Cetus

Cetus, the whale, or Sea Monster, has been identified, at least since Aratos’ day (3rd century B.C.), with the fabled creature sent by Neptune (Poseidon) to devour Andromeda, but turned to stone at the sight of the Medusa’s head (Algol) in the hand of Perseus. Cetus is positioned on the banks of the River Eridanus, the other side of his body is bordered by the constellation Pisces

Manilius in Astronomica tells of the drama of the sea-monster, Cetus, coming to devour Andromeda

“Now had a heavy surge begun to rise and long lines of breakers were fleeing before the thrust of the massive monster. As it cleaves the waves, its head emerges and disgorges sea, the waters breaking loudly about its teeth and the swirling sea afloat in its very jaws; behind rise its huge coils like rings of an enormous neckchain [the star Mira has been called the constellation’s necklace], and its back covers the whole sea. Ocean clamors in every quarter, and the very mountains and crags quake at the creature’s onset.

“What terror then, unhappy maiden [Andromeda], was expressed on your countenance, defended though you were by such a champion! [Perseus] How all your breath fled into the air! How all the blood ebbed from your limbs, when from the cleft in the rocks you beheld with your own eyes your fate, the avenging monster swimming towards you and driving the waves before it, how helpless you a victim for the sea!

“Hereupon with a flutter of winged sandals Perseus flies upwards and from the skies hurls himself at the foe, driving home the weapon stained with the Gorgon’s blood [Medusa, see Algol]. The beast rises to meet him, rears its head, twisting it out of the water, leaps aloft upon its support of winding coils, and towers high in the air with all its bulk. But as much as it rises hurtling up from the deep, always so much does Perseus fly higher and mock the sea-beast through the yielding air, and strike its head as it attacks. Yet not submitting to the hero the monster bites furiously at the breezes, though its teeth snap vainly and inflict no wounds; it spouts forth sea towards heaven, drenches its winged assailant with a blood-stained deluge, and sends in spray the ocean to the stars…

“At last, its frame riddled with stabs, through which the sea fills its body, the beast sinks, returns once more to the surface, and covers the mighty ocean with its massive corpse, still a fearful sight, and not for a maiden’s eyes to look on.” [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century A.D., Book 5, p.347-349]

Cetus is a Latin word for the order Cetacea which includes the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Derivatives of Latin cetus, Greek ketos: cetacean, cetaceous, cetene, cetyl (an alcoholic substance taken from whale wax and is called cetyl alcohol), spermaceti. Spermaceti is derived from a wax in the Sperm Whale’s head. A large whale can hold as much as three tons [].

Indo-European sqalos, squalus, (cf. Lat. squalus) is probably cognate with qalos, as in Germanic khwalaz (compare Old Saxon hwal, Old Norse hvalr, Old English hwæl, Middle Dutch wal, Old High German wal), possibly from an original qalos, with a general meaning of big fish, then constrained in its meaning in individual dialects. (See s-Mobile) [Indo-European Language Association].

The word whale is from Old English hwael, and comes from the Indo-European root *kwal ‘Big fish’. Derivatives: whale, narwhal, rorqual, (these words from Old Norse hvalr, whale, from Germanic *hwalaz), squalene (from New Latin Squalus, shark genus from its occurrence in the liver oil of sharks, from Latin squalus, a sea fish), squalid (related to Latin squales filth, squalus filthy, squalere, to be covered with a rough or scaly layer). [Pokorny (kwalo 958. Watkins

“Probably related to the word squall, a brief harsh cry, and squall, a brief sudden violent windstorm, to blow strongly for a brief period” [Klein], and squeal

Cetus undulates its scaly back (Cetos convolvens squamea terga), it rises aloft upon a spiral of coils and splashes with such a belly as drove the sea beyond its proper shores when it appeared from the waves to destroy the daughter of Cepheus exposed upon the cliffs…” [Manilius Astronomica 1st century AD, P.39] [The daughter of Cepheus is Andromeda

Manilius in describing the astrological influences associates this constellation with the production of salt

“Moreover, such men [those astrologically influenced by Cetus] will be able to fill great salt-pans, to evaporate the sea, and to extract the sea’s venom [salt], 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 [salt] 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” [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.355.].

Salt comes from the Indo-European root *sal ‘Salt’. Derivatives: salt, souse¹ (pickled meat), silt (fine sand, salt marsh), salsa, sauce, sausage, sal, salad, salami, salary, sali-, saline, halo– (from Latin halos, threshing floor, disc around the Sun or Moon), Halogen (Greek hals + genes = born, from Greek halos, stem hal-, salt, sea), Halon (a halocarbon used as fire-extinguishing agents). [Pokorny 1. sal– 878. Watkins] Salzburg, Salamanca, Salamis, from salama (“he was safe or free”).

 “Takeitwithgrainofsalt” (to accept a statement with skepticism). “Tosaltaway” (to protect money for future use, budget, see below),  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to the crowd as the “salt of the earth“.

