Carpe Diem #813 Cassiopeia

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you did like the CD-Special "new style" and I hope it has inspired you all. Today we are going further with our "space odyssey" and we have arrived at the constellation Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda.
Cassiopeia is visible with the naked eye whole year through on the Northern Hemisphere it looks some what like a "W" as you can see hereafter.

Credits: Cassiopeia

And as I promised at the start of this month I love to tell you something more about the mythology behind these constellations so here is the story behind Cassiopeia.

The constellation is named after Cassiopeia, the queen of Aethiopia. Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus, King of Ethiopia and mother of Princess Andromeda. Cepheus and Cassiopeia were placed next to each other among the stars, along with Andromeda. She was placed in the sky as a punishment for her boast that her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids or, alternatively, that she herself was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. As punishment, she was forced to wheel around the North Celestial Pole on her throne, spending half of her time clinging to it so she does not fall off, and Poseidon decreed that Andromeda should be bound to a rock as prey for the monster Cetus, who was ravishing the Ethiopian coast. Andromeda was then rescued by the hero Perseus, whom she later married.

Cassiopeia has been variously portrayed throughout her history as a constellation. In Persia, she was drawn by al-Sufi as a queen holding a staff with a crescent moon in her right hand, wearing a crown, as well as a two-humped camel. In France, she was portrayed as having a marble throne and a palm leaf in her left hand, holding her robe in her right hand. This depiction is from Augustin Royer's 1679 atlas.

Credits: Depiction of Cassiopeia in her chair/throne

In the ancient Celtic world Anu was the mother goddess and considered to be the mother of all the gods; the Tuatha de Danann. Other references say that she is the mother earth goddess or the Goddess of fertility. On the Cork Kerry border are two mountains called the Paps of Anu (pap is another word for breast.) On the top of each mountain are stone structures or cairns that when viewed from a distance make the two mountains look like a pair of breasts. Anu was known, in the Celtic World, by several similar names: Danu or Don being the most popular alternatives. She was a Mother-Goddess, the wife of the Sun God, Belenos, and considered to be the ancestor of all the Gods, the Tuatha dé Danann, who found themselves obliged to reside in the Otherworld when Miled brought the Celts to the British Isles. She still looks down on us from the night's sky where she appears as Llys Don, better known as the constellation of Casseopeia.

Credits: Anu as the mother of all gods (Celtic Mythology)

I love these stories and that's one of the reasons why I have chosen this month's theme. It's really an awesome month I think this ... our "space odyssey" ... and it will bring us to far away places ...

Of course I am hoping that I can inspire you all with these prompts, but it is not always that easy as I feel my self this time. I couldn't come up with a haiku inspired on Cassiopeia, so I wrote another haiku:

in the twilight
mist creeps low over the field -
stars twinkle

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 9th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, Corona Australis (Southern Crown), later on. For now ... just have fun!