Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/59

Rh of Antarmada chained to a rock with a fish beside her.

Sappho, the Greek poetess of the 7th century, refers to Andromeda, and Euripides and Sophocles both wrote dramas about her,—but there is little doubt, as Allen states, that the constellation originated far back of classical times in the valley of the Euphrates.

Plunket is of the opinion that the constellation of Andromeda dates from 3500 in accordance with the other constellations around it, and there is some ground for believing that its date goes back to 6000

In Dr. Seiss's mythology, Andromeda was intended for a prophetic symbol of the Christian church. Sayce claims that she appeared in the great Babylonian Epic of Creation of more than two millenniums before our era, in connection with the story of Bel Marduk and the dragon Tiamat, which doubtless is the foundation of the story of Perseus and Andromeda.

The constellation Andromeda has borne the following names: Mulier Catenata, the woman chained. Persea, as the bride of Perseus. Cepheis, from her father. Alamac, from the title of the star Gamma.

Some authorities claim that Andromeda was a native of Æthiopia and regard her as a negress. The Arabian astronomers knew these stars as "Al mar'ah al musalsalah," and to them they represented a sea calf or seal with a chain around its neck that united it to one of the two fishes.

Allen states that according to Cæsius, Andromeda represented the biblical Abigail of the Books of Samuel, and Julius Schiller in 1627 made of these stars the Sepulchrum Christi, the new Sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid.