Abstract
In ancient Greek mythology Andromeda is the daughter of Cepheus, the Ethiopian king of Joppa, and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia angers Poseidon by claiming Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids (daughters of Poseidon). In retaliation, Poseidon sends a monster to prey upon Ethiopia, with the sacrifice of Andromeda required to halt this action. Andromeda is chained to a rock by the sea and is eventually rescued by Perseus, who kills the monster and marries Andromeda. Her final fate, along with Cepheus and Cassiopeia, is to be carried up into the sky as constellations; that is why all of them hover over our heads for eternity.
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Hodge WP (1992) The Andromeda galaxy. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston
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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Schultz, D. (2012). Early Depictions of Andromeda. In: The Andromeda Galaxy and the Rise of Modern Astronomy. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3049-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3049-0_2
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