The Story of Andromeda, Article by Shiva Neupane

The story of Andromeda:

By Shiva Neupane (Melbourne, Australia)

I have been fascinated by how Greek civilization has contributed the wonderful stories of all times to the global elite societies. As a compiler of the Falang English Dictionary, I tend to take a hard into how etymological attires have decorated the Greek Civilization. Today, I would like to adumbrate some mythological accounts regarding the name “Andromeda”.

In Greek story, Andromeda was the daughter of king Cepheus, and his wife Queen Cassiopeia. The mother of Andromeda was boastful, beautiful and egotistically narcissistic. She stridently opined her daughter Andromeda were prettier than the sea nymphs, on hearing this hubris, the Nereids, the daughters of Poseidon had complained to him and he went berserk and piqued by what he heard.

The narcissistic and holier- than-thou attitude of Cassiopeia in regards to her own pulchritudinous daughter; Andromeda made (Poseidon) the sea of god outrageous and he sent a gigantic sea monster called ‘Cetus’ to bring about oceanic turbulence. Upon witnessing the catastrophic nightmare that was ensued from the Cassiopeia’s haughtiness about her daughter; Andromeda, the husband of Cassiopeia came to know that the entire kingdom and its people would be meted out with full weight of divine punishment if they were not going to act at the behest of God of the sea; Poseidon.

Therefore, Cepheus asked the oracle for the right advice. The oracle told him that the only solution to this problem is to sacrifice his virgin daughter to the sea monster. The procession had begun, Andromeda’s hands, legs and body were tied flat against the rocks by leaving her naked and seclusion in order for her to kick the bucket on her virgin cross.

The monster was ready to gulp her down but its culinary delight was thwarted by Perseus’s effort. He slayed the gorgon Medusa and saved Andromeda from being eaten by it. It is believed that the term ‘Perseus’ derived from Greek verb ‘pérthein’ which means to destroy or decimate. Initially, Andromeda was supposed to marry her uncle Phineus but Perseus fell in love with her ever since he saw her being chained to the rocks.

After Perseus released her from the rocks by defeating the sea dragon. He then married with her, at the wedding a fracas between the foes ends when Perseus showed Medusa’s head to Phineus and his allies. Andromeda followed Perseus to Serifos, where he saved his mother; Danae. They also paid visit to Argos, where Perseus was the apt heir to the throne. After mistakenly killing his grandfather Acrisius, Perseus had chosen to become the king of Tiryns instead.

Perseus and Andromeda have seven sons and two daughters.

Upon Andromeda’s death she was placed in the sky as a constellation to be honoured by Athena. To cap it all, I enjoyed the myths at large as they unfold the etymological understanding about how language came about. In my opinion, the mythological studies have bolstered our understanding about physics and the English language in a more excitable way.

Bio of the writer: Mr. Shiva Neupane, is a Nepalese born permanent resident of Australia. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Mrs. Devi Neupane Gaihre and a three- year- old daughter, Devyanshi Neupane. He has published Falang English Dictionary, In the Pursuit of Utopian Life in Australia, My Waves, Falang Food Dictionary and The Elixir of my voice. He has been writing articles since 2001 for various publications; his articles have appeared in The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post, The beatnik Cowboy (U.S.A), The Nepali Times Australia, scotnepal.com, and the Australia based newspaper “THE AGE”. He has studied multifarious disciplines in Australia. Interestingly enough, the former Prime minister of Australia the Honourable Scott Morrison issued him a letter during his tenure in 2022 in response to Shiva’s dictionary of multicultural cuisines (Falang Food Dictionary). In a nutshell, Mr. Neupane is a well-rounded personality and a social- butterfly.