Andromeda
Andromeda
7 min read
Andromeda is a princess of Greek mythology, the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, and Cassiopeia. Chained to a rock to be offered to a sea monster, she is rescued by the hero Perseus, whom she later marries.
Key Facts
- Daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, and Queen Cassiopeia
- Offered as a sacrifice to a sea monster (Cetus) to appease the wrath of Poseidon, provoked by Cassiopeia's vanity
- Freed and rescued by the hero Perseus, returning from his victory over the Gorgon Medusa
- Becomes the wife of Perseus and the mother of several children, including Perses, the legendary ancestor of the Persians
- Turned into a constellation by the goddess Athena, neighbouring those of Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cepheus
Works & Achievements
A hugely successful Athenian play that established the romantic image of the rescue; known mainly through fragments and through Aristophanes' parody.
The standard literary account of Andromeda's rescue, the source of countless works of art down to the present day.
A canvas painted for Philip II of Spain, in which Perseus dives from the air toward the monster; today in the Wallace Collection in London.
A large Baroque composition showing Perseus freeing the princess from her chains; held in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
A rare scene in which Rembrandt isolates the princess, alone and terrified, awaiting the monster; held in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
A marble sculptural group intended for the gardens of Versailles, now in the Louvre; a high point of French Baroque sculpture.
A dramatic canvas highlighting the princess's solitude and anguish before the raging sea.
A Pre-Raphaelite painting of the battle between Perseus and the monster before Andromeda, from a great cycle devoted to the hero.
Anecdotes
Andromeda is punished for a wrong that is not hers: her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, had boasted of being more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymphs of the sea. Offended, Poseidon sent a flood and a sea monster to ravage the kingdom's coasts. The oracle of Ammon declared that the scourge would not end unless the princess was delivered to the monster — and so she was chained to a rock at the water's edge.
According to Ovid, when Perseus — returning from slaying the Gorgon Medusa with the winged sandals of Hermes — caught sight of Andromeda bound to the rock, he nearly mistook her for a marble statue. Only the breeze stirring her hair and the tears streaming down her face revealed to him that she was alive. He fell in love with her at once, promised her father Cepheus that he would kill the monster, and won her hand.
The wedding of Andromeda and Perseus turned to disaster. Phineus, the princess's uncle, to whom she had first been promised, burst into the banquet with a band of armed men to take her back. Vastly outnumbered, Perseus then brandished the severed head of Medusa: its petrifying gaze turned Phineus and his warriors into stone statues frozen mid-charge.
At the end of the story, the gods placed nearly the whole family among the stars: Andromeda, Perseus, her father Cepheus, her mother Cassiopeia, and even the sea monster (Cetus) became constellations. So one can still “read” the myth in the night sky. Cassiopeia, for her part, was fixed in such a way that she sometimes turns head-downward — a final punishment for her pride.
In antiquity, travelers were shown the marks of Andromeda's chains on the rocks of the harbor of Joppa (present-day Jaffa, in Israel). Pliny the Elder even recounts that the Roman aedile Scaurus brought back from there, in 58 BC, the bones of the “sea monster” — a skeleton some twelve meters long, displayed in Rome. Thus the legend became entangled with so-called “proofs.”
Primary Sources
“When the descendant of Abas [Perseus] saw her, her arms bound to the harsh rock, he would have taken her for a marble statue, had a light breeze not stirred her hair and had warm tears not streamed from her eyes.”
“Cassiopeia, wife of Cepheus, had boasted that she surpassed the Nereids in beauty. They, in their anger, and Poseidon with them, sent a flood and a sea monster against the land. The oracle of Ammon declared that the calamity would end if Andromeda were exposed to the monster; compelled by the Ethiopians, Cepheus chained her to a rock.”
“Perseus, son of Danaë and Zeus, having come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his daughter Andromeda, had by her a son whom he named Perses… it is from him that the Persians took their name.”
“Andromeda was placed among the constellations through the goodwill of Minerva [Athena], in memory of Perseus; she is depicted with her arms outstretched, as if still bound to the rock.”
Key Places
Port that Antiquity identified as the rock where Andromeda was chained; visitors were shown the marks of her irons and the “bones” of the monster.
Legendary kingdom of her father, which the Greeks placed in a distant southern “Ethiopia.” Andromeda's homeland and royal residence.
City of the Argolid that tradition holds was founded and ruled by Perseus; Andromeda lived there with him and founded the line of the Perseids.
Citadel of the Argolid assigned to Perseus after his exchange of kingdoms with Megapenthes; cradle of his descendants.
Ancestral land of Perseus's line (Danaë, Acrisius). Andromeda reaches the Argolid after her marriage and her departure from Ethiopia.