Cetus Constellation Meaning

Cetus Constellation [Stellarium]

Constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster, is located below the Constellations Aries and Pisces and above Eridanus. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in the 2nd century and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Cetus spans over 45 degrees of the zodiac in the Signs of Aries and Taurus.

Cetus Constellation Stars

2000	B	Star Name	Mag.	Orb
00♈55	01♈37	ι Cet	Deneb Kaitos Shemali	K2	3.56	1°40′
02♈35	03♈17	β Cet	Diphda, Deneb Kaitos	K0	2.04	2°10′
05♈53	06♈36	φ¹ Cet	Alnitham I	K0	4.77	1°00′
07♈15	07♈57	φ² Cet	Alnitham II	F7	5.17	1°00′
08♈22	09♈05	φ³² Cet	Alnitham III	K4	5.35	1°00′
08♈57	09♈40	φ⁴ Cet	Alnitham IV	G7	5.62	1°00′
11♈46	12♈28	η Cet	Dheneb, Deneb Algenub	K2	3.46	1°40′
16♈14	16♈56	θ Cet	Al Naymat I	K0	3.60	1°40′
17♈48	18♈30	τ Cet	Al Naymat II	G8	3.49	1°40′
19♈26	20♈08	υ Cet	Al Naymat III	K5	3.99	1°30′
21♈57	22♈39	ζ Cet	Baten Kaitos	K2	3.74	1°30′
29♈43	00♉26	ρ Cet	Sadr al Kaitos I	A0	4.88	1°00′
00♉06	00♉49	σ Cet	Sadr al Kaitos II	F5	4.74	1°00′
01♉31	02♉14	ο Cet	Mira	M5	3.04	1°50′
03♉21	04♉03	ε Cet	Sadr al Kaitos III	F5	4.83	1°00′
03♉45	04♉28	π Cet	Sadr al Kaitos IV	B7	4.24	1°10′
04♉03	04♉48	ξ¹ Cet	Al Kaff al Jidhmah I	G8	4.36	1°10′
07♉28	08♉11	ξ² Cet	Al Kaff al Jidhmah II	B9	4.30	1°10′
07♉35	08♉17	δ Cet	Al Kaff al Jidhmah III	B2	4.08	1°10′
09♉26	10♉08	γ Cet	Kaffaljidhma	A3	3.47	1°40′
11♉57	12♉39	μ Cet	Al Kaff al Jidhmah IV	F1	4.27	1°10′
14♉19	15♉01	α Cet	Menkar	M2	2.54	2°00′
15♉06	15♉48	λ Cet	Menkar, Menkib	B6	4.71	1°00′

Cetus Astrology

Manilius

As the last portion of the Fishes rises, appears the constellation of the Whale, pursuing Andromeda in heaven as on the sea. This monster enlists its sons in an onslaught on the deep and a butchery of scaly creatures; theirs will be a passion for ensnaring the deep with nets spread wide and for straitening the sea with bonds; they will confine in spacious prisons seals which deem themselves as safe as in the open sea and shackle them fast in fetters; the unwary tunny they will draw along in a network of meshes. Their capture is not the end, the fish struggle against their bonds, meet a new assault, and suffer death by the knife, and the sea is dyed, mixed with blood of its own. Furthermore, when the victims lie dead along the shore, a second slaughter is perpetrated on the first; the fish are torn into pieces, and a single body is divided to serve separate ends. One part is better if its juices are given up, another if they are retained. In the one case a valuable fluid is discharged, which yields the choicest part of the blood, flavored with salt, it imparts a relish to the palate. In the other case all the pieces of the decaying carcass are blended together and merge their shapes until every distinguishing feature has been lost, they provide food with a condiment of general use. Or when, presenting the very likeness of the dark-hued sea, a shoal of the scaly creatures has come to a stop and cannot move for their numbers, they are surrounded and drawn from the water by a huge drag-net, and fill large tanks and wine-vats, their common endowment of liquid is exuded upon each other, for their inward parts melt and issue forth as a stream of decomposition.

Moreover, such men will be able to fill great salt-pans, to evaporate the sea, and to extract the sea’s venom, they prepare a wide expanse of hardened ground and surround it with firm walls, next conduct therein waters channeled from the nearby sea and then deny them exit by closing sluice-gates, so the floor holds in the waves and begins to glisten as the water is drained off by the sun. When the sea’s dry element has collected, Ocean’s white locks are shorn for use at table, and huge mounds are made of the solid foam; and the poison of the deep, which prevents the use of sea-water, vitiating it with a taste, they commute to life-giving salt and render a source of health. ^[1]

Maternus

In the last degree of Pisces on the left side there arises Belua, which is called Cetus by the Greeks. Those who are born with this constellation rising will be fishermen but of large fishes. For these persons will catch seals, sea-dogs (sharks), sword fish, tuna, and crocodiles. They will also have jobs that are from the seas or from salted fish or from fish-sauce, and they will trade in these things. But if this constellation is in the DSC, and if Mars aspects this house, while swimming in a river or in the sea, they will be eaten by crocodiles or by [sea-] dogs and sea monsters of that sort. ^[2]

Cetus Constellation [Urania’s Mirror]

Robson

Legend. Cetus represents the sea monster or whale sent by Neptune to devour Andromeda (see ANDROMEDA).

