InGreek mythology,Andromeda (/ænˈdrɒmɪdə/;Ancient Greek:Ἀνδρομέδα,romanized: Androméda orἈνδρομέδη,Andromédē) is the daughter ofCepheus, the king ofAethiopia, and his wife,Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia boasts that she (or Andromeda) is more beautiful than theNereids,Poseidon sends thesea monsterCetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia asdivine punishment. QueenCassiopeia understands that chaining Andromeda to a rock as ahuman sacrifice is what will appease Poseidon.Perseus finds her as he is coming back from his quest to decapitateMedusa, and brings her back to Greece to marry her and let her reign as his queen. With the head of Medusa, Perseuspetrifies Cetus to stop it from terrorizing the coast any longer.
As a subject, Andromeda has been popular in art sinceclassical antiquity; rescued by aGreek hero, Andromeda's narration is considered the forerunner to the "princess and dragon"motif. From theRenaissance, interest revived in the original story, typically as derived fromOvid'sMetamorphoses. 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 severalconstellations named after the story's figures; in particular, the constellationAndromeda is named after her.
The Andromeda tradition, from classical antiquity onwards, has incorporated elements of other stories, includingSaint George and the Dragon, introducing a horse for the hero, and the tale ofPegasus,Bellerophon'swinged horse.[1]Ludovico Ariosto'sepic poemOrlando Furioso, which tells a similar story, has introduced further confusion.[2] Patricia Yaker Ekall has criticized the tradition of depicting the princess of Aethiopia aswhite; noting few artists have chosen to portray her asdark-skinned, despite Ovid's account of her.[3] Others have stated that Perseus's liberation of Andromeda was a popular choice of subject among male artists, reinforcing a narrative ofmale superiority with its powerful male hero and its endangered female inbondage.[4][5]
The name is Greek (Ἀνδρομέδα,Androméda), perhaps meaning 'mindful of her husband': from the nounἀνήρ, ἀνδρός,anḗr, andrós 'man'; and either the verbμέδεσθαι,medesthai 'to be mindful of', fromμέδω,médō, 'to protect, rule over', or the verbμήδομαι,mḗdomai 'to deliberate, contrive, decide'. These verbs are related toμήδεια,mḗdeia 'plans, cunning', the likely origin of the name ofMedea, thesorceress.[6]
InGreek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter ofCepheus andCassiopeia, king and queen of the kingdom ofAethiopia. Her mother Cassiopeia foolishly boasts that she is more beautiful than theNereids,[7] a display ofhubris by a human that is unacceptable to the gods. To punish the queen for her arrogance,Poseidon floods the kingdom's coast and sends asea monster namedCetus to ravage its inhabitants. In desperation, King Cepheus consults theoracle ofAmmon, who announces that no respite can be found until the kingsacrifices his daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. She is thus stripped naked and chained to a rock inJaffa by the sea to await her death.Perseus is just then flying near the coast of Aethiopia on hiswinged sandals or on Pegasus the winged horse, having slain theGorgonMedusa and carrying her severed head, which instantlypetrifies any who look at it. Upon seeing Andromeda bound to the rock, Perseus falls in love with her, and he secures Cepheus's promise of her hand in marriage if he can save her. Perseus kills the monster with the Medusa's head, saving Andromeda. Preparations are then made for their marriage, in spite of her having been previously promised to her uncle,Phineus. At the wedding, a quarrel between the rivals ends when Perseus shows Medusa's head to Phineus and his allies, turning them to stone.[8][9][10]
Andromeda follows her husband to his native island ofSeriphos, where he rescues his mother,Danaë from her unwanted wedding to the king of that island.[11] They next go toArgos, where Perseus is the rightful heir to the throne. However, after accidentally killing his grandfatherAcrisius, the king of Argos, Perseus chooses to become king of neighboringTiryns instead.[12] The mythographerApollodorus states that Perseus and Andromeda have six sons:Perses,Alcaeus,Heleus,Mestor,Sthenelus,Electryon, and a daughter,Gorgophone. Their descendants ruleMycenae from Electryon down toEurystheus, after whomAtreus attains the kingdom. The Greek heroHeracles is also a descendant, as his motherAlcmene is the daughter of Electryon.[13]
