In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of Cepheus, the king of Aethiopia, and his wife, Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia claims that she or Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, the sea gods punish Aethiopia by sending a sea monster named Cetus to attack the coast. To stop the monster, Queen Cassiopeia decides to chain Andromeda to a rock and offer her as a sacrifice to the gods. Perseus, a hero returning from a journey to defeat the monster Medusa, finds Andromeda and saves her. He takes her to Greece, where they marry, and she becomes his queen. Using the head of Medusa, Perseus turns the monster Cetus to stone, ending its attacks on the coast.

Andromeda’s story has been widely shared in art and literature since ancient times. Her tale, in which a hero rescues her, is seen as an early example of the "princess and dragon" story type. During the Renaissance, artists and writers revisited the story, often based on the writings of Ovid. The story has appeared in many forms, including plays, poems, books, operas, music, films, and paintings. Several constellations in the northern sky are named after characters from Andromeda’s story, including the constellation Andromeda itself.

Over time, Andromeda’s story has blended with other tales, such as Saint George and the Dragon, which added a horse to the hero’s journey, and the story of Pegasus, the winged horse from the tale of Bellerophon. In the poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, a similar story is told, which has caused some confusion. Some people have criticized how Andromeda has been shown in art, noting that few artists have depicted her as dark-skinned, even though ancient sources like Ovid describe her this way. Others have pointed out that many male artists often chose to paint Perseus rescuing Andromeda, which highlights a story where a strong male hero saves a female character in danger.

Etymology

The name Andromeda comes from Greek (Ἀνδρομέδα, Androméda), which may mean "mindful of her husband." It is formed from the Greek word ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός (anḗr, andrós), meaning "man," and either the verb μέδεσθαι (medesthai), meaning "to be mindful of," which comes from μέδω (médō), meaning "to protect or rule over," or the verb μήδομαι (mḗdomai), meaning "to deliberate or decide." These verbs are connected to μήδεια (mḗdeia), meaning "plans or cunning," which is likely the origin of the name Medea, the sorceress.

Classical mythology

In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, the king and queen of the kingdom of Aethiopia. Her mother, Cassiopeia, proudly claimed she was more beautiful than the Nereids, a group of sea nymphs. This act of arrogance angered the gods, especially Poseidon, the god of the sea. As punishment, Poseidon sent a great sea monster named Cetus to attack the kingdom’s coast. In desperation, King Cepheus sought advice from the oracle of Ammon, who told him that the only way to stop the monster was to sacrifice his daughter, Andromeda, to it. She was then tied to a rock near the sea in Jaffa, where she was left to wait for the monster.

At the same time, Perseus, a Greek hero, was flying near the coast of Aethiopia. He had just defeated the Gorgon Medusa and carried her severed head, which turned anyone who looked at it to stone. When he saw Andromeda chained to the rock, he fell in love with her and promised to save her if King Cepheus would give her to him as his wife. Perseus used Medusa’s head to kill the monster, saving Andromeda. Plans for their marriage began, even though Andromeda had been promised to her uncle, Phineus. At their wedding, a fight broke out between Perseus and Phineus. Perseus ended the conflict by showing Medusa’s head to Phineus and his allies, turning them to stone.

After their marriage, Andromeda followed Perseus to his homeland, the island of Seriphos, where he rescued his mother, Danaë, from an unwanted marriage. They later traveled to Argos, where Perseus was the rightful heir to the throne. However, after accidentally killing his grandfather, Acrisius, the king of Argos, Perseus chose to become king of Tiryns instead. According to the mythographer Apollodorus, Perseus and Andromeda had six sons: Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, and Electryon, as well as a daughter named Gorgophone. Their descendants, including Electryon, ruled Mycenae until Eurystheus took the throne. The Greek hero Heracles was also a descendant, as his mother, Alcmene, was the daughter of Electryon.

According to the Catasterismi, a Greek text about stars, Athena placed Andromeda in the sky as the constellation Andromeda. She is shown in a pose with her arms stretched out, like when she was tied to the rock, to honor Perseus’s bravery in defeating the monster.

The story of Andromeda was often shown in ancient Greek and Roman art, including pottery, frescoes, and mosaics. These artworks depicted scenes from the myth, such as Andromeda being tied for sacrifice or Perseus rescuing her. Over time, the scenes shown changed. Before the 4th century BC, Perseus was often shown killing Medusa, but later, especially in Roman art, he was shown saving Andromeda.

