Andromeda (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Andromeda (ænˈdrɒmɪdə; Androméda or Andromédē) is the daughter of Cepheus, the king of Aethiopia, and his wife, Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia boasts that she (or her daughter) is more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon sends the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia as divine punishment. Andromeda is chained to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus, who marries her and takes her to Greece to reign as his queen. As a subject, Andromeda has been popular in art since classical times; rescued by a Greek hero, Andromeda's narration is considered the forerunner to the "princess and dragon" motif. From the Renaissance, interest revived in the original story, typically as derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story has appeared many times in such diverse media as plays, poetry, novels, operas, classical and popular music, film, and paintings. A significant part of the northern sky contains several constellations named after the story's figures. In particular the constellation Andromeda is named after her. The Andromeda tradition, from classical times onwards, has incorporated elements of other stories, including Saint George and the Dragon, introducing a horse for the hero, and the tale of Pegasus, Bellerophon's winged horse. Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso, which tells a similar story, has introduced further confusion. The tradition has been criticized for depicting the princess of Aethiopia as white; few artists have chosen to portray her as dark-skinned, despite Ovid's account of her. Others have noted that Perseus's liberation of Andromeda was a popular choice of subject among male artists, reinforcing a narrative of male superiority with its powerful male hero and its submissive female in bondage. The name Andromeda is from the Greek Androméda, perhaps meaning 'mindful of her husband'. The name is from the noun anēr, andrós meaning 'man', and a verb, whether medesthai, mēdein, or mēdomai, all related to mēdeia, the likely origin of the name of Medea, the sorceress.

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Related concepts (14)

Heracles

Heracles (ˈhɛrəkli:z ; ), born Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος, Alkaios) or Alcides (Ἀλκείδης, Alkeidēs), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon. He was a descendant and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (Ἡρακλεῖδαι), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.

Medusa

In Greek mythology, Medusa (mᵻˈdjuːzə,_-sə; Médousa), also called Gorgo, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair; those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, although the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.

Andromeda (mythology)