Andromeda

Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Aethiopia. She is remembered for being chained to a rock as an offering to a sea monster sent by Poseidon, and for being rescued by the hero Perseus, who killed the monster and married her. Through their children she became the ancestress of the royal house of Mycenae, and after her death she was placed among the stars.

Andromeda’s Biography

Origins and Lineage

Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Aethiopia, and his wife Cassiopeia (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.3). Herodotus calls Cepheus a son of Belus (Histories 7.61); Hyginus, citing Euripides, makes him a son of Phoenix (Astronomica 2.9). Her name is commonly rendered “ruler of men”. Before the events below she had been betrothed to Phineus, a brother of Cepheus (Library 2.4.3); Hyginus names the betrothed Agenor instead (Fabulae 64).

The Boast of Cassiopeia and the Sea Monster

According to Apollodorus, Cassiopeia vied with the Nereids in beauty and boasted that she was better than all of them. The Nereids were angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a sea monster (Cetus) against the land. The oracle of Ammon predicted that the country would be delivered from the calamity if Andromeda were exposed as prey to the monster. Cepheus was compelled by the Aethiopians to do it, and he bound his daughter to a rock by the sea (Library 2.4.3). In Hyginus’ brief version it is Andromeda’s own beauty that Cassiopeia claims excels the Nereids’ (Fabulae 64).

The Rescue by Perseus

Perseus, returning from his quest for the head of Medusa, saw Andromeda and fell in love with her. He promised Cepheus that he would kill the monster if he were given the rescued girl as his wife. When the terms had been sworn, Perseus withstood the monster, killed it and set Andromeda free (Library 2.4.3).

Ovid gives the fullest telling (Metamorphoses 4.663–803). Perseus, flying on his winged sandals, saw Andromeda chained to the rock and took her for a marble statue until the breeze stirred her hair. She reluctantly told him of her mother’s boast; as she spoke the monster appeared, and her weeping parents promised Perseus their daughter and the kingdom as her dowry if he saved her. Perseus rose into the air and, like an eagle striking a serpent, drove his curved sword into the creature’s shoulder, wounding it repeatedly until he set foot on a rock and ran it through. He laid the Gorgon’s head on a bed of seaweed, which hardened at its touch – the origin, Ovid says, of coral – built three turf altars to Hermes, Athena and Zeus, and took Andromeda as his bride without asking for the dowry.

The Wedding and the Fight with Phineus

Apollodorus says only that Phineus, to whom Andromeda had first been promised, plotted against Perseus, who discovered the plot and turned Phineus and his fellow conspirators to stone with the Gorgon’s head (Library 2.4.3). Ovid expands this into the battle of Metamorphoses 5.1–235. In the middle of the wedding feast Phineus burst into the hall with his spear, claiming his stolen bride. Cepheus answered that Phineus had forfeited her when he did nothing while she was chained to the rock. Phineus hurled his spear and a bloody fight filled the palace. Overwhelmed by numbers, Perseus warned his friends to turn away their faces and lifted the head of Medusa; two hundred men were turned to stone. Phineus begged for his life, but Perseus turned him too to stone, a lasting monument in the house of Cepheus.

Andromeda’s Marriage to Perseus

The Marriage

Andromeda became the wife of Perseus. Before he came to Greece they had a son, Perses, who stayed behind in Aethiopia with his grandfather Cepheus, who had no son of his own; from him the kings of Persia were said to descend and the Persians to take their name (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5; Herodotus 7.61). Perseus then went on to Seriphus, where he freed his mother Danae from the violence of Polydectes, and he later settled in the Argolid, where Mycenae became his city (Library 2.4.3–4).

The Offspring

At Mycenae Andromeda bore Perseus further children. Apollodorus names the sons Alcaeus, Sthenelus, Heleus, Mestor and Electryon, and a daughter, Gorgophone (Library 2.4.5). Through Alcaeus she is the grandmother of Amphitryon, and through Electryon the grandmother of Alcmene, the mother of Heracles.

Andromeda’s Legacy

Andromeda among the Stars

Andromeda, her parents Cepheus and Cassiopeia, Perseus and the sea monster all became constellations. Hyginus says that Andromeda was placed among the stars by the favour of Athena, on account of the valour of Perseus, who freed her when she was exposed to the monster, and because she repaid him in kind: neither Cepheus nor Cassiopeia could stop her leaving parents and country to follow him (Astronomica 2.11); the monster too was set in the sky in memory of the deed (Astronomica 2.31). The constellation still bears her name.

Memorials at Joppa

Later writers placed the rock of Andromeda at Joppa on the coast of Palestine. Pausanias reports that a spring there ran red like blood because Perseus washed off the monster’s gore in it (Description of Greece 4.35.9), and Pliny the Elder says that the marks of Andromeda’s chains were still pointed out on the rock (Natural History 5.69). Pliny adds that the aedile Marcus Scaurus exhibited at Rome bones brought from Joppa, more than forty feet long, said to be those of the monster to which Andromeda had been exposed (Natural History 9.11).

Andromeda Sources

The fullest prose account is Apollodorus’ Library (2.4.3–5), which also gives the children of Perseus and Andromeda. Ovid’s Metamorphoses (4.663–5.249) tells the rescue and the fight with Phineus in verse. Herodotus (7.61) records Perses and the Persians. Hyginus summarises the story in Fabulae 64 and explains the constellations in Astronomica 2.9, 2.11 and 2.31. Pausanias (4.35.9) and Pliny the Elder (Natural History 5.69, 9.11) describe the memorials at Joppa. Euripides’ tragedy Andromeda survives only in fragments.

See Also: Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Cetus, Medusa, Poseidon, Nereids, Adventures of Perseus