Examples of these artworks include:
– Perseus defending Andromeda from the monster Cetus by throwing stones. (Corinthian amphora, 575–550 BC)
– Andromeda being tied for sacrifice. (Apulian red-figure vase, c. 430–420 BC)
– Perseus holding Medusa’s head so Andromeda can safely see its reflection in a pool. (Fresco, 1st century AD, Pompeii)
– A Roman wall painting of Perseus and Andromeda from Boscotrecase (late 1st century BC)
– A detail from a mosaic of Andromeda in the "House of Poseidon" in Zeugma, Turkey (2nd–3rd century AD)

There are different versions of the myth. In Hyginus’s version, Perseus does not ask for Andromeda’s hand before saving her, and later, when he wants to marry her, her father and uncle plot against him. Perseus uses Medusa’s head to turn them to stone. In contrast, Ovid’s version says Perseus kills Cetus with his magical sword, even though he also carries Medusa’s head. The earliest clear account of Perseus using Medusa’s head to kill Cetus comes from the 2nd-century AD writer Lucian.

The 12th-century Byzantine writer John Tzetzes describes a different version, where Cetus swallows Perseus, who escapes by cutting his way out with his sword. Conon, another ancient writer, places the story in Joppa (also called Jaffa, on the coast of modern Israel) and says that Andromeda’s uncles, Phineus and Phoinix, competed for her hand in marriage. Her father, Cepheus, arranged for Phoinix to abduct her using a ship named Cetos. Perseus intercepted the ship, destroyed it, and turned its crew to stone with his bravery.

Constellations

The constellation Andromeda is located in the Northern sky and was first recorded by the astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. It includes the Andromeda Galaxy. Several constellations are connected to the myth of Andromeda. When viewed with the naked eye, the fainter stars form images of a maiden (Andromeda) chained, facing or turning away from the ecliptic; a warrior (Perseus), often shown holding Medusa’s head, near Andromeda; a large man (Cepheus) wearing a crown, upside down compared to the ecliptic; a smaller figure (Cassiopeia) sitting beside the man on a chair; a whale or sea monster (Cetus) located just beyond Pisces, to the southeast; the flying horse Pegasus, which was born from the stump of Medusa’s neck after Perseus cut off her head; and the two fish of the Pisces constellation, which in the myth were caught by Dictys, a fisherman and brother of Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, where Perseus and his mother Danaë were stranded.

In literature

George Chapman's poem Andromeda Liberata, or the Nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda, written in heroic couplets, was created for the 1614 wedding of Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and Frances Howard. The wedding led to a series of events involving intrigue, murder, and executions, making it a major scandal of the time. Scholars were surprised that Chapman chose to celebrate this marriage, especially by using the Perseus-Andromeda myth as an allegory. The poem angered both Carr and the Earl of Essex, leading Chapman to publish a defense of his work. In the poem, human nature is described as chaotic and disorderly, like a sea monster, while Andromeda's beauty and Perseus's balanced nature represent harmony. Their union is seen as an astrological balance between Venus and Mars, which was believed to perfect Perseus's character because Venus was thought to dominate Mars. However, Essex believed he was represented by the "barraine rocke" to which Andromeda was chained. Howard had divorced Essex because he could not consummate their marriage, and she later married Carr with her hair untied, a sign of her virginity. The poem also raised concerns about its political implications involving King James.

Ludovico Ariosto's influential epic poem Orlando Furioso (1516–1532) includes a pagan princess named Angelica, who is briefly chained naked to a rock on the sea as a sacrifice to a sea monster, later saved by the Saracen knight Ruggiero. Images of Angelica and Ruggiero are often confused with those of Andromeda and Perseus.

John Keats's 1819 sonnet On the Sonnet compares the strict structure of the sonnet to the bound Andromeda, describing her as "Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness." William Morris retells the story of Perseus and Andromeda in his 1868 poem The Earthly Paradise, in the section April: The Doom of King Acrisius. Gerard Manley Hopkins's 1879 sonnet Andromeda has inspired many interpretations. Charles Kingsley's 1858 hexameter poem retelling the myth, Andromeda, was set to music by Cyril Rootham in his 1905 work Andromeda.

