Cepheus

the King

Brightest star: Alderamin
Best seen: all year in the north, highest in autumn, in the evening
Where: Northern Hemisphere; from much of it, it never sets.
Abbreviation: Cep

How to find Cepheus

Look between Cassiopeia and the North Star for five stars that make a shape like a child's drawing of a house, pointing toward Polaris.

The story

Cepheus was the king of Aethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda. The whole family sits close together in the northern sky.

Worth knowing

Delta Cephei changes brightness on a steady 5.4-day rhythm. Stars like it, called Cepheids, became a way to measure distances across the universe.

Cepheus in three cultures

Greek
Greek writers said Cepheus earned his place in the sky because his family went back to Io, one of the loves of Zeus.
Arabic
Arab sky-watchers saw no king here.
Chinese
These stars lay on the edge of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, the emperor's palace around the pole.

Around the world

Greek

Greek writers said Cepheus earned his place in the sky because his family went back to Io, one of the loves of Zeus. His kingdom of "Aethiopia" was not modern Ethiopia: it was a land between the south-east shore of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. At Andromeda's wedding feast, his brother Phineus, to whom she had first been promised, burst in with armed men. Cepheus stepped back and left Perseus to fight. Perseus won by turning the attackers to stone with the Gorgon's head. Seen from Greece, the king circles the pole and dips head first towards the sea, just like his wife. Ptolemy described him wearing the tall headdress of a Persian king, and John Flamsteed's atlas of 1729 draws him in Persian royal robes with a sceptre.

Arabic

Arab sky-watchers saw no king here. They saw a shepherd with his dog watching a small flock of sheep. The star Errai (Gamma Cephei) takes its name from the Arabic for "the shepherd". The brightest star, Alderamin, gets its name from Arabic for "the right arm".

Chinese

These stars lay on the edge of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, the emperor's palace around the pole. Nine stars, Alderamin among them, formed Tiangou, the Celestial Hook. Five stars around Delta Cephei were Zaofu, named after the legendary charioteer of King Mu. In the north, five stars (exactly which is not certain) were the seats of the five celestial emperors who ruled the four directions and the centre.

Folk beliefs and customs

A shepherd's night watch. The Arabic picture of a shepherd, his dog and his flock shows how herders saw their own lives in the sky.
The Garnet Star. In 1783 William Herschel praised the "fine deep garnet colour" of Mu Cephei, and the Italian astronomer Piazzi called it Garnet Sidus. In 2024 the IAU made "Garnet Star" its official name.
The king in every age's clothes. Astronomers dressed him to suit their own time. Bayer's atlas of 1603 gave him a simple cap where Ptolemy had a royal headdress.

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