According to theCatasterismi, Andromeda is placed in the sky byAthena as theconstellation Andromeda, in a pose with her limbs outstretched, similar to when she was chained to the rock, in commemoration of Perseus' bravery in fighting the sea monster.[14]
The myth of Andromeda was represented in theart of ancient Greece andof Rome in media includingred-figure pottery such aspelike jars,[15]frescoes,[16] andmosaics.[17] Depictions range from straightforward representations of scenes from the myth, such as of Andromeda being tied up for sacrifice, to more ambiguous portrayals with different events depicted in the same painting, as at theRoman villa in Boscotrecase, where Perseus is shown twice, space standing in for time.[16] Favoured scenes changed with time: until the 4th century BC, Perseus was shown decapitating Medusa, while after that, and in Roman portrayals, he was shown rescuing Andromeda.[18]
Perseus defends Andromeda from the monster Cetus by pelting it with stones.Corinthianamphora, 575–550 BC
There are several variants of the legend. InHyginus's account, Perseus does not ask for Andromeda's hand in marriage before saving her, and when he afterwards intends to keep her for his wife, both her father Cepheus and her uncle Phineas plot against him, and Perseus resorts to using Medusa's head to turn them to stone.[19] In contrast, Ovid states that Perseus kills Cetus with his magical sword, even though he also carries Medusa's head, which could easily turn the monster to stone (and Perseus does use Medusa's head for this purpose in other situations). The earliest straightforward account of Perseus using Medusa's head against Cetus, however, is from the later 2nd-century ADsatiristLucian.[20]
The 12th-centuryByzantine writerJohn Tzetzes says that Cetus swallows Perseus, who kills the monster by hacking his way out with his sword.[21]Conon places the story in Joppa (Iope orJaffa, on the coast of modernIsrael), and makes Andromeda's uncles Phineus and Phoinix rivals for her hand in marriage; her father Cepheus contrives to have Phoinix abduct her in a ship namedCetos from a small island she visits to make sacrifices toAphrodite, and Perseus, sailing nearby, intercepts and destroysCetos and its crew, who are "petrified by shock" at his bravery.[22]
Andromeda is represented in theNorthern sky by theconstellationAndromeda, mentioned by the astronomerPtolemy in the 2nd century, which contains theAndromeda Galaxy. Several constellations are associated with the myth. Viewing the fainter stars visible to the naked eye, the constellations are rendered as a maiden (Andromeda) chained up, facing or turning away from theecliptic; a warrior (Perseus), often depicted holding the head of Medusa, next to Andromeda; a huge man (Cepheus) wearing acrown, upside down with respect to the ecliptic; a smaller figure (Cassiopeia) next to the man, sitting on a chair; awhale or sea monster (Cetus) just beyondPisces, to the south-east; the flying horsePegasus, who was born from the stump of Medusa's neck after Perseus had decapitated her; the paired fish of the constellationPisces, that in myth were caught byDictys thefisherman who was brother ofPolydectes, king ofSeriphos, the place where Perseus and his mother Danaë were stranded.[23]
George Chapman's poem inheroic coupletsAndromeda liberata, Or the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda,[24] was written for the 1614 wedding ofRobert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset andFrances Howard. The wedding, which led to a "train of intrigue and murder and executions, was the scandal of the age."[25] Scholars have been surprised that Chapman should have celebrated such a marriage, and his choice of anallegory of the Perseus-Andromeda myth for the purpose. The poem infuriated both Carr and theEarl of Essex, causing Chapman to publish a "justification" of his approach. Chapman's poem sees human nature as chaotic and disorderly, like the sea monster, opposed by Andromeda's beauty and Perseus's balanced nature; their union brings about anastrological harmony ofVenus and Mars which perfects the character of Perseus, since Venus was thought always to dominate Mars. Unfortunately for Chapman, Essex supposed that he was represented by the "barraine rocke" that Andromeda was chained up to: Howard had divorced Essex on the grounds that he could not consummate their marriage, and she had married Carr with her hair untied, indicating that she was a virgin. Further, the poem could be read as having dangerous political implications, involvingKing James.[25]
