Andromeda
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Andromeda. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in classical mythology a daughter of Cepheus, King of of Ethiopia and Cassiope. It was fabled that she was chained to a rock by order of Jupiter Ammon, and then exposed to the attacks of a monster. Perseus released, and afterward married her. On her death she was changed into the constellation which bears her name. In astronomy, a constellation, fancised to resemble a woman fully supposed chained. It is in the northern hemisphere, and is surrounded by Cassiopeia, Lacerta, Pegasus, Pisces, Triangulum, and Perseus It contains . the bright stars Allmach and Mirach, and Alpherat t is on the boundary line between it and Pegasus. There is in the girdle of Andromeda a fine elliptic nebula visible to the naked eye, and continually mistaken by the uninitiated for a comet. On Sept. 21, 21, 1898, the astronomers of the Pulkowa Observatory in Russia announced that they had discovered a stellated condensation in the center of this nebula, indicating that its nucleus is composed of stars instead of gas, like the matter surrounding it. In botany, a genus of plants belonging to the order ericaceæ, or heath-worts, A species (the A. polifolia, or marsh andromeda) occurs in the bogs of Britain. It is an evergreen shrub, with beautiful, rose-colored drooping flowers. Its shoots poison sheep, as do those of the A. mariana, which grows in America; and the A. ovalifolia, of Nepaul, acts with similar effect upon goats. ANDRONICUS I. (Comnenus), a Byzantine emperor, the son of Isaac Com- In his youth he served against nenus. the Turks, in 1141 was for some time a prisoner, and was afterward appointed to a military command in Cilicia, but was unsuccessful. Having engaged in a treasonable correspondence with the King of Hungary, he was thrown into prison by his cousin, the Emperor Manuel; but after 12 years he succeeded in making his escape, and reached Kiev, the residence of Prince Jaroslav. He regained the favor of his cousin by persuading ng Jaroslav to join him in the invasion of Hungary, but soon incurred his displeaseasure again, and was sent in honorable banishment to Cilicia. After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and his scandalous seduction of Theodora, the widow of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, he settled among the Turks in Asia Minor, with a band of outlaws, but at length made his peace with the Emperor. After the death of Manuel in 1182, he was recalled to become, first guardian, then colleague, of the young Emperor Alexius II. Soon after, he caused the Empress mother to be strangled, and afterward Alexius himself. His reign, though short, restored prosperity to the provinces; but tyranny and murder were its characteristics in the capital. Isaac Angelus, one of his relatives, having fled to the Church of St. Sophia for sanctuary, a crowd gathered, and a sudden insurrection placed Isaac on the throne, while Andronicus, now 73 years of age, was put to death by the infuriated populace on Sept. 12, 1185.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A daughter of Cepheus, king of beb Aethiopia, and Cassiope. She e was was promised in marriage to Phineus when Neptune drowned the kingdom and set a sea monster to ravage the country, because Cassiope had boasted that she was fairer than Juno and the Nereides . The oracle of Jupiter Ammor. was consulted, but nothing could stop the resentment of Neptune except the exposure of Andromeda to the sea monster. She was accordingly tied to a rock, but at the moment that the monster was about to devour her, Perseus , returning from the conquest of the Gorgons, saw her, and was captivated with her beauty. He changed the monster into a rock by showing Medusa 's head, and released Andromeda and married her. : Angli or Anglii. A German people on the left bank of the Elbe, who passed over with the Saxons into Britain, which was called after them, England.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an-drom'e-da, in mythology, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, monarchs of Ethiopia. She was bound to a rock as an offering to a destroying monster that was ravishing the land, and was rescued by Perseus. After death she was placed in the sky as a constellation, where she is now surrounded by her husband, mother, Pegasus, and other demigods. The name has been given to a genus of shrubs belonging to the heath family. The stagger bush of North America , so called from the effects of its leaves when eaten by sheep, is an Andromeda. See Cassiopeia ; Perseus
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The myth stands as told, but the astronomy was overturned within two years of Collier's writing. Collier's in 1921 called it "a fine elliptic nebula visible to the naked eye" and cited the Pulkovo announcement of 1898 that its nucleus might be made of stars rather than gas; in 1923-24 Edwin Hubble found Cepheid variable stars in it with the 100-inch Mount Wilson telescope and proved it a separate galaxy far outside the Milky Way, now measured at about 2.5 million light-years away. It is approaching us and is expected to merge with our galaxy in roughly four billion years. The botanical genus has also shrunk: most of the shrubs these entries list as Andromeda, including the American stagger bush, have been moved to Pieris, Lyonia and Leucothoe, leaving Andromeda with only the bog rosemaries.
Written for this edition, 2026.