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When Nereids overheard Cassiopeia she became very jealous. She complained to Poseidon, God of the Sea, and demanded that Cassiopeia be punished. Poseidon agreed and summoned a terrible sea-monster, Cetus. "Go to the coast of Cassiopeia's land," Poseidon directed, "and lay waste to the land, and kill the people, and kill the cattle." Cetus, in the form of a monstrous whale, set upon his mission of destruction and began the slaughter, working his way up and down the coast. The frightened people gathered and pleaded to their king to save them. Cepheus consulted an oracle--one with magical powers who could communicate with the gods when men sought their advice. The oracle told Cepheus that there was only one way to stop the slaughter: "You must offer your daughter Andromeda as a sacrifice." She was to be chained to the rocks on the coast and left for Cetus to devour. He made the bitter choice of sacrificing Andromeda, whereupon she was chained to the rocks and abandoned to await Cetus.
When Cetus discovered the prize awaiting him, he left off his wholesale destruction of the land and began swimming toward the ledge where Andromeda was chained. But then a distant figure appeared in the sky. It was Perseus, the brave son of Zeus and Danae, just returning from a journey during which he had succeeded in killing the dreaded Medusa. It was when Perseus was flow over the coast of Æthiopia that he noticed Andromeda chained to the rocks by the sea, and not far away he could see Cetus rapidly nearing her. Down he swept to the girl's side. "Why are you thus bound?" he asked, overwhelmed by Andromeda's beauty. Andromeda told him the story of her boastful mother and the advice the oracle had given her father.
Perseus quickly turned to Cepheus and said: "I can save your daughter from the sea-monster, but for my reward I demand Andromeda's hand in marriage, and a kingdom." Cepheus promised Perseus that he would have what he asked for, whereupon Perseus unsheathed his sword and leapt into the air to the attack. One thrust of his sword found a soft spot between the armored scales of the monster. Wounded, it twisted over on its side. Perseus then inflicted another deep cut, and another. Blood now colored the water red and soaked Perseus' winged shoes. Fearful of losing his ability to fly, he settled on a rock near the shore and waited for the sea-monster to attack again. As it did, Perseus' sword plunged deeply into the monster's evil heart.
Joyful beyond words, Cepheus and Cassiopeia led Perseus and Andromeda to their house, where a great feast and celebration were prepared. Perseus and Andromeda were married and led a long, happy life together. There first-born son, Peres, is said to have given rise to those people who became known as Persian. When Perseus and Andromeda died, they were given honored places among the stars by the goddess Athena. Cetus, the sea-monster, was there waiting for them and forever chases Andromeda around the sky, but Perseus continues to guard her well. Meanwhile Cepheus and Cassiopeia had died and were likewise given honored places among the stars by Poseidon.

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Gamma1 Andromedae

Distance (Light Years)
355 ± 28
Visual Magnitude
2.1
Color (B-V)
1.37

Names For This Star

This star is also known as Almaak, Alamak, Almak, or Almaach. The names derive from the Arabic phrase Al 'Anak al 'Ard, which is a small Arabian animal similar to a badger.

Description of the Star

According to Burnham Almach appears as a double star when seen through a telescope. The brighter star of the pair appears golden yellow or slightly orange, while the dimmer companion appears greenish-blue. The star appears as a double star in a telescope, but in fact there are at least four components in the system.
The primary, Almach A, is a yellow-orange K3-IIb bright giant about 1500 times as luminous as our sun.

Alpha Andromedae

Distance (Light Years)
97.1 ± 2.1
Visual Magnitude
2.07
Color (B-V)
-0.11

Names For This Star

Other names for this star are Alpherat, Sirrah, or Sirah. These names derive from the Arabic phrase Al Surrat al Faras meaning "The Horse's Navel." The name is appropriate to the location of the star in the figure of Pegasus, The Flying Horse. However, the star is now considered to belong to the constellation of Andromeda, and indeed the Arabian astronomers also designated this star as Al Ras al Mar'ah al Musalsalah meaning "The Head of the Woman in Chains."

Description of the Star

Alpheratz A is a blue B8IVpMnHg subgiant star, peculiar because of the unusual strength of mercury and manganese in its spectrum. The star is 5 times larger than the sun in diameter and 110 times more luminous.
The spectrum shows that the star has a companion orbiting with 96.7 day period. According to Burnham the spectrum of the companion has not been determined. The The Bright Star Catalog gives no information.

