Andromeda
Andromeda was a Greek mythological figure who was chained to a rock to be eaten by a sea monster and was saved by Perseus, whom she later married.
In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of the Phoenician kingdom Ethiopia. The etymology of the name is "to think of a man", from ανδρος (andros) "of a man" combined with μηδομαι (mēdomai) "to think, to be mindful of".
Cassiopeia, having boasted herself equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea-monster, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, so she was fastened to a rock on the shore.
Perseus, returning from having slain the Gorgon, found Andromeda, slew the monster, set her free, and married her in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head (Ovid, Metamorphoses v. 1).
Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae through Perseus' and Andromeda's son, Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had six sons (Perseides): Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, and Electryon, and one daughter, Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus got the kingdom, and include the great hero Heracles. According to this mythology, Perses is the ancestor of the Persians.
After her death she was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Corneille) made the story the subject of tragedies. The tale is represented in numerous ancient works of art.
At the port city of Jaffa, Israel, an outcropping of rocks near the harbour is reputed by local legend to have been the place from which Andromeda was rescued by Perseus.
Sources
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheke II, iv, 3-5
- Ovid, Metamorphoses IV, 668-764.
- Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Part Three, 204-207
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