Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/72

 since his constellation is near the North Star and just above the Chair of his Queen, a large and conspicuous "W," it is easy to find and may be seen any clear night the year around. Cepheus may be seen at his best during the summer evenings when his stars are nearly overhead in the dome of the sky.



The other characters in this drama were placed among bright stars and are therefore more easily found, although to less romantic moderns these stars merely indicate the part of the sky-field where the ancients claim the royal family were lifted to the stars.

Below Cepheus, on a "Chair" of bright stars, sits Cassiopeia, his Queen, her arms upraised and her face pensive through long ages of humiliating sorrow; below Cassiopeia stands Perseus transfixed in a heroic attitude, the segment of three stars shining against his armor-clad body, his diamond-bladed sword thrust among the fainter gleams above his head. The snaky-locked Gorgon Medusa hangs downward from his shield, while among its fearful tresses