Cassiopeia
Vain queen of Aethiopia whose boast brought a sea monster upon her kingdom
The Legend of Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia was the wife of King Cepheus and mother of Andromeda. Her beauty was genuine, but her pride was ruinous. She declared herself — or her daughter — more beautiful than the Nereids, the fifty sea nymphs who attended Poseidon. The offended Nereids complained to Poseidon, who sent a flood and a sea monster to devastate the coast of Aethiopia. The oracle of Ammon declared that only the sacrifice of Andromeda could end the destruction. Cassiopeia was forced to watch her daughter chained to a sea rock, though Perseus arrived in time to save her. As punishment for her vanity, Cassiopeia was placed in the sky in a chair that rotates around the celestial pole, spending half the year hanging upside down.
Parents
None recorded
Children
Andromeda
Symbols
Fun Fact
Her constellation spends half the year upside down — an eternal punishment for her vanity, visible any clear night
Explore Further
Cassiopeia
🗡 heroQueen whose vanity endangered her daughter
Cassiopeia was the queen who boasted her beauty exceeded the sea nymphs — provoking Poseidon to demand her daughter Andromeda as sacrifice.
Cepheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Aethiopia who nearly sacrificed his daughter Andromeda to a sea monster
Cepheus
🗡 herotragedy
Ethiopian king who chained his own daughter Andromeda to a rock to appease Poseidon's sea monster.
Ino
🗡 heromadness
Theban princess who raised the infant Dionysus, was driven mad by Hera, and leaped into the sea to become the goddess Leucothea.
Andromeda
🗡 herorescue
Ethiopian princess chained to a rock as sacrifice to a sea monster, rescued by Perseus, and placed among the stars.
Andromeda
🗡 heroPrincess chained to a rock, saved by Perseus
Andromeda was an Ethiopian princess chained to a sea cliff as sacrifice to a monster — rescued by Perseus, who petrified the beast with Medusa's head.
Alcimede
🗡 heroMotherhood, nobility
Noble Thessalian woman and mother of Jason, leader of the Argonauts
Amphitrite
⚡ godGoddess-queen of the seas
Amphitrite co-ruled the oceans with Poseidon.
Peleus
🗡 heroMortal who married a goddess
The king of Phthia who wrestled and won the sea-nymph Thetis, fathering Achilles — the greatest warrior of the Trojan War.
Peleus
🗡 heroheroism
King of Phthia, Argonaut, and father of Achilles who wrestled the shape-shifting sea goddess Thetis to win her as his bride.
Niobe
🗡 heroQueen punished for boasting about her children
A queen who boasted that her fourteen children made her superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two. Apollo and Artemis killed all fourteen, and Niobe wept until she turned to stone.
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus