Cepheus

“ Cepheus, king of the land; and the faces of all gathered blackness.
Then once more they cast; and Cassiopœia was taken,
Deep-bosomed wife of the king, whom oft far-seeing Apollo
Watched well-pleased from the welkin, the fairest of Æthiop women:
Fairest, save only her daughter; for down to the ankle her tresses
Rolled, blue-black as the night, ambrosial, joy to beholders.
Awful and fair she arose, most like in her coming to Here,
Queen before whom the Immortals arise, as she comes on Olympus,
Out of the chamber of gold, which her son Hephæstos has wrought her. ”

“ Who lifeless dropp'd; broke in the bone the steel;
He spurn'd, and sprinkled all the feast with gore.
Then rag'd with ire ungovern'd all the crowd,
And hurl'd in showers their weapons; some fierce cry'd,
Cepheus, no less than Perseus, death deserv'd.
But Cepheus left the hall, adjuring loud,
The hospitable gods; justice; and faith;
That he was guiltless of the sanguine fray.
Minerva comes; her sheltering Ægis shields
[Pg 172] Her brother's body; in his breast she breathes
Redoubled valor. ”

“ THE WEDDING FEAST The joyful parents, with Perseus and Andromeda, repaired to the palace, where a banquet was spread for them, and all was joy and festivity. But suddenly a noise was heard of warlike clamor, and Phineus, the betrothed of the virgin, with a party of his adherents, burst in, demanding the maiden as his own. It was in vain that Cepheus remonstrated—"You should have claimed her when she lay bound to the rock, the monster's victim. The sentence of the gods dooming her to such a fate dissolved all engagements, as death itself would have done." ”

“ Finally Cepheus said: ‘You might as well go home, Orion. These girls don’t want a party to-night.’
“‘Oh, yes, we do!’ they cried. ‘Only Taygeta—’ Then they were off again.
140“‘Come, come!’ said Cassiopeia. ‘Just pretend you have a little sense!’
“‘Draco has!’ cried Andromeda. ”

“ In Ethopia, which is at the other side of Libya, there ruled a king whose name was Cepheus. This king had permitted his queen to boast that she was more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. In punishment for the queen's impiety and for the king's folly Poseidon sent a monster out of the sea to waste that country. Every year the monster came, destroying more and more of the country of Ethopia. Then the king asked of an oracle what he should do to save his land and his people. ”

“ The Virgin Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, was the representative of Palestina; a long, narrow, rocky strip of land; figuratively called the daughter of Rocks and Mountains; because it is a country abounding with rocks and stones. And the Greeks, really supposing Cepha, a rock or stone, to have been the young ladies father, added their sign of the masculine gender to it, and it became Cepha-us. ”

“ The same, he says, is fixed as an image in heaven, being a certain philosophy for those who can see.
But if this is not clear, through another image, he says, [113] creation teaches us to philosophize, about which Aratus speaks thus:—
“Nor of Ionian [194] Cepheus are we the miserable race.”—
(Phæn. v. 353.)
p. 129.But near Draco, he says, are Cepheus and Cassiopeia and Andromeda and Perseus, great letters of [195] the creation to those who can see. For he says that Cepheus is Adam, Cassiopeia Eve, Andromeda the soul of both, Perseus the winged offspring of Zeus and Cetus the plotting Beast. ”

“ Perseus, not daring any longer to trust himself on his dripping pinions,86 beholds a rock, which with its highest top projects from the waters when becalmed, but is now covered by the troubled sea. Resting on that, and clinging to the upper ridge87 of the rock with his left hand, three or four times he thrusts his sword through its entrails aimed at by him. A shout, with applause, fills the shores and the lofty abodes of the Gods. Cassiope and Cepheus, the father, rejoice, and salute him as their son-in-law, and confess that he is the support and the preserver of their house. ”

“ She is indeed highly exalted, and making herself ready. Her hands, no longer bound, are engaged in this happy work. With her right hand she is arranging her robes, while with her left she is adorning her hair. She is seated upon the Arctic circle, and close by the side of Cepheus, the King.
This is “the Bride, the Lamb's wife, the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem,” the “partakers of the heavenly calling.”
[pg 109] He who has redeemed her is “the Lamb that was slain,” and He addresses her thus:
“Thy Maker is thine husband ”

