Cepheus of Ethiopia daughter Andromeda was offered up to the monster. The king chained the princess to a rock by the shore at the insistence of his people to be devoured by Cetus. Andromeda was saved from this fate when Perseus, flying home with his trophy (i.e. head of Medusa), had passed by the kingdom of Cepheus and noticed that a girl of wonderful beauty was chained to a rock by the seashore. Perseus fell in love with her at first sight and undertook to slay the monster if she would promise to marry him; or, in a slightly different version, he approached
The Sea Monster bring motifs together in a single image. The abduction of a woman by a water-god is one of the oldest Greek mythological conceptions and a subject that fascinated men through to the Renaissance. Dürer adds a layer of complexity to the scene in that the woman does not seem too upset at her fate. Vasari gave an early description of the work, through a vague description of a picture of a nymph set in the ancient world. Recent interpretations mention the abduction of Scylla by the sea demon Glaucus, or the abduction of Hesione by a monster. Further speculation centres