8/5/2023 0 Comments Autumn sky map algol![]() ![]() In the year 2001, the worst-ever Foot-and-Mouth epidemic struck. Using the 'Starry Night' program, the two comets look more or less identical as they cross over Algol. It also just happened to cross over Algol, and it did so a mere day earlier, April 10th. It appeared on a path at right angles to the previous comet-track. Then, only a year later, another bright comet appeared, Hale-Bopp, and both of these were totally unexpected. In 1996 the bright comet Hyakutake passed very close to the Earth, nearer than any comet for centuries, and crossed over Algol on April 11th. Far below, the sea-monster Cetus, coming to get Andromeda, flicks a fin into the zodiac. In the summertime Taurus remains below the horizon in the UK. To find it in the sky, just follow two of the stars of Cassiopea downwards, through the straight line of four stars in Perseus, and it's just to the right of these, above Taurus. The latter, a binary star, rotates with a dark companion that almost eclipses it, once per three days, so it grows dimmer and brighter. These meteors are made of iron and burn up in the sky, as their radiant sparkles along Perseus' deadly blade, moving past the longitude of Algol. Other meteor showers have more or less stationary radiants, but that for the Perseids moves during August along the sword of Perseus, and his upraised arm. Meteor showers emanate from a 'radiant,' which is a source-point in the heavens. The story may have been a parable of Greek imperialism in Africa.Įmbedded in the Milky Way, the Perseus constellation is the source of the 'Perseid' meteor shower of late summer. This Hero leaves a trail of destruction in his wake we are confident that he will hack his way through to the solution. He rescues her and they marry, but her family were not happy about this, and he ends up killing half of the wedding-guests. We are shocked to see his sword in the sky pointing to between her legs. The Perseus myth contrasts a horrid woman's head, once that of the sage goddess-oracle, with the body of the 'good' girl, who is fancied by Perseus. Was Medusa raped by Neptune likewise an innocent victim? These are 'It was all her fault' stories that have come down from antiquity. The indignant sea-nymphs complained to Neptune, and so Andromeda ended up bound and left naked by the sea-shore, an innocent victim. ![]() Her mother Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopea, had boasted that her daughter was lovelier than the sea-nymphs. Beside Perseus is ebony-coloured Andromeda. The Greeks constructed a fine tableau of constellation-images centred around Perseus. Earlier, she had lost her immortality (of the three gorgons, she was the mortal one) then she lost her beauty through the wrath of Athene, and finally she lost her head, being beheaded by Perseus as she slept in a cave with the other Gorgons. Athena), and was punished for this as if it were her fault by the offended goddess (Athena, as the goddess of male wisdom and science, was taking a dim view of the older, priestess-type of wisdom), whereby her lovely locks turned into hissing serpents. He told how once-beautiful Medusa was raped by Neptune in the temple of Minerva ( i.e. ![]() Words would fail to tell the glory of her hair, most wonderful of all her charms - a friend declared to me he saw its lovely splendour" ![]() "Beyond all others she was famed for her beauty. Her most popular image became that of her defeat in the Athenian myth of Perseus. She was made into a horrid, ugly monster (most monsters were female or born of the Earth). Although the mask was widely used by country folk, her female wisdom, natural forces, powers of creativity, destruction and regeneration were demonised and made evil. Her mask was used on elaborate Etruscan lantern fixtures and stoves, probably for her relation to alchemical fire. Her images, (as well as women) are mastered and domesticated. BC her rites were disrupted, her sanctuaries invaded, the sacred groves cut down, her priestesses were violated and her image defiled. Soon the holy image of the gorgon Medusa as an ancient symbol of female power and wisdom became totally unacceptable. She is the Lady of the Beasts who carries with her memories of Crete and Angolia. In 750 BC, the full-bodied image of Medusa in Greece is a central piece on their oldest surviving temple, that of Artemis, one of their oldest gods. ![]()
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