| Cetus | |
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Other Names |
Cetus, Kētŏs |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
According to the mythology, Perseus slew a cetus to save Andromeda from being sacrificed to it. The term cetacean (for whale) derives from cetus. In Greek art, ceti were depicted as serpentine fish. The name of the mythological figure Ceto is derived from kētos.
A cetus was variously described as a sea monster or sea serpent. Other versions describe cetus as sea monsters with the head of a wild boar or greyhounds and the body of whales or dolphins with divided, fan-like tails. Cetus were said to be colossal beasts the size of a ship, their skulls alone measuring 40 feet (12 meters) in length, their spines being a cubit in thickness, and their skeletons taller at the shoulder than any elephant.
There are notable physical and mythological similarities between a cetus and a drakōn (the dragons in Greek mythology), and, to a lesser extent, other monsters of Greek myth, such as Scylla, Charybdis, and Medusa and her Gorgon sisters.
Queen Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nērēides (in most later works called by the Roman form, the Nereids), which invoked the wrath of Poseidon who sent the sea monster Kētŏs (in a far greater number of European works renamed as the Latinised Cetus) to attack Æthiopia. Upon consulting a wise oracle, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia were told to sacrifice Andromeda to the Cetus. They had Andromeda chained to a rock near the ocean so that the cetus could devour her. After finding Andromeda chained to the rock and learning of her plight, Perseus managed to slay the Cetus when the creature emerged from the ocean to devour her. According to one version, Perseus slew Cetus with the harpe lent to him by Hermes. According to another version, he used Medusa's head to turn the sea monster to stone.
In a different story, Heracles slew a Cetus to save Hesione.
The name of the constellation Cetus also derives from this word. Cetus as an constellation is sometimes called 'the whale' in English. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water-related constellations: Aquarius, Pisces and Eridanus.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Cetus from before January 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Notes[]
- The monster Tannin in the Hebrew Bible has been translated as Greek kētos in the Septuagint, and cetus in the Latin Vulgate. In Jewish mythology, Tannin is sometimes conflated with the related sea monsters Leviathan and Rahab.