A SUMMER DRAMA.
The Stars of this ancient Royal Family shine conspicuously in the Northeast during the late summer evenings.
CHAPTER V
THE STORY OF ANDROMEDA IN STARS
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| CEPHEUS, the King. | ANDROMEDA, the Princess. |
| CASSIOPEIA, the Queen. | PEGASUS, the Flying Horse. |
| PERSEUS, the Hero. | CETUS, the Sea-monster. |
LIKE the shadow of a dream among the summer stars of the northern sky is a wonderful story of romance and adventure. This story has been mentioned in all Greek literature of the 5th century before Christ, in incidents portrayed on early vases and in wall-paintings found in Pompeii, and its characters have been immortalized on brilliant groups of stars.
The tale that I am about to recount has lived since the time when great fabled sea-monsters were wont to appear and frighten the people along the coasts of the Mediterranean. Wild with terror, the king and his subjects would fly to the temples for protection and would even sacrifice their loved ones if an oracle so decreed.
In an age long past, scientists tell us, strange beasts actually inhabited the waters of the ocean. This they know for they have found the fossilized skeletons. For the sake of the romance let us imagine that some of these still survived in Andromeda's time; that one such monster had wandered in through the straits to the blue waters of the Mediterranean during the reign of her father King Cepheus, and that this king, following the advice of an oracle, actually chained his daughter to a rock upon the sea-shore believing that by this supreme sacrifice the wrath of Neptune might be appeased. Storms, wrecks and other disasters relating to the sea were thought to be the handiwork of the Sea-god seeking revenge for some fancied insult. Seeing the strange sea-beast appear along their coast, the Ethiopians probably considered all their sins and decided the cause was the excessive vanity of their Queen. Thus, from a bare thread, a beautiful story was elaborated and woven about Andromeda, the Princess; Perseus, the Hero; Cassiopeia, the Queen; Cepheus, the King; and Cetus, the terrible Sea-monster.
Not only was Cassiopeia proud and beautiful, but she wished others to be envious of her beauty, and to prove her superiority sent challengers throughout the country so that none might question it. In the excess of her vanity, she deliberately took her throne and sat in state by the shore, loudly repeating her boasts to show that she did not fear even the peerless sea-nymphs.
When the news of this audacious performance reached the ears of the Nereids who inhabited the depths of the Mediterranean, there was great excitement, but particularly was it resented by the sea-beauty Atergatis who straightway swam to the palace of Neptune, under the Ægean Sea, and begged him to avenge the insult offered to his nymphs. Neptune, furious at the effrontery of the Ethiopian Queen, shook the land of King Cepheus until the hills cracked and sent his waves to flood the country and wash away the coast. With the onrushing waters came the ferocious sea-monster which loitered near the shores and the mouths of the rivers and destroyed every man and animal that came within its reach.
Terrified by such a combination of calamities, Cepheus and Cassiopeia fled to the oracle of Jupiter, but they found no peace here, for the oracle informed them that the only way to make amends and ward off the evil that had befallen them, lay in the sacrifice of their innocent daughter Andromeda. There being no alternative, Cepheus was compelled by his subjects to submit to these terms, and taking poor Andromeda to the sea-beach, chained her wrists and ankles and fastened them to staples driven in a rock upon the shore. In the meantime the population of the entire city had gathered weeping upon a cliff, while in the distance Neptune's monster, sensing the commotion, swam steadily nearer, with his wicked, gloating eyes staring fixedly on the dainty morsel baited on the rocks.