Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Andromeda
ANDROMEDA, in Greek legend, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea, or Cassiepea, king and queen of the ^Ethiopians. Cassiepea having boasted herself equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Neptune, the sea god, 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, and accordingly she was fastened to a rock on the shore. Perseus, returning from having slain the Gorgon, found her in this position, slew the monster, set her free, and married her against the opposition of Phineus, to whom she had before been engaged. Before leaving ^Ethiopia she bore a son, Perses, from whom the Persian kings traced their descent, as did also the kings of Pontus and Cappa- docia, who had a portrait of Perseus on their coins. Re turning with her "husband first to Seriphus, and finally to Argos, Andromeda bore him Alcseus, Sthenelus, and Electryon, and thus founded the dynasty of the Persides. After her death Andromeda was translated by Minerva to a constellation in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiepea. The tragic poets used the legend of her life, and in works of art the slaying of the monster by Perseus was represented.