It's all a bit of a myth.

For the last week I have been watching the north-eastern skies for the Perseids meteor shower. Between periods of over-cast skies ( what else could I expect ?), the glow of a waning gibbous moon, and the light pollution of the village, I managed to spot a few shooting stars and wished on every one. Always the same wish for I am not greedy and, of course, you cannot ever tell your wish or it won’t come true.
The meteors originate around the constellation of Perseus, sitting in the heavens alongside his beloved Andromeda, with the head of Medusa, the Gorgon in his hand, the devil-star Algol, winking in the forehead. His perfidious in-laws Cassiopeia and Cepheus are there as well.
Perseus was probably some chieftain or warrior king in Bronze Age Greece. He was supposed to be the progenitor of the Mycenae who went on to dominate the eastern Mediterranean, fought the Trojan War, became the Greeks bearing gifts of whom we should beware, and who “burnt the topless towers of Ilium”.

At the weekend, I travelled up to Forteviot to see the excavations of the tomb of a Bronze Age warrior chief.
A stone lined cist set into an even older Neolithic henge that his people must have recognised as a sacred place. A “pillow” of quartz crystals pebbles and a birchbark coffin marked him as an important man. Even more so was presence of a bronze dagger with gold banding placed in the grave. His tomb was sealed with a four tonne capstone.

On the drive home, I reflected that we know all about Perseus, a man, probably contemporary with the occupant of the Perthshire tomb and probably of the same social standing, a warrior king, yet we know next to nothing about our local hero. Did his people see him in the sky after death? Was he the “Tabhaicht” in Fothair Tabhaicht or Forteviot?
There were later Pictish palaces on the site so it has always been associated with chiefs and kings.
A pity there was no Homer around to sing his praises.
We have to borrow our myths.