Cetus: the Whale. Scratchboard and acrylic, 14 x 11 in. Copyright 2010, Tania Nault.
The constellation Cetus is based on mythology of a giant sea monster and is located in a section of the sky associated with other “watery” constellations such as Picses, the fishes, and Aquarius, the water-bearer. In Greek and Roman mythology, sea monsters figured in the tales of both mythical heroes Heracles and Perseus.
According to the myth, Poseidon the sea god became very angry when Queen Cassiopeia dared to compare her own beauty to that of the Neriads, Poseidon’s daughters. As punishment for the slight, Poseidon sent Cetus the sea monster to destroy the kingdom. Acting on the advice of an oracle who told them their kingdom could be saved if they sacrificed their daughter to the monster, the king and queen tied their daughter Andromeda to a rock on the coast. Perseus killed Cetus, freed Andromeda, and married her.
In depictions of the constellation as a sea monster, Cetus is usually shown with its head at the top of the constellation and the body ends in a fishy-serpent tail. However, “Cetus” is the root of the word “cetacean” and means “whale” in Latin. The constellation reminded me more of the shape of a whale: tail up and head down, flipper extended – like a humpback whale, which is how I chose to depict it.