Influence. According to Ptolemy this constellation is like Saturn. It is said to cause laziness and idleness, but to confer an emotional and charitable nature, with the ability to command.

Magical. Makes one amiable, prudent, happy by sea and land, and helps recover lost goods. ^[3]

Noonan

Now called Cetus (Cet), the stars of this constellation are said to have a nature akin to that of Saturn by Ptolemy when writing in Tetrabiblos. However, he was likely referring only to Menkar in this regard, Many of the brighter stars of this constellation have a Martian nature, confirming the opinion of classical astrologers that the constellation itself is correlative with the ability to command, especially in war. ^[4]

Allen

Cetus, the Whale or Sea Monster, is the French Baleine, the Italian Balena, and the German Wallfisch.

This constellation has been identified, at least since Aratos’ day, with the fabled creature sent to devour Andromeda, but turned to stone at the sight of the Medusa’s head in the hand of Perseus. Equally veracious additions to the story, from Pliny [H. N. IX.11] and Solinus, are that the monster’s bones were brought to Rome by Scaurus, the skeleton measuring forty feet in length and the vertebrae six feet in circumference; from Saint Jerome, who wrote that he had seen them at Tyre; and from Pausanias, who described a nearby spring that was red with the monster’s blood. But the legend in which Cetus figured seems to have been current on the Euphrates long before our era; and, descending to Euripides and Sophocles, appeared in their dramas, as also in much subsequent literature.

Thus in these, as, in fact, in all delineations, it has been a strange and ferocious marine creature, in later times associated with the story of Andromeda, and at first, perhaps, was the Euphratean Tiāmat, of which other forms were Draco, Hydra, and Serpens; indeed, some have thought that our Draco was Andromeda’s foe because of its proximity to the other characters of the legend.

Cetus is sometimes represented swimming in the River Eridanus, although usually as resting on the bank with fore paws in the water; its head, directly under Aries, marked by an irregular pentagon of stars, and its body stretching from the bend in Eridanus to that in the Stream from the Urn. It occupies a space of 50° in length by 20° in breadth, and so is one of the most extended of the sky figures; yet it shows no star larger than of the 2nd magnitude, and only one of that lustre.

Argelander enumerates 98 stars in the constellation, and Heis 162.

The 1515 Almagest and the Alfonsine Tables called it Balaena, but Firmicus [Mathesis, VIII.17.5] said Belua, the Beast or Monster, a more appropriate name than ours. Bayer mentioned it as Draco, and drew it so, but without wings; he also cited for it Leo, Monstrum marinum, Ursus marinus, Orphas, and Orphus; and Grotius quoted Gibbus, Humped, from anonymous writers.

The Arabian astronomers of course knew the Greek constellation and called it Al Ḳeṭus, from which have come Elketos, Elkaitos, and Elkaitus; but their predecessors, who had not heard of the Royal Family and its foe, separated these stars into three very different asterisms. Those in the head, α, γ, δ, λ, μ, ξ1and ξ2, were Al Kaff al Jidhmah, the Part of a Hand, from a fancied resemblance to their Stained Hand, our Cassiopeia; η, θ, τ, ζ, and υ, in the body of our Cetus, were Al Naʽāmāt, the Hen Ostriches; and the four in a straight line of 3° length across the tail, all lettered ϕ, were Al Niṭhām, the Necklace.

Although an old constellation, Cetus is by no means of special interest, except as possessing the south pole of the Milky Way and the Wonderful Star, the variable Mira; and from the fact that it is a condensation point of nebulae directly across the sphere from Virgo, also noted in this respect. ^[5]

Cetus Constellation [Bullinger]

Bullinger

This is what we see in the second section of the chapter, the second constellation in ARIES. The picture is that of a great sea-monster, the largest of all the constellations. It is the natural enemy of fishes, hence it is placed here in connection with this last chapter, in which fishes are so prominent. It is situated very low down among the constellations–far away towards the south or lower regions of the sky.

Its name in the Denderah Zodiac is Knem, which means subdued. It is pictured as a monstrous head, trodden under foot by the swine, the natural enemy of the serpent. The hawk also (another enemy of the serpent) is over this figure, crowned with a mortar, denoting bruising.

It consists of 97 stars, of which two are of the 2nd magnitude, eight of the 3rd, nine of the 4th, etc. The names of the stars interpret for us infallibly the meaning of the picture.

The brightest star, α (in the upper mandible), is named Menikar, and means the bound or chained enemy. The next, β (in the tail), is called Diphda, or Deneb Kaitos, overthrown, or thrust down. The star ο (in the neck) is named Mira, which means THE REBEL. Its names is ominous, for the star is one of the most remarkable. It is very bright, but it was not till 1596 that it was discovered to be variable. It disappears periodically seven times in six years! It continues at its brightest for fifteen days together. M. Bade says that during 334 days it shines with its greatest light, then it diminishes, till it entirely disappears for some time (to the naked eye). In fact, during that period it passes through several degrees of magnitude, both increasing and diminishing. Indeed its variableness is so great as to make it appear unsteady! ^[6]