Editing First point of Aries (section)

==History==
[[File:Equinozio da Pizzo Vento,tramonto fondachelli fantina, sicilia.JPG|thumb|equinox seen from the site of Pizzo Vento at [[Fondachelli-Fantina]], [[Sicily]]]]

The choice of starting position from which to measure the Sun's motion across the celestial sphere is arbitrary. The equinoxes are preferred as an equinox marks the point in time when the Sun has neither northern nor southern declination but is crossing the celestial equator. Of the two possible equinoxes the ancient Greeks chose the March equinox as the starting point.  This coincided with the festival of [[Hilaria]], a time of optimism and beginnings where farmers began to sow or observed the first growth and blossoming of trees and summer crops.<ref>R Turcan. 1996. The Cults of the Roman Empire. pp.  44-47</ref>  The naming of [[Aries (constellation)|Aries]] is late in the [[Babylonian zodiac]] where the equinox was in its earliest tradition marked as in the early [[Middle Bronze Age]] by actual coincidence with the [[Pleiades]].{{sfn|Rogers, ''Mesopotamian Traditions''|1998}} The time also corresponds to the time of [[castration]] of male calves, mules and donkeys, ''Sanguia'' on the vernal equinox and marked the start of spring proper.{{sfn|Ridpath, ''Star Tales'' Aries: The Ram}}{{sfn|Winterburn|2008|pp=230–231}}

The first point of Aries is so called because, when [[Hipparchus]] defined it in 130 BCE, it was located in the western extreme of the constellation of Aries, near its border with [[Pisces (constellation)|Pisces]] and the star [[Gamma Arietis|γ Arietis]]. Due to the [[Sun]]'s eastward movement across the sky throughout the year, this western end of Aries was the point at which the Sun entered the constellation, hence the name ''first point'' of Aries.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}