Perseus and Andromeda. After beheading the Gorgon Medusa, Perseus was flying back to Seriphus when he came upon a naked young woman chained to a rock. She was Andromeda, the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia, rulers in Ethiopia. Cassiopeia had boasted that she (or her daughter) was more beautiful than any of the Nereids; to punish her, Poseidon (Neptune) sent a sea monster to ravage the kingdom and floods to waste the land. Consulting an oracle, Cepheus discovered that the god could be appeased only by the sacrifice of Andromeda, who was to be bound to a rock in the sea and eaten by the monster.
   Perseus asked Cepheus for Andromeda’s hand in marriage in exchange for killing the monster, to which the king agreed. Perseus battled and overcame the sea creature with the aid of the magical sandals, cap (or helmet), and sword he had used to slay Medusa. The wallet containing the Gorgon’s head he laid on some leaves and seaweed, which were transformed into coral.
   At the wedding banquet for Andromeda and Perseus, Cepheus’s brother Phineus, who had been betrothed to Andromeda, attempted to carry the bride away; Perseus turned him to stone with Medusa’s head. Perseus remained in Ethiopia for a year, during which time Andromeda bore a son. Perses. Perseus and Andromeda then went to Seriphus, where he returned the magical implements to Hermes and presented Medusa’s head to Athena.

    Perseus’s rescue of Andromeda from the sea monster is a frequent theme in postclassical art, although it is sometimes confused with St. George slaying the dragon or Ruggiero delivering Angelica, both of which tales involve similar iconography. In a post-classical interpolation Perseus is often seen riding the winged horse Pegasus rather than flying through the air on his winged sandals.