This woman has two names. She is beautiful and self-confident. She is also scarred with the burden of arrogance and jelousy that influences her fate.
She takes the names after two beautiful constellations: Andromeda (in her hair line) and Cassiopeia (at her neck).
MYTH
The story of Cassiopeia and Andromeda dates back to the Greek mythology. Cassiopeia constellation represents the boastful Cassiopeia, queen of Ethiopia wife of Cepheus. In the myth, Cassiopeia offended the Nereids (Poseidon’s nymphs) claiming her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the nymphs. The nymphs asked the sea god Poseidon to punish the queen for her vanity. Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus to flood the queen’s land.
To appease Poseidon the King and Queen were advised by the Oracle to sacrifice their daughter Andromeda. They left her chained to a rock, but Andromeda was saved from the monster by Perseus.
In the story, it was the goddess Athena who commemorated the princess Andromeda by placing her image among the stars, next to the constellations representing her husband Perseus and mother Cassiopeia.
ASTRONOMY
Cassiopeia was already noted in 2nd century by the Greek astronomers. It is located in the northern sky from latitudes of 34deg and can be observed all year long. It hosts interesting deep-sky objects such as several open clusters, luminous galactic disc stars, nebulae, galaxies and supernova remnants.
Andromeda constellation contains nine named stars. Andromeda has a number of stars with confirmed exoplanets. The constellation is associated with the Andromedids meteor shower (also known as the Bielids), first documented on December 6, 1741 over Russia. The meteor shower has faded since discovery, but some activity is still observable in mid-November.
If you take a good look at the hair line, you can see the beautiful Andromeda spiral galaxy. This galaxy appears in the area of Andromeda constellation. Andromeda is the largest galaxy in the Local Cluster (which includes the Milky Way) with estimated 1 trillion stars. It’s diameter is 260,000 light years. It is heading towards the Milky Way at a break-neck speed of 100-140 km per second.