Mirach
Beta Andromedae

Distance (Light Years)
199.4 ± 9.3
Visual Magnitude
2.07
Color (B-V)
1.58

Names For This Star

Other names for the star are Merach, Mirac, Mirak, and al Mizar. The origin of these names is the Arabic name referring to a belt, girdle, or waist-cloth.

Description of the Star

Mirach is a red M0+IIIa giant about 470 times as luminous as the sun. The spectral type implies an effective temperature of 3200 K and a mass about 6 times that of the sun.

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The Chained Lady or The Princess

The Hubris of Cassiopeia

Andromeda was the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Ethiopia. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia was an exceedingly vain lady who dared to boast that she was more beautiful than even the Nereids, a group of fifty sea nymphs of exquisite beauty. The Nereids were so affronted at the presumption of the vain queen that they begged Poseidon to punish her.

The Punishment by Poseidon

In response to the pleas of the Nereids, Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus to ravage Ethiopia. When King Cepheus asked the Oracle at Ammon what he must do to appease the anger of the god, he was told that he must sacrifice his beautiful virgin daughter to the sea monster. So he chained Andromeda to a rock on the Mediterranean shore at Jaffa (the present-day city of Tel Aviv) to await the approach of the monster.

How Her Life Was Saved

The story has a happy ending though, because the life of Andromeda was saved by the hero Perseus who slew the monster and claimed the hand of Andromeda in marriage.

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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 is also depicted as being strong-willed, whereas in the stories she is only really mentioned as being the princess whom Perseus saves from the sea monster. Also, a 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.
Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera Persée also dramatizes the myth. At the port city of Jaffa, Israel, an outcropping of rocks near the harbour is reputed by local legend to have been the place from which Andromeda was rescued by Perseus.

In the CBS Saturday morning kid's series Mythic Warriors, Andromeda is a beautiful but strong-willed princess who wishes to be remembered as a great hero when she died, but had to learn that a hero must sometimes sacrifice himself to save those he loves.

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Is a constellation named for the princess Andromeda (Greek Ανδρομέδη = guardian of the men ), a character in Greek mythology. The constellation is in the northern sky near the constellation Pegasus. It is most notable for containing the Andromeda Galaxy. It is sometimes called "The Chained Maiden" in English.
Corresponding Chinese constellations in Andromeda are Flying serpent (螣蛇), Celestial stable (天廄), Wall (壁), Legs (奎), Southern military gate (南軍門) and Great general of the heaven (天大将軍).

The brightest star in the constellation is α Andromedae (in the image by its proper name "Sirrah"), which marks her head. Formerly considered common to Andromeda and Pegasus, as confirmed by its name, "navel of the horse", it was also designated δ Pegasi. With α, β, and γ Pegasi it forms an asterism called the Great Square of Pegasus.
β Andromedae is called Mirach, the girdle. It is 200 light years distant and of magnitude 2.1.
γ Andromedae, or Almach, is found at the tip of the southern leg of the big "A".
υ Andromedae has a planetary system with three confirmed planets, 0.71 times, 2.11 times, and 4.61 times the mass of Jupiter.

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

Andromeda is represented in the northern sky by the constellation Andromeda which contains the Andromeda Galaxy.
Four constellations are associated with the myth. Viewing the fainter stars, visible to the naked eye, the constellations are rendered as:
A large man wearing a crown, upside down with respect to the ecliptic. (The constellation Cepheus)
A smaller figure, next to the man, sitting on a chair. As it is near the pole star, it can be seen the whole year, although sometimes upside down. (The constellation Cassiopeia)
A maiden, chained up, facing/turning away from the ecliptic. (The constellation Andromeda), next to Pegasus.
A sea monster just under the ecliptic. (The constellation Cetus)

King Cepheus of Ethiopia and Queen Cassiopeia thank Perseus for freeing their daughter Andromeda, La Délivrance d'Andromède (1679) Pierre Mignard, Louvre.
Other constellations related to the story are:
Perseus
The constellation Pegasus, who was born from the stump of Medusa's neck, after Perseus had decapitated her.
The constellation Pisces, which may have been treated as two fish caught by Dictys the fisherman who was brother of Polydectes king of Seriphos where Perseus and his mother Danaë were stranded.
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.