Cetus (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, a Cetus (Template:Langx) is a large sea monster. Perseus slew a cetus to save Andromeda from being sacrificed to it. Later, before the Trojan War, Heracles also killed one to rescue Hesione. 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. The name of the constellation Cetus also derives from this word.
EtymologyEdit
In Ancient Greek ketos ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, plural kete/ketea, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}<ref name=sheldon-williams/>), Latinized as cetus (pl. ceti or cete = cetea<ref name=hunter/>), is any huge sea monster.<ref>"κῆτος" in Liddell, Henry and Robert Scott. 19406. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised by H.S. Jones and R. McKenzie.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref>
DepictionsEdit
A cetus was variously described as a sea monster or sea serpent. Other versions describe a cetus as a sea monster with the head of a wild boar<ref>John K. Papadopoulos, Deborah Ruscillo, 2002, A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), Archaeological Institute of America</ref><ref name=Fontenrose/> or greyhound and the body of a whale or a dolphin with divided, fan-like tails. Ceti were said to be colossal beasts the size of a ship, their skulls alone measuring Template:Convert in length, their spines being a cubit in thickness, and their skeletons taller at the shoulder than any elephant.<ref name=Fontenrose/>
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.<ref name=Drakon>Daniel Ogden, 2013, Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds,Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Fights with Kētē, Sea-Serpents, pp.116-147, Oxford University Press</ref><ref name=Fontenrose/><ref>Sharon Khalifa-Gueta, 2018, The Evolution of the Western Dragon (PDF), pp.265-290, Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Volume 4, Issue 4, Center for European and Mediterranean Affairs, Athens Institute for Education and Research</ref>
Greek mythologyEdit
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Cetus are often depicted fighting Perseus or as the mount of a Nereid.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Queen Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereids, which invoked the wrath of Poseidon who sent the sea monster 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.<ref>Perseus: Apollodorus 2.4.3. Heracles: Homer Iliad 21.441, Apollodorus 2.5.9.</ref>
A Cetus had also been portrayed to support Ino and Melicertes when they threw themselves into the sea<ref>Leveson Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, 1838, The doctrine of the Deluge; vindicating the scriptural account from the doubts cast upon it, Vol.1, p.385</ref> instead of a dolphin to carry Palaemon.
In both cases, the ruler annoyed Poseidon.
Etruscan mythologyEdit
In Etruscan mythology, the Cetea were regarded as psychopomps, being depicted frequently on sarcophagi and urns, along with dolphins and hippocamps.<ref>Nancy Thomson de Grummond, 2006, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend, The Journey to the Afterlife, p.212, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology</ref>
Furthermore, the Etruscan deity Nethuns is sometimes shown wearing a headdress depicting a Cetus.<ref>One of the Etruscan dodecapolis, in northern Etruria.</ref>
Bible and Jewish mythologyEdit
The tannin sea monstersEdit
The monster tannin in the Hebrew Bible has been translated as Greek kētos in the Septuagint, and cetus in the Latin Vulgate.
Tanninim ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) (-im denotes Hebraic plural) appear in the Hebrew Book of Genesis,<ref name=gen>Template:Bibleref.</ref> Exodus,<ref>Template:Bibleref.</ref> Deuteronomy,<ref>Template:Bibleref.</ref> Psalms,Template:Refn Job,<ref>Template:Bibleref.</ref> Ezekiel,<ref>Template:Bibleref & Template:Bibleverse-nb.</ref> Isaiah,<ref>Template:Bibleref & Template:Bibleverse-nb.</ref> and Jeremiah.<ref>Template:Bibleref.</ref> They are explicitly listed among the creatures created by God on the fifth day of the Genesis creation narrative,<ref name=gen/> translated in the King James Version as "great whales".<ref>Template:Bibleref (KJV).</ref> The Septuagint renders the original Hebrew of Genesis 1:21 (hattanninim haggedolim) as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (kētē ta megala) in Greek, and this was in turn translated as cete grandia in the Vulgate. The tannin is listed in the apocalypse of Isaiah as among the sea beasts to be slain by Yahweh "on that day",<ref>Template:Bibleref.</ref> translated in the King James Version as "the dragon".<ref>Template:Bibleref (KJV).</ref>Template:Refn
Conflation with Leviathan and RahabEdit
In Jewish mythology, Tannin is sometimes conflated with the related sea monsters Leviathan and Rahab.<ref name=heider-dddb-tannin/> Along with Rahab, "Tannin" was a name applied to ancient Egypt after the Exodus to Canaan.<ref>Template:Harvp "{{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}", p. 836</ref> Joseph Eddy Fontenrose noted that "cetus" was a counterpart of Tiamat-based Medusa, and was modelled after Yam and Mot and Leviathan.<ref name=Fontenrose>Joseph Eddy Fontenrose, 1974, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, pp.289-294, Biblo and Tannen Publishers</ref>
Jonah's "great fish"Edit
In Jonah 2:1 (1:17 in English translation), the Hebrew text reads dag gadol ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), which literally means "great fish". The Septuagint translates this phrase into Greek as mega kētos ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). This was at the start of more widespread depiction of real whales in Greece and kētos would cover proven whales, sharks and the old meaning of curious sea monsters. Jerome later translated this phrase as piscis grandis in his Latin Vulgate. However, he translated the Greek word kētos as cetus in Gospel of Matthew 12:40. The English opts for the former: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."<ref>{{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }} (NIV)</ref>
In other culturesEdit
Art historian John Boardman conjectured that images of the kētos in Central Asia influenced depictions of the Chinese Dragon and Indian makara. Boardman suggested that after contact with Silk Road images of a kētos, the Chinese dragon appeared more reptilian and shifted head-shape;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the Pig dragon with the head of a boar<ref>National Gallery of Art, "Jade coiled dragon, Hongshan Culture (c. 4700–2920 B.C.)" Template:Webarchive, Washington, D.C., Retrieved on 09-10-2021.</ref> compared to the reptilian head of modern dragons that of a camel.
Ships and sailingEdit
Cetus or megakētēs (μεγακήτης) is commonly used as a ship's name<ref>The Kosmos Society, 2019, The Idealized Ship | Part 2: Huge, hollow and swallowing, Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University</ref> or figurehead denoting a ship unafraid of the sea or a ruthless pirate ship to be feared. Cetea were widely viewed as misfortune or bad omen by sailors widely influenced by the Mediterranean traditions such as the bringer of a great storm or general harbinger. Lore and tales associated it with lost cargo and being swept off course, even pirates being allied with such creatures so as to become taboo aboard vessels.Template:Citation needed
See alsoEdit
- Ketu (mythology)
- Makara
- Kraken
- Tannin (monster)
- Black Tortoise - Cetus and the Black Tortoise correspond in astrology, as both creatures possess affinities to water and travel in the underworld to guide people<ref>National Museum of Korea, 2007, Black Tortoise and Serpent, the Guardian Deity of the North</ref> (see also: Cetus in Chinese astronomy)
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
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