Ludovico Ariosto's influentialepic poemOrlando Furioso (1516–1532) features apagan princess namedAngelica who at one point is in exactly the same situation as Andromeda, chained naked to a rock on the sea as a sacrifice to a sea monster, and is saved at the last minute by theSaracen knightRuggiero. Images of Angelica and Ruggiero are often hard to distinguish from those of Andromeda and Perseus.[2]
In the 1851 novelMoby-Dick,Herman Melville's narrator Ishmael discusses the Perseus and Andromeda myth in two chapters. Chapter 55, "Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales," mentions depictions of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from Cetus in artwork byGuido Reni andWilliam Hogarth. In Chapter 82, "The Honor and Glory of Whaling," Ishmael recounts the myth and says that the Romans found a giant whale skeleton in Joppa that they believed to be the skeleton of Cetus.[32][33]Jules Laforgue included what Knutson calls "a remarkable satirical adaptation",[5]"Andromède et Persée", in his 1887Moralités Légendaires. All the traditional elements are present, along with elements of fantasy and lyricism, but only to allow Laforgue to parody them.[5] The romance, crime, and thriller writerCarlton Dawe's 1909 novelThe New Andromeda (published in America asThe Woman, the Man, and the Monster) offers what was called at the time a "wholly unconventional"[34] retelling of the Andromeda story in a modern setting.[34][35]Robert Nichols's 1923short storyPerseus and Andromedasatirically retells the story in contrasting styles.[36] In her 1978 novelThe Sea, the Sea,Iris Murdoch uses the Andromeda myth, as presented in a reproduction ofTitian's paintingPerseus and Andromeda in theWallace Collection in London, to reflect the character and motives of her characters. Charles has anLSD-fuelled vision of a serpent; when he returns to London, he becomes ill on seeing Titian's painting, whereupon his cousin James comes to his rescue.[37]
The theme, well suited to the stage,[5] was introduced to theatre bySophocles in his losttragedyAndromeda (5th century BC), which survives only in fragments.Euripides took up the theme in hisplay of the same name (412 BC), also now lost, butparodied byAristophanes in hiscomedyThesmophoriazusae (411 BC) and influential in the ancient world. In the parody, Mnesilochus is shaved and dressed as a woman to gain entrance to thewomen's secret rites, held in honour of the fertility goddessDemeter. Euripides swoops mock-heroically across the stage as Perseus on a theatrical crane, trying and failing to rescue Mnesilochus, who responds by acting out the role of Andromeda.[38]
The legend of Perseus and Andromeda became popular among playwrights in the 17th century, includingLope de Vega's 1621El Perseo,[39] andPierre Corneille's famous[5] 1650verse playAndromède, with dramatic stage machinery effects, including Perseus astridePegasus as he battles the sea monster. The play, apièce à machines, presented to KingLouis XIV of France and performed by theComédiens du Roi, the royal troupe, had enormous and lasting success, continuing in production until 1660, to Corneille's surprise.[5][40] The production was a radical departure from the tradition of French theatre, based in part on the Italian tradition of operas about Andromeda; it was semi-operatic, with many songs, set to music byD'Assouci, alongside the stage scenery by the Italian painterGiacomo Torelli. Corneille chose to present Andromeda fully-clothed, supposing that her nakedness had been merely a painterly tradition; Knutson comments that in so doing, "he unintentionally broke the last link with the early erotic myth."[5]
Pedro Calderón de la Barca's 1653Las Fortunas de Perseo y Andrómeda was also inspired by Corneille,[5] and likeEl Perseo was heavily embellished with the playwrights' inventions and traditional additions.[39]
Set design forPierre Corneille's 1650Andromède, noted for its stage effects: Act 2, whereAeolus and eight winds lift Andromeda into the clouds, with thunder and lightning[40]
Andromède, Act 3, where Perseus, riding Pegasus, rescues a fully-clothed Andromeda from the sea monster[40]
The Andromeda theme was explored later in works such asMuriel Stuart'scloset dramaAndromeda Unfettered (1922), featuring: Andromeda, "the spirit of woman"; Perseus, "the new spirit of man"; a chorus of "women who desire the old thrall"; and a chorus of "women who crave the new freedom".[41]
The Andromeda theme has been popular in classical music since the 17th century. It became a theme foropera from the 16th century, with anAndromeda in Italy in 1587.[5] This was followed byClaudio Monteverdi'sAndromeda (1618–1620).[42]Benedetto Ferrari'sAndromeda, with music byFrancesco Manelli, was the first opera performed in a public theatre,Venice'sTeatro San Cassiano, in 1637.[43] This set the pattern for Italian opera for several centuries.[44][45]
Jean-Baptiste Lully'sPersée (1682), atragédie lyrique in 5 acts, was inspired by the popularity of Corneille's play.[40] The libretto was byPhilippe Quinault, and a real horse appeared on stage as Pegasus.[5]Persée saw an initial run of 33 consecutive performances, 45 in total, exceptional at that time.[5] Written for King Louis XIV, it has been described as Lully's "greatest creation[...] considered the crowning achievement of 17th century French music theatre. Filled with dancing, fight scenes, monsters and special effects[...] [a] truly spectacular opera".[46] Michael Haydn wrote the music for another in 1797.[5] A total of seventeen Andromeda operas were created in Italy in the 18th century.[5]
Other classical works have taken a variety of forms includingAndromeda Liberata (1726), apasticcio-serenata on the subject of Perseus freeing Andromeda, by a team of composers includingVivaldi,[47] andCarl Ditters von Dittersdorf'sSymphony in F (Perseus' Rescue of Andromeda) and Symphony in D (The Petrification of Phineus and his Friends), Nos. 4 and 5 of hisSymphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 1781).
The world's first publicly performed opera,Benedetto Ferrari'sAndromeda, 1637
Actresses who have portrayed Andromeda in 21st century cinema. HistorianHenry Louis Gates Jr. and artistKimathi Donkor have criticized casting white actors to portray Andromeda.[50][51]
The 1981 filmClash of the Titans is loosely based on the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia. In the film the monster is akraken, a giant squid-like sea monster inNorse mythology, rather than the whale-like Cetos of Greek mythology. Perseus defeats the sea monster by showing it Medusa's face to turn it into stone, rather than by using his magical sword, and rides Pegasus.[52] The2010 remake with the same title, adapts the original story. Andromeda is set to be sacrificed to the kraken but is saved by Perseus.
The historian and filmmakerHenry Louis Gates Jr. criticizes both the original film and its remake for using white actresses to portray the Ethiopian princess Andromeda. The 1981 film uses the blondeJudi Bowker; the 2010 remake uses the brunetteAlexa Davalos. Gates, noting that Andromeda was a black Aethiopian, writes that "their Andromedas appear to satisfyHollywood's idea for a perfect match for Perseus".[50] A third film, the 2012Wrath of the Titans, repeated the white Andromeda trope by casting the English actressRosamund Pike in the role. Kimathi Donkor comments that none of the three films provide any "hint of the disruptive racial dilemma posed by the classical setting of Ethiopia",[51] preferring instead to continue the Western art tradition of "a hegemonic white visual space denying Ovid's mythography of black beauty."[51] However, Pre-Herotodus, Aethiopia is described as a land of "high-souled" people east of the Nile and around the Arabian peninsula, and specifically distinguished from the "boundless Black-skins".[53] The Greek root can mean (sun) burnt face as a noun orred-brown as an adjective.,[54] more in line with the Greek perception of the ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. Even in the original Greek art from the 6th century BC Andromeda is portrayed as lighter skinned (see image above).
