Cepheus about it afterwards--Athene showed him the reflection of the
Gorgon in her shield, which is as bright as any mirror; so he took
hold of her hair in his left hand, grasped his scimetar with the
right, still looking at the reflection, cut off her head, and was off
before her sisters woke up. Lowering his flight as he reached the
Ethiopian coast yonder, he caught sight of Andromeda, fettered to a
jutting rock, her hair hanging loose about her shoulders; ye Gods,
what loveliness was there exposed to view! And first pity of her hard
fate prompted him to ask the cause of her doom: but Fate had decreed
the maiden's deliverance, and presently Love stole upon him, and he
resolved to save her. The hideous monster now drew near, and would
have swallowed her: but the youth, hovering above, smote him with the
drawn scimetar in his right hand, and with his left uncovered the
petrifying Gorgon's head: in one moment the monster was lifeless; all
of him that had met that gaze was turned to stone. Then Perseus
released the maiden from her fetters, and supported her, as with timid
steps she descended from the slippery rock.--And now he is to marry
her in Cepheus's palace, and take her home to Argos; so that where she
looked for death, she has found an uncommonly good match.

_Iph_. I am not sorry to hear it. It is no fault of hers, if her
mother has the vanity to set up for our rival.

_Dor_. Still, she _is_ Andromeda's mother; and we should have had our
revenge on her through the daughter.

_Iph_. My dear, let bygones be bygones. What matter if a barbarian
queen's tongue runs away with her? She is sufficiently punished by the
fright. So let us take this marriage in good part.