Cetus

Buckle up, this is going to be quite a ride. Meet Cetus, Poseidon's pet which he released on people that really pissed him off. Usually kings with beautiful daughters. 

3rd c. BC mosaic depicting Cetus, from Ancient Kaulon, Calabria, Italy

Two most famous Cetuses 🙂 were so called Æthiopian (Levantine) one and Trojan one. This is a story about them, the beautiful babes that were supposed to be sacrificed to them, and the heroes who strongly objected to such arrangements...

Here we go:

Queen Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereids. This angered Poseidon so much that he sent the sea monster Cetus to attack Æthiopia. 

The oracle told King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia that they should sacrifice Andromeda to the Cetus. And so they had Andromeda chained to a rock near the ocean (in some versions stripped naked) so that the Cetus could devour her.

But it just so happened that just after he killed Medusa, Perseus was flying over Æthiopia (Levant) on his flying sandals, carrying both Medusa's head in his bag and the sickle he used to chop Medusa's head off...

Attic red-figured hydria, 460BC, British Museum...

After seeing gorgeous (hmmm) Andromeda chained to the rock and after learning of her plight, Perseus decided to help her. See Perseus here is not holding a sickle, but a so called "sickle sword"...

Apulian red-figure bell-krater. 360 BC. Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities...

So as soon as Cetus emerged from the ocean, Perseus killed the monster, after which he took Andromeda for his wife...

Perseus and Andromeda, Campanian Red-Figure Bell-Crater, 375-350 BC, Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

The question here is what did Perseus kill the Cetus with? Sickle or Siccle sword...I know people will say that the weapon used to kill Cetus was Harpe "sickle sword"...But I firmly believe that it was infact a sickle...These are both sickles...

But if you check the history of the Harpe weapon you will see that Harpe was the implement used by Cronus to castrate and depose his father, Uranus, a "blade with teeth" which was given to Cronus by his mother, Gaia. Basically an early Neolithic stone sickle...

Evolution of sickles from wild ass, deer jawbones with teeth, through wild ass, deer jawbones with artificial flint teeth, through artificial wooden jawbones with artificial flint teeth, to serrated (toothed) jawbone shaped piece of metal...From my post "Sickles"...

Now if you haft this kind of neolithic jawbone sickle on a handle you get something like this Harpe "sword" depicted here being carried by Perseus after he decapitated Medusa on this 5th c. BC. Greek Bowl, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

I mean, it is not random that sickle wielding Cronus was associated with agriculture and in particular grain harvest, and that in Athens, on the 12th day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion (Jul/Aug), a festival called Kronia was held in honour of Cronus to celebrate the harvest.

BTW Jul/Aug is also the month which was in Delphi dedicated to Apollo...Talked about this in my post "Threshing floor of Apollo". Very important for understanding all this...You'll see why soon...

Anyway...According to another version, Perseus used Medusa's head to turn the sea monster to stone. I couldn't find any depiction of this. 

BTW, written records of both of these versions of the story are predated by the graphic depictions found on pottery...

But there seems to be another, third version of the slaying of Cetus story, which was not preserved in writing, which states that Perseus killed Cetus with shiny round rocks...

Perseus defends Andromeda from the monster Cetus by pelting it with stones. Corinthian amphora, 575–550 BC

Now this is super interesting...Why? Cause of this: Perseid Meteor shower which originates from the area of the Perseus Constellation...

Today, what Perseus throws down on earth is bunch of shooting stars, small stone particles which burn out in the Earth's atmosphere before they reach the Earth surface.

But I have a feeling it wasn't always like that. I have a feeling that once, huge bright glowing rocks were raining down on Earth from the direction of Perseus and that they were big enough to reach Earth's surface and cause serious damage and destruction...I talked about this in my post "Rudra"...

I also proposed, in my post "Apollo the great archer", that it was Perseids which are the reason why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer, in this post about arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

BTW, this is not the only heavenly archer...Orion is the other one. He was the first heavenly archer I talked about in my post "Invisible archer"...

If arrows are shooting down from the night sky, there must be an [invisible] archer shooting them from up there...

But Greeks also saw Orion as a giant armed with a club...

Interestingly his club is the source of Orionid meteor shower...Which look like a club when enter the atmosphere...Is this why South slavs called stars and Orion in Particular "Stone clubs"? I talked about this in my post "Grandmother's clubs"...

Now once these "clubs" hit the Earth, people realised that they were in fact rocks, stones...And so...

If giant rocks are falling from the sky, there must be a giant living in the sky throwing them down...An early, logical, attempt to explain meteorites, from the time when Sky Gods were real scary motherf*ckers and thunderbolts were (often) made of stone. I talked about this in my post "Jack and the magic bean"...

Anyway, I think it is these rocks (meteors falling down as part of the Perseid meteor shower) that Perseus is depicted throwing at Cetus. 

Perseid meteor shower peaks during Jul/Aug. A very interesting time of the year, marked like this throughout Eurasia. Time of the year when Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia. I talked about this in many of my posts, like "Mystery seal", "Angra Mainyu", "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing"...

But, do we have any indication that Persus killed Cetus and rescued Andromeda during Jul/Aug? Actually we do. Check this beauty out: Apuleian red-figure volute krater with the release of Andromeda (410 BC) once in the Paul Getty museum, Malibu...

Look what is right above the scene depicting Perseus untying Andromeda after he had killed Cetus with his shiny rocks...Bull (summer) facing (meeting) Lion (autumn)...Which happens in Jul/Aug...

This was definitely done on purpose. An animal calendar marker marking the time of the year when this "mythological" scene took place...Jul/Aug, Leo...

Very very interesting...I think...

I am beginning to finally realise why everyone in Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia, Central Asia, India was so obsessed with "Lion killing (meeting) Bull", animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug...

Also, this explains why Heracles, a club and a bow and arrows wielding hero, who is prancing around wearing nothing by a lion skin, is also credited with killing Cetus...The Trojan Cetus...

Attic red-figured kylix, 500-450 BC, From Vulci, Etruria, Vatican Museum

Trojan Cetus was another giant sea-monster sent by Poseidon, this time to plague the land of Troy as punishment for King Laomedon's refusal to pay him for the building of the city's walls. 

Again oracle declared that the only way to be rid of the beast was to offer the king's daughter as sacrifice, and again king's daughter, Hesione, was chained to the rocks...where she was rescued by Herakles who killed the monster... 

There are two versions how Heracles killed the Trojan Cetus.

All the descriptions of this object say that it depicts Heracles killing Cetus with a "fish hook"...I can bet that this is a sickle...

BTW, is that a shiny rock in his other hand that he is about to throw at Cetus? I think it is...

Caeretan hydria, ca. 520-510 BC. Archaeological Collection of the University of Zurich

Heracles killing Cetus with bow and arrows. BTW, Herakles received his "magic" bow from Apollo, the terrible "far shooting" archer...Interestingly, here we see Hesione throwing rocks at Cetus...

Corinthian column krater, Greek Archaic Period, 550 BC. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

So here we have lion skin (Leo, Jul/Aug, Perseids?) sickle (Jul/Aug, Leo is when grain harvest takes place in Anatolia, where Troy is located?), bow and arrows (terrible "far shooting" archer, explanation for origin of meteorite showers?), club (meteor?) and rocks (meteors?)...

I really need to start writing about who the Heracles really is, and why he (or one of his clones) was worshiped all over Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia, Central Asia, India soon...And why he was linked to Nergal...Take this as the first hint...

BTW, Jul/Aug, Leo, is the "time of fire breathing dragons", the hottest and driest time of the year in Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, Mesopotamia...

Also, Jul/Aug is the best time time to go sailing in Eastern Mediterranean...

Check my posts about dragons from Eurasia here...

Also, Jul/Aug is the best time time to go sailing in Eastern Mediterranean...

4th c. BC, silver coin from Byblos.

According to Hesiod: "Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right (best) time for men to go sailing"

That's Jul/Aug, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer). I talked about this in my post "Tetradrachm from Byblos"

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...