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neufer
- Vacationer at Tralfamadore
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Post
by neufer » Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:13 pm
Wikipedia wrote:Andromeda was chained naked to a rock on the coast of Jaffa.
Arab woman in Jaffa, 1889
(Unchained) Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and together they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae through the line of their son Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons: Perseides, Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, and Electryon, and one daughter, Gorgophone.
Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus attained the kingdom, and would also include the great hero Heracles. According to this mythology, Perses is the ancestor of the Persians.
Well, Andromeda was basically between Iraq and a hard place.
(But Andromeda gave us "degenerate" Electryons like _Heracles Unchained_ first!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa wrote:
<<Jaffa/Joppa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa is located south of Tel Aviv, Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. The name of Jaffa or Yafo is most probably a western Semitic one, being related to the Hebrew word yafah, which signifies "beautiful" (fem) . In the Hebrew Bible the Mediterranean is called the Yaffa Sea. There are several legends about the origin of the name Jaffa. Some say it is named for Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, who built it after the Great Flood.
Archaeological evidence shows that Jaffa was inhabited some 7,500 years BCE. Jaffa's natural harbor has been in use since the Bronze Age. Jaffa is mentioned in an Ancient Egyptian letter from 1470 BCE, glorifying its conquest by Pharaoh Thutmose III, who hid armed warriors in large baskets and gave the baskets as a present to the Canaanite city's governor.
Jaffa is mentioned in the Bible as the place whence the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish (Book of Jonah 1:3).>>
http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/planetarium/thesky/constellationlore/cetus.asp wrote:
<<
Cetus (SEE-tuss), the Sea Monster/Whale , is a sprawl of mostly faint stars lurking in the depths of the Autumn sky. It represents the creature threatening Princess Andromeda. The Sea Monster surfaces from the eastern in October, rises midway up the southern sky in December, and dives in the west in February.
What to look for: Cetus swims south and east of Princess Andromeda, Pisces the Fish and Aries the Ram. It's brightest star is second magnitude Diphda, Beta Ceti, near the mouth of the Sea Monster. The next brightest star, Menkar, Alpha Ceti, is magnitude 2.5, located in the Monster's tail. The famous long-period variable star Mira, Omicron Ceti, has a maximum brightness of 3.4. Also of interest is Tau Ceti, one of the nearest stars at only 11.9 light-years from the Sun.>>
Art Neuendorffer
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neufer
- Vacationer at Tralfamadore
- Posts: 18805
- Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
- Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Post
by neufer » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:08 pm
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. _Moby Dick_
.
<<Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda- indeed, by some
supposed to be indirectly derived from it- is that famous story of St.
George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale;
for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled
together, and often stand for each other. "Thou art as a lion of the
waters, and as a dragon of the sea," said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly
meaning a whale; in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word
itself. Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit
had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead
of doing battle with the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a
snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in
them to march boldly up to a whale. Let not the modern paintings of
this scene mislead us; for though the creature encountered by that
valiant whaleman of old is vaguely represented of a griffin-like
shape, and though the battle is depicted on land and the saint on
horseback, yet considering the great ignorance of those times, when
the true form of the whale was unknown to artists; and considering
that as in Perseus' case, St. George's whale might have crawled up out
of the sea on the beach; and considering that the animal ridden by St.
George might have been only a large seal, or sea-horse; bearing all
this in mind, it will not appear altogether incompatible with the
sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene, to hold this
so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan himself. In fact,
placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story will
fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by
name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and
both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or
fishy part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp,
even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by good
rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most
noble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the KNIGHTS of
that honorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever
had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never
eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks
and tarred trowers we are much better entitled to
St. George's decoration than they. >>
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Art Neuendorffer