• The title page of George Chapman's Andromeda Liberata (1614) allegorically celebrates the troubled marriage of Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and Frances Howard.
• Ruggiero Rescuing Angelica by Gustave Doré (1880–1881) illustrates a scene from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, often mistaken for the myth of Andromeda.
• Doré's 1869 painting of Andromeda.

In Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick, the narrator Ishmael discusses the Perseus and Andromeda myth in two chapters. In Chapter 55, "Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales," Ishmael mentions artwork by Guido Reni and William Hogarth depicting Perseus rescuing Andromeda from Cetus. In Chapter 82, "The Honor and Glory of Whaling," Ishmael recounts the myth and notes that the Romans believed a giant whale skeleton found in Joppa was the skeleton of Cetus. Jules Laforgue included a satirical adaptation titled "Andromède et Persée" in his 1887 work Moralités Légendaires. The story includes traditional elements and fantasy, used to mock the myth. Carlton Dawe's 1909 novel The New Andromeda (published in America as The Woman, the Man, and the Monster) retells the myth in a modern setting. Robert Nichols's 1923 short story Perseus and Andromeda satirically retells the story. In Iris Murdoch's 1978 novel The Sea, the Sea, the Andromeda myth, as seen in Titian's painting Perseus and Andromeda in the Wallace Collection, reflects the characters' motivations. Charles experiences an LSD-fueled vision of a serpent and later becomes ill upon seeing Titian's painting, prompting his cousin James to help him.

• Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) references Guido Reni's 17th-century painting of Andromeda.
• William Hogarth's Perseus and Andromeda, mentioned in Moby-Dick, is an 1808 engraving based on Hogarth's work by T. Cook.
• Titian's Perseus and Andromeda (1554–1556) appears in Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea (1978).

In the performing arts

The theme of Andromeda was first introduced to theater by Sophocles in his lost play Andromeda from the 5th century BC. Only parts of this play remain. Later, Euripides used the same theme in his play Andromeda from 412 BC, which is also lost. However, Aristophanes made fun of it in his comedy Thesmophoriazusae from 411 BC. In this parody, a man named Mnesilochus is dressed as a woman to enter a secret ceremony honoring the goddess Demeter. Euripides then appears on stage as Perseus, using a special stage effect called a crane, to try to save Mnesilochus, who acts as Andromeda.

The story of Perseus and Andromeda became popular in the 17th century. Playwrights like Lope de Vega wrote El Perseo in 1621, and Pierre Corneille created Andromède in 1650. This play used dramatic stage effects, including Perseus riding Pegasus to fight a sea monster. The play, called a pièce à machines, was performed for King Louis XIV of France and was very successful. It was different from traditional French theater and included music by D'Assouci and scenery by Giacomo Torelli. Corneille chose to show Andromeda fully clothed, thinking that her nakedness in older art was just a painting style. This choice broke the connection to the earlier, more erotic version of the myth.

Another play, Las Fortunas de Perseo y Andrómeda by Pedro Calderón de la Barca in 1653, was inspired by Corneille. It included many additions and inventions by the playwright.

Key stage designs from Corneille’s Andromède include:
– Act 2: Aeolus and eight winds lift Andromeda into the clouds with thunder and lightning.
– Act 3: Perseus, riding Pegasus, rescues a fully clothed Andromeda from a sea monster.

The Andromeda theme later appeared in works like Muriel Stuart’s Andromeda Unfettered (1922), which included characters representing different ideas about women and freedom.

In music, the theme has been popular since the 17th century. The first opera about Andromeda was performed in Italy in 1587. Claudio Monteverdi wrote an opera on the subject in 1618–1620. Benedetto Ferrari’s Andromeda was the first opera performed in a public theater, Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano, in 1637. This set a pattern for Italian opera.

Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Persée (1682), a French opera in five acts, was inspired by Corneille’s play. It included a real horse on stage as Pegasus and had many performances. It was considered one of the greatest works of 17th-century French music theater. Other composers, like Michael Haydn and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, also created music based on the Andromeda story.

In the 19th century, Augusta Holmès wrote a symphonic poem titled Andromède (1883). In 2019, Caroline Mallonée composed Portraits of Andromeda for cello and orchestra.

