cassiopiea
Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus, the Ethiopian king of Joppa (now known as Jaffa, in Israel), and the mother of Andromeda. The queen was both beautiful and vain, and the story of how her vanity caused great distress is told in relation to the constellation Andromeda. After promising her daughter in marriage to Perseus, Cassiopeia had second thoughts. She convinced one of Poseidon's sons, Agenor, to disrupt the ceremony by claiming Andromeda for himself. Agenor arrived with an entire army, and a fierce struggle ensued. In the battle Cassiopeia is said to have cried "Perseus must die". At any rate it was Perseus who was victorious, with the help of the Gorgon's head. Perseus had recently slain Medusa, the Gorgon, and had put its head in a bed of coral. He retrieved the head and waved it in midst of the warring wedding party, instantly turning them all to stone. In the group was both Cepheus and Cassiopeia. A contrite Poseidon put both father and mother
But because of Cassiopeia's vanity, he placed her in a chair which revolves around the Pole Star, so half the time she's obliged to sit upside down. Although she was placed in the heavens by Neptune, the sea-god saw fit to humiliate her one final time (and for all eternity). Cassiopeia has many fine binaries, a few variables of note, and several interesting deep sky objects. By most accounts, Cassiopeia was quite happy with the match. She is most famous in connection with the myth of her daughter, Andromeda. The Nereids begged Poseidon to punish the pride of Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia had the presumption to claim that she was even more lovely than the exquisite Nereids, the fifty sea nymphs who were the daughters of the gentle god Nereus, known as the Old Man of the Sea. The king and queen were ordered to sacrifice their daughter to appease Neptune's wrath, and would have done so had Perseus not arrived to kill the monster in the nick of time. This he did by sending the monster Cetus to ravage Ethiopia. Neptune promptly sent a sea monster (possibly Cetus?) to ravage the coast. The Bayer stars are generally third and fourth magnitude, with the exception of the first four stars which make up the "chair". The Nereids' RevengeNow the Nereid Amphitrite was the wife of Poseidon the God of the Sea. The Upside-down QueenAs an added punishment Cassiopeia was placed in the sky to revolve around the celestial pole forever, sometimes hanging upside down in undignified positions. Name: CASSIOPEIA Translation: Ethiopian Queen Abbreviation: Cas Genitive: Cassiopeiae Size: 25 Regions: Circumpolar RA: 1hour Decl: +60 degrees Season: Anytime Midnight Culmination: 9 October Pages where CASSIOPEIA is discussed in Chet Raymo's 365 Starry Nights: 169,184-188 Queen Cassiopeia is the lovely, but vain queen and wife to King Cepheus of Ethiopia.
Common topics in this essay:
Nereids Juno,
Pole Star,
Andromeda Agenor,
Jaffa Israel,
Upside-down Queen,
Gorgon Medusa,
Medusa Gorgon,
Sea Nereids,
King Cepheus,
Ethiopia Cassiopeia,
god sea,
king cepheus,
daughter andromeda,
andromeda queen,
wife cepheus,
cetus ravage,
mother andromeda,
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Acceptance Essays
