| Andromeda, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, Cepheus,
and Cassiopea, who claimed that her daughter was more beautiful than all
the Nereids. In jealousy Nereids asked Poseidon to send a monster to waste
Cepheus's kingdom. An oracle foretold that the country would be spared
if Andromeda, whose beauty was guilty in their mischief, were given to
the monster. The people of Ethiopia forced Cepheus to sacrifice his daughter:
she was chained to the rock and waited for the monster to be devoured.
There Perseus saw her. Perseus was coming back from his expedition against
the Gorgons, with the head of Medusa in his bag. With the help of that
head he turned the monster into stone and freed Andromeda. Then he married
her and took with him to Argos. |