The theme also appears in modern music, such as tracks on Weyes Blood’s 2019 album Titanic Rising and Ensiferum’s 2020 album Thalassic.

The 1981 film Clash of the Titans is loosely based on the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia. In the film, the monster is a kraken (a giant squid-like creature from Norse mythology), not the whale-like Cetos from Greek myths. Perseus defeats the monster by showing it Medusa’s face, not by using a magical sword. The 2010 remake follows the original story more closely.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a historian and filmmaker, criticized both the 1981 and 2010 films for casting white actresses to play Andromeda, a character described in ancient texts as a black Aethiopian princess. He noted that the films ignored the racial aspects of the myth. A third film, Wrath of the Titans (2012), also cast a white actress, Rosamund Pike, in the role. Kimathi Donkor pointed out that these films avoided addressing the racial themes in the original myth, instead following Western artistic traditions that ignored the depiction of black beauty in ancient stories.

In ancient texts, Aethiopia was described as a region east of the Nile and around the Arabian Peninsula, distinct from areas inhabited by people with darker skin. The Greek word for Aethiopia could mean "burnt face" or "red-brown," reflecting how ancient Greeks viewed the people of the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. In 6th-century BC art, Andromeda is shown with lighter skin.

In art

The story of Saint George and the Dragon, where a brave knight saves a princess from a monster (similar to the Andromeda myth), became a common theme in art during the Late Middle Ages. Artists used ideas from both stories. One result is that Perseus is often shown with the flying horse Pegasus when fighting a sea monster, even though ancient sources clearly say he flew using winged sandals.

• A classical Roman fresco from Pompeii (before 79 AD) shows Perseus wearing winged sandals while flying to rescue Andromeda.
• Paolo Uccello’s 1470 painting Saint George and the Dragon illustrates a different story that became mixed up with the Perseus and Andromeda tale, adding a horse for the hero.
• Piero di Cosimo’s Perseus Freeing Andromeda (c. 1510) shows Perseus with winged sandals, and Andromeda is dressed, unlike in many later paintings.
• Giuseppe Cesari’s Perseus and Andromeda (1602) shows Perseus riding Pegasus, the flying horse, which differs from the original myth.

Andromeda, and her role in the story of Perseus, has inspired many ancient and modern artworks. In these, she is often shown as a young woman tied up and in danger, waiting to be saved by a brave hero who loves her. She is frequently depicted, as in Rubens’ painting, with Perseus and Pegasus at the moment she is freed. In contrast, Rembrandt’s painting shows Andromeda as frightened and alone. His version is more realistic, avoiding the idea of perfect beauty. Lord Leighton’s 1891 painting Perseus and Andromeda shows Andromeda’s white body as pure and innocent, suggesting her punishment was unfair, as it was meant for her mother, not her. Pegasus and Perseus are surrounded by light that connects them visually to Andromeda.

• Peter Paul Rubens’ Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1622) shows Perseus and Pegasus freeing Andromeda.
• Rembrandt’s Andromeda Chained to the Rocks (1630) shows Andromeda frightened and alone.
• Edward Poynter’s Andromeda (1869) shows her as an idealized beauty.
• Frederic, Lord Leighton’s Perseus and Andromeda (1891) shows the punishment as unfair.

Artists have used many materials to show the story of Andromeda, including marble by sculptor Domenico Guidi and an etching by François Boucher. In the 20th century, modern artists created new versions of the myth. Félix Vallotton’s 1910 painting Perseus Killing the Dragon uses harsh light to make human bodies look brutal, similar to his 1908 painting The Rape of Europa. Alexander Liberman’s 1962 painting Andromeda shows a black circle on a white background, with purple and dark green crescent shapes.

• Domenico Guidi’s marble sculpture Andromeda and the Sea Monster (1694).
• François Boucher’s etching Andromeda (1732).
• Félix Vallotton’s Perseus Killing the Dragon (1910), using harsh light. Oil on canvas.

Analysis

Andromeda was the daughter of the king and queen of Aethiopia, a region that ancient Greeks believed was at the edge of the world, near Nubia, which is located south of Egypt. The word "Aithiops" was used to describe people who lived above the equator, between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The ancient poet Homer wrote that the Ethiopians lived "at the world's end," with parts of their land facing west and others facing east. The 5th-century BC historian Herodotus wrote that Ethiopia was the part of the world farthest toward the sunset, and he described a plan by the Persian king Cambyses II to invade Ethiopia (also known as Kush).

By the 1st century BC, a different location for Andromeda’s story had become popular: a rocky area near the ancient port city of Joppa. This idea was mentioned by several writers, including Pomponius Mela, Pausanias, Strabo, and Josephus. Some scholars suggest that this new version of the myth helped increase the fame of Joppa and its connection to the biblical story of Jonah and a large sea creature. This version of the story conflicted with Andromeda’s African origins, adding to confusion about her ethnicity. Some 5th-century BC Greek artwork showed Andromeda with dark-skinned African servants and clothing unfamiliar to Greeks, while others depicted her with light skin. One vase even showed Andromeda and her father as mixed-race people with features similar to their servants.

The art historian Elizabeth McGrath wrote about the Roman poet Ovid’s belief that Andromeda was a dark-skinned woman from Ethiopia or India. In the Greek Anthology, a writer named Philodemus mentioned an "Indian Andromeda." In his work Heroides, Ovid had Sappho describe Andromeda as dark-skinned, using the Latin word fuscae to mean black or brown. Ovid also wrote that Perseus brought Andromeda from "darkest" India and said that her dark skin did not bother Perseus. However, Ovid’s story followed the play by the Greek playwright Euripides, which described Perseus mistaking Andromeda for a statue of marble. Since statues were often painted to look like real people in Ovid’s time, Andromeda’s skin color could have been any shade.

A 2nd-century AD writer named Philostratus described a painting of Perseus and Andromeda, emphasizing that the scene was set in Ethiopia. He noted that Andromeda was described as "fair of skin though in Ethiopia," unlike other Ethiopians in the painting, who had dark skin and grim smiles. Another writer, Heliodorus of Emesa, also described Andromeda as light-skinned, contrasting her with the dark-skinned Aethiopians. In his story Aethiopica, Heliodorus wrote about a queen who gave birth to a white baby after seeing a picture of Andromeda.

In modern times, most artworks still show Andromeda as light-skinned, even if her story is set in Africa. A few artists, like Abraham van Diepenbeeck, depicted her as dark-skinned. A journalist named Patricia Yaker Ekall noted that even these works showed Andromeda with "European features." She suggested that the idea of white superiority influenced these depictions, and that showing a white man rescuing a black woman might have been too controversial.

Examples of artworks include an engraving by Abraham van Diepenbeeck, The Rescue of Andromeda (1632–1635), which is unusual for showing Andromeda as dark-skinned. Another example is Eugène Delacroix’s Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1853), which follows the common tradition of showing Andromeda as light-skinned.

Many Victorian-era artists, such as Edward Burne-Jones and Frederic Leighton, painted scenes from the story of Perseus and Andromeda. A scholar named Adrienne Munich wrote that these artists often focused on the moment after Perseus killed Medusa and was about to free Andromeda. She suggested that this scene symbolized a man’s journey to adulthood. Munich noted that Andromeda had no voice in her story, and that the artists, who were mostly men, created a "male myth" that reinforced traditional gender roles. She cited the idea that the story showed "the erotization of dominance and submission," with men having power and women being submissive.

Munich compared the story to a painting by John Everett Millais, The Knight Errant (1870), where a knight saves a woman from being attacked. She suggested that the painting might reflect psychological themes, such as the knight confronting his own aggressive instincts. She also wrote that the story of Perseus and Andromeda, like the knight’s actions, involved "conflating the purpose of his quest with the goal of finding a wife."

Munich also discussed the idea that Andromeda’s name, meaning "Ruler of Men," hinted at her power. She compared Andromeda to Medusa, the monstrous female who turned men to stone, suggesting that Perseus’s rescue of Andromeda symbolized taming nature and defining acceptable female behavior.

Scholars like Marilynn Desmond and Pamela Sheingorn wrote that Christine de Pizan’s Ovide moralisé depicted Andromeda as "the object of desire." They noted that the image showed her white body against dark rock, emphasizing her vulnerability. They also mentioned that the image’s focus on Andromeda’s bondage and the threat of the monster reflected themes of sexual desire.

Harold Knutson, a literary scholar, described the story as having a "disturbing" quality, but the text ends here.