“ These two stars are almost exactly midway between the horizon and the point overhead, and nearly northwest. King Cepheus—not a very conspicuous constellation—lies between the point overhead and the Little Bear.
Low down in the northwest we find the head of the Herdsman (Boötes) . The Crown (Corona Borealis) , which no one can mistake, lies on his left; and close by is the setting head of the Serpent. Above these three groups we see Hercules—the Kneeler—his head at α, his upraised club by γ. Above the head of Hercules we find the Lyre, with the bright star Vega ”

“ The men of the house of Aeacus, though it was long since they had seen Cephalus, yet knew him, grasped his hand, and brought him into their father's house. The hero advanced, the centre of all eyes, retaining even yet the traces of his old beauty and charm, bearing a branch of his country's olive, and, himself the elder, flanked on right and left by two of lesser age, Clytos and Butes, sons of Pallas. After they had exchanged greetings, Cephalus delivered the message of the Athenians, asking for aid and quoting the ancestral league and treaty between their two nations. ”

“ As it was, the clerks were all of them engaged in occupations which were remote from official work. The eldest of them, Cephalus by name—a man who was distinguished from the others by a certain refined sobriety both in his dark dress and in his quiet demeanour—was reading a treatise on algebra; the second, Theophilus, a musician, whose tunic was as bright as his flaming hair, was mending a small organ; and the third, Rufinus, a rather pale, short-sighted, and untidy youth, was scribbling on a tablet. The scribes were busy sorting old records and putting them away in their permanent places. ”

“ Cefi, the chief of his priests, then answered, “Consider, oh king, what this teaching is that is now 15 delivered to us. I declare to you, I have learned for a certainty that the religion we have had up to the present has neither virtue nor usefulness in it. For none of thy servants has applied himself more diligently to the worship of our gods than I, and nevertheless there 20 are many who receive greater gifts and favors from thee than I, and are more prosperous in all their undertakings. ”

“ And, whilst Simon Cephas was saying these things to his fellow-apostles, and putting them in remembrance, a mysterious voice was heard by them, and a sweet odour, which was strange to the world, breathed upon them; [10] and tongues of fire, between the voice and the odour, came down from heaven [11] towards them, and alighted and sat on every one of them; and, according to the tongue which every one of them had severally received, so did he prepare himself to go to the country in which that tongue was spoken and heard. ”

“ The meaning then is this, thou art “Kepha,” or “Cephas,” i.e., a rock or a very hard and very firm stone, for this is the signification of the Hebrew “Keph,” and of the Chaldee and Syriac “Kepha,” marked out and ordained by Me, that after My death, and the gift of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, having been entirely solidified and made strong, thou mayest become the foundation of the Church which I will build upon thee. For before the coming of the Holy Ghost, Peter was very far from being the rock of the Church; yea through fear he denied Christ in His Passion. ”

“ No sound was heard but the panting breath of Cephyse, and, at intervals, the slight crackling of the charcoal, which began to burn, and already sent forth a faint sickening vapor. Cephyse, seeing the fire completely lighted, and feeling already a little dizzy, rose from the ground, and said to her sister, as she approached her, “It is done!”
“Sister,” answered Mother Bunch, kneeling on the mattress, whilst Cephyse remained standing, “how shall we place ourselves? I should like to be near you to the last.” ”

“ CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS Cephalus was a beautiful youth and fond of manly sports. He would rise before the dawn to pursue the chase. Aurora saw him when she first looked forth, fell in love with him, and stole him away. But Cephalus was just married to a charming wife whom he loved devotedly. Her name was Procris. She was a favorite of Diana, the goddess of hunting, who had given her a dog which could outrun every rival, and a javelin which would never fail of its mark ”

“ Who better suited to raise the question of justice than Cephalus, whose life might seem to be the expression of it? The moderation with which old age is pictured by Cephalus as a very tolerable portion of existence is characteristic, not only of him, but of Greek feeling generally, and contrasts with the exaggeration of Cicero in the De Senectute. The evening of life is described by Plato in the most expressive manner, yet with the fewest possible touches. ”

