Andromeda (mythology)  

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Andromeda was a woman from Greek mythology who was chained to a rock to be a human sacrifice to a sea monster as divine punishment for her mother's bragging. She was saved from death by Perseus, her future husband. Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ανδρομέδη (Andromedē). The etymology of the name is "to think of a man," from ανδρος (andros) "man" combined with μηδομαι (mēdomai) "to think, to be mindful of."

The subject has been popular in art since classical times. In the Christian period the subject was converted into the legend of St George and the Dragon, but from the Renaissance interest revived in the original story, typically as derived from Ovid's account.

Contents

Portrayals of the myth

Literature

Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Corneille) made the story the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art. Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera Persée also dramatizes the myth.

Painting

Perseus and Andromeda

Film

The 1981 film Clash of the Titans retells the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia, but makes a few changes (notably Cassiopeia boasts that her daughter is more beautiful than Thetis as opposed to the Nereids as a group). Thetis was a Nereid, but also the future mother of Achilles. Andromeda and Perseus meet and fall in love after he saves her soul from the enslavement of Thetis' hideous son, Calibos, whereas in the myth, they simply meet as Perseus returns home from having slain Medusa. Andromeda is also depicted as being strong-willed and independent, whereas in the stories she is only really mentioned as being the princess whom Perseus saves from the sea monster. Andromeda was portrayed by Judi Bowker in this film. Also, the subplot about Thetis' son Calibos was added to the plot of the film. However, he more closely resembles Caliban from Shakespeare's Tempest than any creature truly found in Greek myth.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Andromeda (mythology)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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