Astronomica (Manilius) god" and "the universe (microcosm) wishes to reveal itself to man". Most of the fifth (and final) book is a discussion of "paranatellonta" via the myth of Andromeda and Perseus. Manilius recalls how Andromeda was chosen to be sacrificed to a sea monster by her parents; Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Andromeda was chained to a cliff but before the creature could consume her, Perseus (who had just vanquished Medusa) arrived. He instantly fell in love with Andromeda, killed the sea monster, and saved the young woman's life. According to Green, the digression, which is by far the longest in the poem,
Andromeda (play) Classicist Gilbert Murray commented that "Only a few fragments of the "Andromeda" remain, but they are curiously beautiful; and the play as a whole seems to have been the one unclouded love-romance that Euripides ever wrote. Murray also related a story told by Lucian (in "The Way to Write History") writing 500 years after "Andromeda" was first produced, that people in Abdera, Thrace, were stricken by the play and walked around "as though in a dream" while mumbling to themselves a speech from the play which began "O love, high monarch over gods and men..." Andromeda (play) Andromeda (, "Androméda")