Princess and dragon hero is envisioned as slaying dragons even though, for instance, the Brothers Grimm had only a few tales of dragon and giant slayers among hundreds of tales. One of the earliest example of the motif comes from the Ancient Greek tale of Perseus, who rescued the princess Andromeda from Cetus, a sea monster often described as resembling a serpent or dragon. This was taken up into other Greek myths, such as Heracles, who rescued the princess Hesione of Troy from a similar sea monster. Most ancient versions depicted the dragon as the expression of a god's wrath: in Andromeda's case,
The Sea Monster The Sea Monster The Sea Monster (German: Das Meerwunder) is a c. 1498–1500 engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It shows a voluptuous naked middle-aged woman riding on the back of a male creature who is half-man, half-fish. The man wears a beard and antlers, while his body is covered in scales. The woman has seemingly been snatched and dragged away from the river bank; her companions are shown scrambling out of the water in panic, raising their arms in protest or lying down weeping. The woman wears an extravagant Milanese headdress and her mouth is open in