Carpe Diem #809 Andromeda

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share haiku, tanka or another nice Japanese poetry form.
This month we will leave our beloved planet Earth to go on 'a space odyssey' a trip to the stars to encounter a wonderful range of constellations. There are 88 registered constellations and they all have their own story, their own mythology, and we are going to explore them.

I love watching the night sky all those stars close by and far off our earth, or those neighboring planets far away from us, but we can see them like little stars. Will there be other life out there in the universe? Will we maybe encounter them? In a way we will encounter other life, alien life, because there are constellations named like mythological creatures and people, or gods and godesses. We will 'read' their life ... through the stars ... the constellations.

Credits: Andromeda Galaxy

Today we will 'visit' a young woman whom was chained to the rocks because she was a sacrifice for a seamonster. She was rescued by Perseus. Here is the story, the myth behind this constellation "Andromeda".

The Myth of Perseus

Perseus is the son of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and a mortal woman. The woman's husband, Polydectes, king of Seriphos, was naturally angry, but when your wife has an affair with a god, what can you do? So, instead, when Perseus grew up Polydectes sent him on what he believed was an impossible quest. The king sent his step-son out to kill Medusa, one of three sisters called the Gorgons who were so ugly, anyone who looked at them would turn to stone. He appealed to the gods for help and was given a mirrored shield by Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and a pair of winged sandals by Hermes (also known as Mercury), the messenger of the gods. Perseus flew using the sandals to find Medusa. When he found her, he did not look at her. Instead, he used the reflection in the shield to guide his sword so he could behead her as she slept. As she died, the white, winged horse Pegasus sprang from her neck.

On his way back from his victory against the Gorgons, Perseus came across a woman chained to a rock, waiting to be sacrificed to a sea monster, called either Cetus or Draco, depending on which version of the myth you believe. This woman was Andromeda, the Princess. Her mother, Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Nereids (or sea nymphs), which were the daughters of Poseidon (or Neptune), the god of the sea. Angered by the insult to his daughters, Poseidon sent floods to the lands ruled by Cassiopeia and her husband, King Cepheus. Cepheus consulted an oracle who told him that the only way to quell Poseidon's anger was to sacrifice his daughter.

Luckily, Perseus came on the scene just in the nick of time and killed the sea monster and saved the princess.

Credits: Perseus rescues Andromeda (Oil by Joachim Wtewael 1611)

First encounter

i lay in the arms of beauty
saved from a serpent

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... we started with our "space odyssey" ... I hope you did like this episode.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 3rd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, our first Tokubetsudesu episode of this month, later on.