| Cassiopeia, the wife of King Cepheus, ruler of Ethiopea. Her continual boast that both she and her daughter (Andromeda) were more beautiful than the sea nymphs, daughters of Nereus, the sea god, brought the wrath of Poseidon, ruling god of the sea, upon the Kingdom of Ethiopia. (Differing accounts state that either Cetus, the sea monster, on Poseidon's instructions, was to destroy the land, or that the whole country was to be flooded). Trying to avert such a fate, the only way to appease the sea gods was to sacrifice their daughter. Accordingly Andromeda was chained to a rock at the sea's edge, and left there to the mercy of the sea monster. But Perseus arrived in time and saved Andromeda. |