The legend ofSaint George and the Dragon, in which a courageousknight rescues a princess from a monster (with clear parallels to the Andromeda myth), became a popular subject for art in theLate Middle Ages, and artists drew from both traditions. One result is that Perseus is often shown with the flying horsePegasus when fighting the sea monster, even though classical sources consistently state that he flew usingwinged sandals.[1]
Classical Roman fresco fromPompeii (before 79 AD) of Perseus, wearingwinged sandals, flying in to free Andromeda[1]
Paolo Uccello's 1470Saint George and the Dragon, illustrating a separate legend that became confused with the story of Perseus and Andromeda, introducing a horse for the hero[1]
Andromeda, and her role in the popular myth of Perseus, has been the subject of numerous ancient and modern works of art, where she is represented as a bound and helpless, typically beautiful, young woman placed in terrible danger, who must be saved through the unswerving courage of a hero who loves her. She is often shown, as byRubens, with Perseus and the flying horse Pegasus at the moment she is freed.[55]Rembrandt, in contrast,shows a suffering Andromeda, frightened and alone. She is depicted naturalistically, exemplifying the painter's rejection of idealized beauty.[56]Frederic, Lord Leighton's Gothic style 1891Perseus and Andromeda painting presents the white body of Andromeda in pure and untouched innocence, indicating an unfair sacrifice for a divine punishment that was not directed towards her, but to her mother. Pegasus and Perseus are surrounded by ahalo of light that connects them visually to the white body of the princess.[57]
Apart from oil on canvas, artists have used a variety of materials to depict the myth of Andromeda, including the sculptorDomenico Guidi's marble, andFrançois Boucher's etching. Inmodern art of the 20th century, artists moved to depict the myth in new ways.Félix Vallotton's 1910Perseus Killing the Dragon is one of several paintings, such as his 1908The Rape of Europa, in which the artist depicts human bodies using a harsh light which makes them appear brutal.[58]Alexander Liberman's 1962Andromeda is a black circle on a white field, transected by purple and dark greencrescent arcs.[59]
Domenico Guidi, marble statueAndromeda and the Sea Monster, 1694
According toHerodotus in the 5th century BC, the Aethiopians were a dark-skinned people occupying the whole of the southernmost fringes of the inhabitable world, to the south ofLibya.[60]
Andromeda was the daughter of the king and queen of Aethiopia, whichancient Greeks located at the edge of the world inNubia, the lands south of Egypt. The termAithiops was applied to peoples who dwelt above the equator, between theAtlantic andIndian Oceans.[61]Homer says the Ethiopians live "at the world's end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East".[62] The 5th-century BC historianHerodotus writes that "Where south inclines westwards, the part of the world stretching farthest towards the sunset is Ethiopia", and also included a plan byCambyses II of Persia to invade Ethiopia (Kush).[63]
By the 1st century BC a rival location for Andromeda's story had become established: an outcrop of rocks near the ancient port city ofJoppa, as reported byPomponius Mela,[64] the travellerPausanias,[65] the geographerStrabo,[66] and the historianJosephus.[67] A case has been made that this new version of the myth was exploited to enhance the fame and serve the local tourist trade of Joppa, which also became connected with thebiblical story ofJonah and yet another huge sea creature.[68][69] This was at odds with Andromeda's African origins, adding to the confusion already surrounding her ethnicity, as reflected in 5th-century BC Greek vase images showing Andromeda attended by dark-skinned African servants and wearing clothing that would have looked foreign to Greeks, yet with light skin. At least one of the vases depicts Andromeda and her father as mixed racebarbarians who possess some features similar to their dark-skinned African servants.[70]