“ Then, smiling with that bitter irony, so frequent, we repeat, in the most gloomy moments, Cephyse added, "I say, sister, weather-boards at our doors and windows, to prevent the air from getting in—what a luxury! we are as delicate as rich people."
"At such a time, we may as well try to make ourselves a little comfortable," said Mother Bunch, trying to jest like the Bacchanal Queen. ”

“ So Cecrops-the serpent man, as they still called him-became the king of the poor people on the hill. He taught them how to make bows and arrows, and how to set nets for birds, and how to take fish with hooks. He led them against the savage wild men of the woods, and helped them kill the fierce beasts that had been so great a terror to them. ”

“ The sun is captivated by its beauty, and longs to view it more closely; the dew, afraid of its ardent lover, flies, and, when its fiery breath touches it, vanishes, leaving nothing but verdure in the selfsame spot where but a moment before it sparkled in all its purity.
Cephalus and Procris.
The ancients had many analogous stories, allegories of the sun and dew, amongst others the oft-quoted tale of Cephalus and Procris. Cephalus was a hunter, who fell in love with and married one of Diana’s nymphs, Procris. ”

“ This is the account of Clement [6] in the fifth book of his Hypotyposes, in which he also says that Cephas was one of the seventy disciples, [7] a man who bore the same name as the apostle Peter, and the one concerning whom Paul says, “When Cephas came to Antioch I withstood him to his face.” [8]
3. Matthias, [9] also, who was numbered with the apostles in the place of Judas, and the one who was honored by being made a candidate with him, [10] are likewise said to have been deemed worthy of the same calling with the seventy. ”

“ All day long Cephalus hunted in the forest, and, when the evening shadows began to fall, joined his loving wife in their cozy dwelling. Her marriage gifts proved invaluable, as Lelaps was swift of foot, and tireless in the chase. One day, to test his powers, the gods from Olympus watched him course a fox, a special creation of theirs; and so well were both animals matched in speed and endurance, that the chase bade fair to end only with the death of one or both of the participants. ”

“ Hamle 1 (July 8) On this day the holy virgin Cephronia became a martyr. This fighter of the spiritual fight gave herself to our Lord Jesus Christ. She was the sister of the abbess of a nunnery (wherein there were fifty virgins, now the nunnery lay between two rivers) whose name was ‘Ariana, and she brought her up in the fear of God, and taught her to read the Divine Books. And she fought a good fight, and devoted herself to God, and she fasted for two days at a time, and she prayed many prayers. ”

“ After the eloquence of Cephalus has thus promoted the cause entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his sceptre, says—
“Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let all the forces of my kingdom go along with thee. Strength is not wanting. ”

“ Cephyse only answered by a heart-rending sob, as she pressed the knees of Jacques against her heaving bosom. By a strange contradiction, more common than is generally thought—this man, degraded by intoxication and debauchery, who, since he came out of prison, had plunged in every excess, and tamely yielded to all the fatal incitements of Morok, yet received a fearful blow, when he learned, by the mute avowal of Cephyse, the infidelity, of this creature, whom he had loved in spite of degradation. ”

“ Cyprian to the martyrs and confessors, his beloved brethren, greeting. The anxiety of my situation and the fear of the Lord constrain me, my brave and beloved brethren, to admonish you in my letters, that those who so devotedly and bravely maintain the faith of the Lord should also maintain the law and discipline of the Lord. For while it behoves all Christ’s soldiers to keep the precepts of their commander; to you it is more especially fitting that you should obey His precepts, inasmuch as you have been made an example to others, both of valour and of the fear of God. ”

“ And it sang as it flitted from bough to bough, until it reached the quiet churchyard where the grass grows green upon the graves, where the roses bloom living on the breast of death, and the cypress points to the immortal skies. There on the cypress' topmost twig it perched and sang a song so rich and rare, so far-reaching, that it touched the heart of Death sitting on the chest of the emperor,—for, after all, Death has a tender heart. Filled with a longing for his own garden, melted by the Nightingale's song, he vanished in a cold, grey mist,—out at the window. ”