Andromeda was the daughter of an Ethiopian king in Greek mythology who, as divine punishment for her mother's bragging, the Boast of Cassiopeia, was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster aroused by the queen's hubris. She was saved from death by Perseus, her future husband. Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek 廒??諄棲??諺樁倀棒?(Androm矇da) or 廒??諄棲??諺樁倀棒?(Androm矇d?): 'ruler of men'.

The subject has been popular in art since classical times