The art historianElizabeth McGrath discusses the tradition, as promoted by the influentialRoman poet Ovid, that Andromeda was a dark-skinned woman of either Ethiopian or Indian origin.[71] In theGreek Anthology,Philodemus (1st century BC) wrote about the "Indian Andromeda".[72] In hisHeroides, Ovid hasSappho explain toPhaon: "If I'm not pale, Andromeda pleased Perseus, dark with the colour of her father Cepheus's land. And often white pigeons mate with other hues, and the dark turtledove's loved by emerald birds";[73] the Latin wordfuscae Ovid uses here for 'dark Andromeda' refers to the colour black or brown. Elsewhere he says that Perseus brought Andromeda from "darkest" India[74] and declares "Nor was Andromeda's colour any problem to her wing-footed aerial lover"[75] adding that "White suits dark girls; you looked so attractive in white, Andromeda".[76] Ovid's account of Andromeda's story[77] follows Euripides' playAndromeda in having Perseus initially mistake the chained Andromeda for a statue of marble, which has been taken to mean she was light-skinned; but since statues in Ovid's time were commonly painted to look like living people, her skin could have been of any colour.[78] The ambiguity is reflected in a description by the 2nd-century ADsophistPhilostratus of a painting depicting Perseus and Andromeda. He emphasizes the painting's Ethiopian setting, and notes that Andromeda "is charming in that she is fair of skin though in Ethiopia," in clear contrast to the other "charming Ethiopians with their strange coloring and their grim smiles" who have assembled to cheer Perseus in this picture.[79]Heliodorus of Emesa follows Philostratus in describing Andromeda as light-skinned in contrast to the clearly dark-skinned Aethiopians; in hisAethiopica, Queen Persinna of Aethiopia gives birth to an inexplicably white girl, Chariclea. Heliodorus states that this happened because the queen had gazed at a picture of Andromeda in the palace. The scholar of literature John Michael Archer calls this an example of "how African space is defined by European reference points".[80]
Artworks in the modern era continue to portray Andromeda as fair-skinned, regardless of her stated origins; only a small minority of artists, such as an engraving afterAbraham van Diepenbeeck, have chosen to show her as dark. The journalist Patricia Yaker Ekall comments that even this work depicts Andromeda with "European features". She suggests that the "narrative" ofwhite superiority took precedence, and that "the visual of a white man rescuing a chained up black woman would have been too much of atrigger".[3]
Engraving afterAbraham van Diepenbeeck,The Rescue of Andromeda (1632–1635), from M. de Marolles,Tableaux du Temple des Muses (Paris, 1655), is exceptional in showing Andromeda as dark-skinned.[3]
The Andromeda story has been compared to the erotically charged painting,John Everett Millais'sThe Knight Errant (1870), which embodies similar psychological motifs.[4]
The imagery of Perseus and Andromeda was depicted by many artists of theVictorian era, includingEdward Burne-Jones[81] andFrederic Leighton.[82][4]Adrienne Munich states that most of these choose the moment after the hero Perseus has killed Medusa and is preparing to "slay the dragon and unbind the maiden".[4] In her view, this transitional moment just precedes "the hero's final test of manhood before entering adult sexuality".[4] Andromeda, on the other hand, "has no story, but she has a role and a lineage", being a princess, and having "attributes: chains, nakedness, flowing hair, beauty, virginity. Without a voice in her fate, she neither defies the gods nor chooses her mate."[4] Munich comments that given that most of the artists were men, "it can be thought of as a male myth", providing convenient gender roles. She cites Catherine MacKinnon's description of the gender differences as "the erotization of dominance and submission": the male gets the power and the female is submissive. Further, the rescue myth provides a "veneer of charity" over the themes of aggression and possession.[4]
Munich likens the effect toJohn Everett Millais's 1870 paintingThe Knight Errant, where the knight, "errant likeOedipus", finds a man sexually assaulting a bound and naked woman, which she calls aFreudian "primal scene". The knight kills the man and frees the woman. She asks whether Millais's knight is hiding from the woman's body, or demonstrating self-control, or whether he has "killed his own more aggressive self".[4] She states that similar psychological themes are implied by the story of Perseus and Andromeda: Perseus makes Andromeda into a mother, thus Oedipally "conflating the purpose of his quest with the goal of finding a wife."[4]
As for the bondage, Munich notes that the Victorian criticJohn Ruskin attacked male exploitation of what she calls "suffering nudes as subjects for titillating pictures."[4] The name "Andromeda", she writes, denotes a type of "debased" imagery. She gives as exampleGustave Doré's drawing of the voluptuously chained-up Angelica forOrlando Furioso, where "torment combines with an artistic pose, giving a new meaning to the concept of the 'pin-up'."[4] She notes Ruskin's assertion that the image linked nude prostitutes to the naked Christ, both perverting the meaning of Andromeda's suffering and "blasphem[ing] Christ's sacrifice".[4]
