Prismtect › Constellations › Andromeda
the Chained Princess
Start at Alpheratz, the corner of the Great Square of Pegasus, and follow two lines of stars away from the square. From the second star, Mirach, step up two stars to find a faint smudge: the Andromeda Galaxy.
Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, was chained to a rock as an offering to a sea monster, and was saved by Perseus.
The Andromeda Galaxy, about 2.5 million light years away, is the most distant thing most people can see without a telescope.
Long before the Greek princess, Babylonian sky-watchers saw a woman here.
Latin writers called her Mulier Catenata, "the chained woman", and she was also known as Persea ("wife of Perseus") or Cepheis ("daughter of Cepheus").
Arab astronomers kept the Greek "chained woman" (al-Mar'at al-Musalsalah), but they also drew a large fish, al-Hut, lying across her body.
Chinese astronomers split these stars among several figures.
In the Marshall Islands, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Triangulum and Aries make one large porpoise: Andromeda's bright stars are its body, Cassiopeia its tail and Aries its head.
Long before the Greek princess, Babylonian sky-watchers saw a woman here. Stars of the middle of Andromeda, together with stars of Pisces, made a fertility goddess, sometimes named Anunitum or "the Lady of the Heavens". Some writers also link this part of the sky with Tiamat, the goddess of chaos in the Babylonian creation story, whose body the god Marduk used to make the constellations as markers of time.
Latin writers called her Mulier Catenata, "the chained woman", and she was also known as Persea ("wife of Perseus") or Cepheis ("daughter of Cepheus"). The story goes on after the rescue: Perseus and Andromeda married, had many children and were said to have founded Mycenae. After her death the goddess Athena set her among the stars. In Ovid's telling, Perseus kills the monster with a sword rather than with Medusa's head.
Arab astronomers kept the Greek "chained woman" (al-Mar'at al-Musalsalah), but they also drew a large fish, al-Hut, lying across her body. The fish's nose was a faint hazy patch. Around the year 964 the Persian astronomer al-Sufi described that patch as a "small cloud" in his Book of Fixed Stars. It is the first written record of the Andromeda Galaxy, and the earliest known mention of any galaxy beyond our own.
Chinese astronomers split these stars among several figures. Nine stars of Andromeda and seven of Pisces formed an oval called Kui, "Legs", seen as a striding foot or a wild boar. Gamma Andromedae and its neighbours were Tian Dajiangjun, "Heaven's Great General". Alpheratz, with a star of Pegasus, made Bi, "the Wall", the eastern wall of the imperial palace or the emperor's library. The northern stars were a stable for changing horses, and the far western stars, with Lacerta, a flying snake called Tengshe.
In the Marshall Islands, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Triangulum and Aries make one large porpoise: Andromeda's bright stars are its body, Cassiopeia its tail and Aries its head. In the Tuamotus, Alpheratz was called Takurua-e-te-tuki-hanga-ruki, "star of the wearisome toil", and Mirach was Piringa-o-Tautu.
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