History
The Greek constellation may be an adaptation of the Babylonian constellation known as the Old Man (MUL.SHU.GI) which is associated with East (as a cardinal direction) in the MUL.APIN, an astronomical compilation dating to around 1000 BCE.
In Greek mythology, Perseus was the son of Danae, who became the hero who slew Medusa. He later used the Gorgon's head to rescue the princess Andromeda from the monster Cetus.
Read more about this topic: Perseus (constellation)
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“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)