Discussion of the Konstellations

[Koen G]

A good read.

It's hard to deny the giant nymph, split tail (and snarly look on the "Cetus" nymph), and resemblance to hare's ears, or to explain these features in other ways that are consistent with a common thread.


If this pans out, and I think it might, it's brilliant deduction.


I wonder... this is just a thought, since your proposed Cetus appears in conflict with the other nymph, could this be someone like Perseus who defeated Cetus by holding up Medusa's severed head and frightened the monster to death or turned it to stone? Could there be a myth combined with a Cetus constellation to cinch down the identification? Cetus is in the Perseus Group (along with Andromeda and Perseus) and the pulling of hair (or snake-like tendrils) in the image might be a reference to holding the severed Medusa head.

Both nymphs are Cetus, since they stand on a single base. The viewer is supposed to know - I guess through the text - that it is especially the base and the arms of figures that point at the constellation, while the rest is not-always-related narrative frame.

In my analysis of this entire folio, the narrative frame is the myth of Callisto being assaulted by Zeus. This Cetus scene is the exact moment of the attack. But there is no reason why there should or should not be hair pulling involved.

So - yes, I think you are right that the image of Perseus and his Medusa head is alluded to here. I hadn't seen it yet that way, but these images are so incredibly intricate and densely layered. You will understand why I often praise the composition of specifically Q13a. It's really well done. And I think it is because they have managed to compress this much info into what essentially looks like a bunch of ugly, bathing nymphs, that it has managed to mislead people for so long.

Edit: I see what you mean now seeing one nymph as the Cetus half and the other as a Perseus half and the head doubling as Medusa head, and I think you are right. this also explains the red spot on "Medusa's" neck, where it would have been severed. Layers, layers...

Now there's more. This is a clear cluster: Eridanus, Cetus, Lepus, Orion. It's not accurate like on a celestial sphere, but the basic positions are there.
With Lepus, the running figure bottom right on the folio, the image takes a different direction, crossing over the middle of the page towards bottom left.

Let's hypothesize that the pool of water represents the Tropic of Capricorn. That is not a random guess: Lepus sits right on it, just like our nymph. So let's follow it in the right direction. There's one nymph in the middle which I haven't discussed yet here, let's leave that one for now (risking tl/dr). You can probably guess.

But then we get to the trio I identified as the celestial trio of Hydra, Corvus and Crater. See this post a bit earlier in this thread: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.



I pasted the relevant section of the Farnese Atlas beneath it, leaving only the constellations on the tropic of Capricorn. I did mirror the image, since celestial spheres are mirrored by convention, so you have to mirror them again to get the normal positions. The thing in between the Dog and Hydra is the top of Argo Navis, which belongs to the Antarctic Circle and can be ignored.

That leaves three constellations in this section, from right to left: Hare, Dog, Hydra-Corvus-Crater.

So... it works out rather well. Though it takes some time and experience with the constellations to adjust your eye to it - which is why I'm a bit afraid I may be speaking Chinese sometimes :/