prevailed and the Gods lingered although men were less perfect and the world less tranquil. When the Bronze Age was ushered in men became so inferior that the work of Astræa's office was ignored and she fled in sorrow to the sky.
"Even so long as the earth still nurtured the Golden Race, she had her dwelling on earth. But with the Silver Race only a little and no longer with utter readiness did she mingle—
"When the Bronze Race was born she loathed them for they forged the sword of the highwayman, ate the flesh of the plowing ox and engaged in strife and discord."
—Aratus (Trans. C. R. MAIR).
Somehow the goodness and purity of Astræa were incorporated in one beautiful star called Spica, and this star shone with such exceeding whiteness that the whole constellation became Virgo, the Virgin. The pictures drawn on the maps vision a goddess with wings carrying a palm branch in one hand and an ear of wheat in the other. In some of the older maps, the goddess carries a balance or a pair of golden scales with which to weigh the fate of mortals, but this is now a separate constellation—Libra, the Scales—lying to the east of Virgo. In classic days, the two bright stars which mark the Scales were on the claws of the Scorpion which were then pictured as more extended.