Further, Munich writes, Andromeda's name means 'Ruler of Men', hinting at her power; and indeed, she can be seen as "the good sister" of the monstrous female, the Medusa who turns men to stone. In psychological terms, she comments, "by slaying the Medusa and freeing Andromeda, the hero tames the chaotic female, the very sign of nature, simultaneously choosing and constructing the socially defined and acceptable female behavior."[4]
Adrienne Munich's analysis of the Andromeda myth as a male construction[4]The story ofCadmus,Harmonia, and the dragon is one of several myths similar to that of Perseus and Andromeda.[5] Black-figuredamphora fromEuboea, 560–550 BC
In the view of Marilynn Desmond and Pamela Sheingorn,Christine de Pizan'sOvide moralisé presents the bound Andromeda in a miniature image as "the object of desire". The image of "her white body silhouetted against the dark rock and the ropes visibly outlined against her flesh, Andromeda's bondage encodes her exposed vulnerability."[83] They note that the "sexually charged"[83] image contradicts the text, drawing the reader's eye to the sexual threat of the devouring monster. In support of this, they quoteMarina Warner's observation that "in myth and fairy tale, the metaphor of devouring often stands in for sex."[83]
The scholar of literature Harold Knutson describes the story as having a "disturbing sensuality", which together with the evident injustice of Andromeda's "undeserved sacrifice, create a curiously ambiguous effect".[5] He suggests that in the earlier Palestinian version, the woman was the object of desire,Aphrodite/Ishtar/Astarte, and the hero was thesun godMarduk. The monster was woman in evil form, so chaining her human form would keep her from further evil. Knutson comments that the myth illustrates "the ambiguous male view of the eternal female principle."[5]
Knutson writes that a similar pattern is seen in several other myths, including Heracles' rescue ofHesione;Jason's rescue of Medea from the hundred-eyed dragon;Cadmus's rescue ofHarmonia from a dragon; and in an early version of another tale,Theseus's rescue ofAriadne from theMinotaur. He comments that all of this points to "the richness of the [story's] archetypal model", citing Hudo Hetzner's analysis of the many stories that involve a hero rescuing a maiden from a monster. The beast may be a sea-monster, or it may be a dragon that lives in a cave and terrifies a whole country, or the monstrousCount Dracula who lives ina castle.[5]
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^"Andromeda Cartoons by Matt Lawrence". Cantata Dramatica. 2015. Retrieved29 December 2022.Some of the cartoons are accompanied by extracts from a recording made in 2019, a full version of which can be heard on the website of Cyril Bradley Rootham.
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^abcdWilliams, Wes (January 2007). "'For Your Eyes Only': Corneille's View of Andromeda".Classical Philology.102 (1):110–123.doi:10.1086/521136.S2CID162104879.
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^L'Andromeda, Antonio Bariletti, Venice, 1637, p. 3.
^Bianconi, Lorenzo (1987).Music in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. p. 183.the Venetian-type theatre[...] comes to represent something of an economic and architectural prototype for Italy and Europe as a whole. At least architecturally, this prototype still survives essentially unchanged...
^abcDonkor, Kimathi (2020). "Africana Andromeda: Contemporary Painting and the Classical Black Figure". In Moyer, Ian S.; Lecznar, Adam; Morse, Heidi (eds.).Classicisms in the Black Atlantic. Oxford University Press. p. 173.ISBN978-0-19-185178-0.
^Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. "Aithiops".A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus. Retrieved2 December 2017.
^abBaumbach, Manuel (2010). "Pegasus". In Grafton, Anthony; Most, Glenn W.; Settis, Salvatore (eds.).The Classical Tradition.Harvard University Press. p. 699.
^Homer,Odyssey1.22–24; Homer established a long-standing literary tradition that Ethiopia was an idyllic land of plenty where the gods attended feasts.MacLachlan, Bonnie (1992). "Feasting with Ethiopians: Life on the Fringe".Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica.40 (1):15–33.doi:10.2307/20547123.JSTOR20547123.
