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 on Anna Perenna, who escapes from Aeneas with the aid of a horned water-god. Art historian Jane Campbell Hutchison suggests that the Milanese headdress may refer to the Lombard queen Theodelinda, who was also abducted by a sea monster. The horned Tritonesque figure echoes a description given by Poggio Bracciolini of a sea monster that had terrorised the Adriatic coast in the early 15th century. 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