2. CETUS (The Sea Monster).
The Great Enemy Bound.
When John sees the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Lamb's wife (Rev. xxi. 10, 2), Satan has been bound already: for we read, a few verses before (xx. 1-3): “I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that Old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him [and kept him bound] a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.”
This is what we see in the second section of this chapter—the second constellation in Aries.
Plate 26: CETUS (the Sea Monster)
The picture is that of a great Sea-monster, the largest of all the constellations. It is the natural [pg 113] enemy of fishes, hence it is placed here in connection with this last chapter, in which fishes are so prominent.
It is situated very low down among the constellations—far away towards the south or lower regions of the sky.
Its name in the Denderah Zodiac is Knem, which means subdued. It is pictured as a monstrous head, trodden under foot by the swine, the natural enemy of the serpent. The hawk also (another enemy of the serpent) is over this figure, crowned with a mortar, denoting bruising.
It consists of 97 stars, of which two are of the 2nd magnitude, eight of the 3rd, nine of the 4th, etc.