^Koch-Brinkmann, Ulrike; Dreyfus, Renée; Brinkmann, Vinzenz (2017).Gods in colour: polychromy in the ancient world. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor.ISBN978-3-7913-5707-2.OCLC982089362.
Pausanias,Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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![Title page of George Chapman's Andromeda Liberata, 1614, allegorically celebrating the tumultuous marriage of Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset and Frances Howard[25]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aChapman_Andromeda_Liberata_1614.jpg)
![Ruggiero Rescuing Angelica by Gustave Doré, 1880–1881, illustrates Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso, in a scene often confused with the myth of Andromeda.[2]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aOrlando_Furioso_20.jpg)
![Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick mentions Guido Reni's 17th century painting of Andromeda.[33]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGuido_Reni_-_AndromedaFXD.jpg)
![William Hogarth's Perseus and Andromeda, too, is mentioned in Moby-Dick.[33] 1808 engraving, after Hogarth, by T. Cook.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPerseus_and_Andromeda._Etching_by_T._Cook%2c_1808%2c_after_W._Ho_Wellcome_V0035919.jpg)
![Titian's Perseus and Andromeda, 1554–1556, features in Iris Murdoch's 1978 novel The Sea, The Sea.[37]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPerseo_y_Andr%25C3%25B3meda%2c_por_Tiziano.jpg)
![Set design for Pierre Corneille's 1650 Andromède, noted for its stage effects: Act 2, where Aeolus and eight winds lift Andromeda into the clouds, with thunder and lightning[40]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSet_design_Act2_of_Androm%25C3%25A8de_by_P_Corneille_1650_-_Gallica_2010.jpg)
![Andromède, Act 3, where Perseus, riding Pegasus, rescues a fully-clothed Andromeda from the sea monster[40]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSet_design_Act3_of_Androm%25C3%25A8de_by_P_Corneille_1650_-_Gallica_2010.jpg)
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![Classical Roman fresco from Pompeii (before 79 AD) of Perseus, wearing winged sandals, flying in to free Andromeda[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aI.7.7_Pompeii._1968._West_wall_of_triclinium_with_wall_painting_of_Perseus_freeing_Andromeda._Photo_by_Stanley_A._Jashemski.jpg)
![Paolo Uccello's 1470 Saint George and the Dragon, illustrating a separate legend that became confused with the story of Perseus and Andromeda, introducing a horse for the hero[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPaolo_Uccello_Heiliger_Georg_und_der_Drachen_1_470.jpg)
![Giuseppe Cesari, Perseus and Andromeda, 1602. The hero is shown riding Pegasus, the flying horse, in a departure from classical myth.[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aD%2527arpino-Androm%25C3%25A8de.jpg)
![Peter Paul Rubens, Perseus and Andromeda, c. 1622, showing the moment that Perseus and Pegasus free Andromeda[55]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPeter_Paul_Rubens_-_Perseus_and_Andromeda_(Hermitage_Museum).jpg)
![Rembrandt, Andromeda Chained to the Rocks, 1630, showing Andromeda frightened and alone[56]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_011.jpg)
![Frederic, Lord Leighton, Perseus and Andromeda, 1891, showing the punishment as unfair[57]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFrederic%2c_Lord_Leighton_-_Perseus_and_Andromeda_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
![Félix Vallotton, Perseus Killing the Dragon, 1910, in a deliberately harsh light. Oil on canvas[58]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aF%25C3%25A9lix_Vallotton_Pers%25C3%25A9e_tuant_le_dragon_1910.JPG)
![Engraving after Abraham van Diepenbeeck, The Rescue of Andromeda (1632–1635), from M. de Marolles, Tableaux du Temple des Muses (Paris, 1655), is exceptional in showing Andromeda as dark-skinned.[3]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTableaux_du_temple_des_muses_-_tirez_du_cabinet_de_feu_Mr._Fauereau%2c_conseiller_du_roy_en_sa_Cour_des_aydes%2c_and_grauez_en_tailles-douces_par_les_meilleurs_maistres_de_son_temps%2c_pour_representer_les_(14586798939).jpg)
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