The Sea Gods: Monsters in the Deep Sky
The constellation named by the Greeks as Cetus is modernly translated as “whale”, but it is more accurately “sea monster”, and is almost always pictured in classical and medieval manuscripts as a creature with a fishtail and the forepart of some land animal—a dog, a cow, an unidentifiable monster. In this way it is a “mer-monster”, much like the Nine Undines themselves.
The Sea Monster is a huge constellation with at least 14 visible stars, of which several are named. The brightest are the mouth and the tail, Menkar (Aegir’s star) and Deneb Kaitos (Ran’s star). The stars in between are variously those of the Nine Sisters, although I have not yet been able to figure out whose is which. (Although I am fairly sure that Mira is Blodughadda’s star.)
The Sea Monster was associated not only with fishermen but with sea-salt evaporation artisans, people who literally made their living in the middle of salt. Its stars were said to bestow a highly emotional but rather lazy character, trials and ordeals, and possibly epilepsy (which makes the individual literally undulate). Menkar, the alpha star which is the open maw of the Sea Monster, belongs to Aegir and is the most commonly noted star. Aegir’s job is feeding everyone in the ocean—from fishes to drowned souls—and so the open mouth is appropriate for him, whereas the splashing tail which takes down ships is the star of his bloodthirsty wife.
Modernly, Menkar is said to be associated with the “sea” of the collective unconscious, and indicates forces that the individual does not notice until they are pushed in a direction.