Andromeda

Daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Aethiopia, Andromeda becomes embroiled in divine punishment after Cassiopeia boasts against the Nereids. To appease Poseidon—who sends a flood and the sea monster Cetus—the oracle of Ammon decrees that Andromeda be exposed as a human sacrifice, chained to a rock by the sea. Perseus arrives after slaying Medusa, rescues Andromeda (using either his sword or Medusa's petrifying head according to variant traditions), and marries her; in some accounts Athena later sets her among the stars as the constellation Andromeda.

Classical sources present Andromeda as a royal daughter and sacrificial victim, depicted in narrative and visual tradition as stripped and bound with limbs outstretched on a coastal rock. Ancient texts do not provide a detailed physical description of face, complexion, or costume in the supplied sources; later artistic traditions commonly render her in the chained, outstretched rescue posture, and the Catasterismi explicitly notes a constellation pose resembling her bound posture.

Andromeda is portrayed as a mortal without supernatural powers; her role is narrative and passive—victim, bride, and bearer of offspring in some accounts. Her story functions to occasion the actions of divine and heroic agents (Poseidon's punishment, the oracle's decree, Cetus's threat, and Perseus's rescue using Medusa's head or martial prowess). Her posthumous-catasteristic placement in the sky gives her an immortalized commemorative status but not active power in the provided sources.