"She still in heaven her captive form retains,
And on her wrists still hang the galling chains."
—Aratus.
According to some of the poets, Jupiter was so inordinately proud of the youth's achievements, that he caused all the principal characters in his adventures to be immortalized in stars, the sea-monster sharing the honor in a dim constellation far to the south. He, as well as the horse, has been given a name and even grave astronomers call him "Cetus."
For a thousand years the famous rock was shown at Joppa and the slaying of the Medusa and the rescue of Andromeda were favorite subjects in ancient art. Artists thrilled to their theme as they made it glow in colors on their canvases, and poets made the story live again and again. If anyone wonders what became of the awful Medusa's head after Perseus had won Andromeda for his bride, it might be well to add that after reducing two courts of cowardly nobles to statues of stone, Perseus gave the head to the goddess Minerva who placed it on her shield. This goddess is very chaste and with the fearful head has since succeeded in freezing all beholders.
ANDROMEDA, THE PRINCESS
The charming Princess Andromeda wears her chains in the sky just as she did upon the sea-shore of the earth, only as a constellation she has a line of pretty yellow stars on which to rest, one of the stars lighting her dark hair, one adorning her girdle and one sparkling like a jewel upon her sandal. The head of the Princess lies against the Square of Pegasus, the Winged Horse, and her feet reach out almost to Perseus, who with a ready sword watches her protectingly.
The orange star on Andromeda's sandal is the radiant point of the Biela meteors. These appear every year on the 27th of November. This star is a delight to the eye when viewed through a large telescope, for not only one star is disclosed but three—a sea-green and a blue beside the one of orange-gold!
Just above Mirach, the star on the girdle, are two fainter stars and a small misty object. A large telescope will show that this misty object is a long shuttle-shaped nebula of the most colossal size. This is the famous nebula of Andromeda, the only spiral nebula in the heavens which may be located without a telescope. The nebula of Andromeda is not a gaseous nebula but an outside universe, an aggregation of millions of suns comparable to the Galaxy. (The Galaxy is our Milky Way.)