Apparently the pre-Indo-European Proto-Finno-Baltic word for the whale was ‘hal‘, borrowed by Germanic speakers and ended up in English through a long complicated process as ‘whale’, from Germanic *hwalaz. The Finnish is ‘kala‘ and the Magyar (Hungarian) is ‘hal‘. Greek hal is salt.

The inhaling and the dramatic exhaling (from Latin halare ‘to breathe’), of a whale as it breaks surface, that blows from the blowholes, is a reminder of the squall, “a brief sudden violent windstorm, to blow strongly for a brief period”.

Manilius is describing the making of sausage, sauce, salami, souse, pickled meat, in his astrological influences:

This monster enlists its sons [those influenced astrologically by Cetus] 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 [sauce] 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. [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.353, 355.]

This constellation is the French Baleine, the Italian Balaena, the 1515 Almagest and the Alfonsine Tables called it Balaena, the fourth century Christian astronomer, Firmicus, called it Belus, the Beast or Monster, Ovid called it Belua Ponti (Sea-Monster). There are two orders of whales, the other suborder of the Cetacea, the toothed whales, are of the family Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins) and have a constellation of their own, Delphinus. This constellation, Cetus, might refer to the baleen whales in particular, also called whalebone whales or great whales, the Mysticeti. Baleen whales have baleen plates instead of teeth which they use to filter their food.

“Whales (ballena) are beasts of enormous size, named from casting forth and spraying water, for they throw waves higher than the other sea animals; in Greek ballein means ‘cast forth’. The sea-monster (cetus, plural cete) is named ketos, plural kete, that is, on account of its vastness. These are huge types of sea-monsters (bellua), and their bodies are the same size as mountains. Such a cetus swallowed Jonah; its belly was so big that it resembled hell, as the prophet says (compare Jonah 2:3): “He heard me from the belly of hell.” (The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.260.]

Star Phosphoros cried out (to Phaethon) 

“…Spare this wild driving, and let not the Olympian Ketos [starry Cetus the Sea-Monster] entomb you in his belly in high heaven…” Nonnus, Dionysiaca 38. 90 ff 

Whales produce blubber, the fat of the whale, the originally meaning was ‘bubble, foam’. Compare bleb, blob, the verb blubber, to weep loudly [Klein]. Most of Europe’s and American lamps were lit by whale oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, until replaced by kerosene after 1860.

Cetus is a whale positioned on the banks of the river Eridanus; the banks of the Eridanus is where the sisters of Phaeton, the Heliades (“children of the sun”), were weeping (blubbering, salty tears) before being turned into poplar tree. From the tears of the Heliades comes amber which floated down the Eridanus River. Whales produce ambergris. The word ‘amber‘ is probably derived from the Arabic word anbar, meaning ambergris, a substance from sperm whales used as a base to make perfume. Another etymology is suggested on this webpage quoting Eugenion Ragazzi (2000): “‘amber’ is believed to derive from the Arabic word ‘Haur Rumi‘ that means ‘Roman poplar tree’: the following corrupted terms were Haurum, Habrum, Hambrum and finally Ambarum and Amber“. [Arabic Rumi means Rome, and haur seems to what they call the Populus alba

“Amber (sucinus), which the Greeks call electron, has the color of tawny wax, and is said to be the sap (sucus) of trees, and for the reason is called ‘amber.’ An explanation taken from myth has led it to being called electrum, for the story goes that when Phaethon was killed by a bolt of lightning, his sisters, in their grief, were turned into poplar trees, and they exude amber (electrum) as tears, year in and out, by the river Eridanus (i.e. the Po); and it is called electrum because many poets said the sun used to be called Elector (the ‘Shining One’). But in fact amber is not the sap of the poplar tree but of the pine tree, for when it is burned it gives off the fragrance of pine pitch.” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.323.].

Elector (the ‘Shining One’), might relate to Latin halos, ‘threshing floor, disk around the sun or moon’. In chemistry, solutions of salts in water are called electrolytes. Electrolytes as well as molten salts conduct electricity. Salt is a preservative and amber preserves the body of an insect trapped in the resinous drop of amber. A salt is an ionic compound composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions (cation from Greek kation, go down kata-, + ienai, ‘to go’, ‘ion’. Anion, from Greek anienai, to go up: ana-, up, + ienai, ‘to go’, ‘ion’). An ion or group of ions having a positive charge and characteristically moving toward the negative electrode in electrolysis.

Greeks used the same word for ‘salt’ and ‘sea’; als (which became sal in Latin), alos, alas, this root survives in th-alas-sa (Thalassa) which means ‘sea’ []. The word isle (which is not related to the word ‘island’) is from Old French isle (French ile), from Latin insula; Klein says “which is of uncertain origin. Following the ancients, some modern philologists derive Latin insula from in salo, ‘that which is in the sea’, from in, ‘in’, and ablative of salum, ‘the open sea, the high sea’, which is cognate with Middle Irish sal (genitive saile), ‘sea; compare Greek en-alos, en-alios, ‘in the sea’, from Greek en, ‘in’, and als, genitive alos (masculine), ‘salt’; (feminine), ‘sea’. Compare islet, insular, isolate, peninsula.” Also insulin which is a hormone secreted by the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. One legend about whales, with a number of variations, tells how sailors mistake a whale for an island (or isle). They proceed to land there and build a fire to cook their food. After a time the heat penetrates the whale’s thick skin, and it dives to cool itself. The ship is dragged down with it and the sailors drown.

Within the borders of this constellation was a modern constellation created in 1800, Machina Electrica, to honor the creation of the first electricity generator. Composed of dim stars that can be found south of Cetus, the sea-monster [south of the belly] between Fornax, the furnace, and Sculptor. The constellation appeared in a few star atlases, but was never widely accepted and is no longer recognized by astronomers [].

“The Elektrides (Amber) Islands that lie off the Pados.” [Pados is an alternate name for the Po or Eridanus River] mentioned by Strabo, Geography 5.1.9 [] are identified with the Kvarner islands in the Adriatic.

Amber was prized for its perfume, warmth, electrical properties, and ability to preserve life in its resin (Pliny NH 37). Martial suggests that insects preserved in amber have eternity as jewels. Amber was probably traded down from northern Europe to the Adriatic via the Po and the Rhone. But neither river was the source of amber in antiquity. It came from northern Europe, from Jutland in Denmark, and from the Baltic coast”. [Frederick Ahl, Metaformations, p.189-190]

Mythology tells us that amber originated from the tears shed by the Heliades that flowed into the river Eridanus. Eridanus or Eridanos, was a name given by geologists to a river which flowed where the Baltic Sea is now. In the Pleistocene era, the current Baltic Sea was the river basin of a river, currently named Eridanos. The tertiary forests of the Baltic produces the best amber in the world and the Baltic sea area contains 90% of the world’s amber – Heliades tears.

“Eridanos … swallowed a foreigner, Phaethon in his flood … he brings wealth from his trees to the friends who live near him as he rolls along the brilliant amber gifts of the Heliades.” – Dionysiaca 22.90

The names of goddesses Electra 1, and Electra 2 (one of the seven Pleiades), should be from the same root as ‘electric’, we know that the isle of Electra was near the Eridanus, as is the constellation Cetus:

“And quickly they [the Argonauts] entered the ship, and toiled at their oars unceasingly until they reached the sacred isle of Electra, the highest of them all, near the river Eridanus [Grimal

Electra is translated from Greek ‘a-lektron‘, ‘with no marriage bed’ [].

The spouting exhale of a whale creates a steaming misting fountain of air and water through which the observers, depending on their position in reference to the sun, can see the colors of the rainbow in the mist above the head of the whale, giving them a halo [from the above Indo-European root *sal ], a sort of holy, mystical image. This constellation with Roman authors were titled Pristis, Pristix, and Pistrix, these words are related to the word ‘prism’. A prism has the same effect as a water-drop in the air where rays of light are decomposed into colored rays of rainbow. [Cetus is not the rainbow itself; Electra (see above) is mother of Iris, the rainbow].

Another meaning of cetus

Qet– (meaning hole in the ground for dwelling, living space or living room) in the IE protolanguage was adopted, after some mutations in the meaning, as ketos in Greek [].

© Anne Wright 2008.

Fixed stars in Cetus
Star	1900	2000	R A	Decl 1950	Lat	Mag	Sp
iota	29PIS32	00ARI55	004 13 12	-09 06 03	-10 01 19	3.75	K3
Deneb Kaitos beta	01ARI11	02ARI35	010 16 12	-18 15 39	-20 47 01	2.24	K0
eta	10ARI22	11ARI45	016 31 06	-10 26 48	-16 07 01	3.60	K1
theta	14ARI51	16ARI14	020 22 51	-08 26 27	-15 46 03	3.83	K0
tau	16ARI27	17ARI50	025 26 11	-16 12 00	-24 50 19	3.65	G4
upsilon	18ARI02	19ARI25	029 24 44	-21 19 10	-31 02 09	4.18	M1
Baton Kaitos zeta	20ARI33	21ARI57	027 14 51	-10 34 53	-20 20 12	3.92	K0
Mira omicron	00TAU07	01TAU31	034 12 15	-03 12 13	-15 56 15	3.00 var	M6
xi	06TAU05	07TAU28	036 22 27	+08 14 13	-51 51 35	4.34	A0
delta	06TAU11	07TAU34	039 13 45	+00 06 50	-14 27 58	4.04	B2
Kaffaljidhma gamma	08TAU02	09TAU26	040 10 36	+03 01 34	-11 59 58	3.58	A2
mu	10TAU33	11TAU56	040 33 32	+09 54 15	-05 34 11	4.36	F4
Menkar alpha	12TAU55	14TAU19	044 54 57	+03 53 41	-12 35 23	2.82	M2
lambda	13TAU43	15TAU06	044 15 29	+08 42 33	-07 47 27	4.69	B5