'Why call on your mother? She can be no mother to have left you
here. If a bird is dropped out of the nest, it belongs to the man
who picks it up. If a jewel is cast by the wayside, it is his who
dare win it and wear it, as I will win you and will wear you. I
know now why Pallas Athene sent me hither. She sent me to gain a
prize worth all my toil and more.'

And he clasped her in his arms, and cried, 'Where are these sea-
Gods, cruel and unjust, who doom fair maids to death? I carry the
weapons of Immortals. Let them measure their strength against
mine! But tell me, maiden, who you are, and what dark fate brought
you here.'

And she answered, weeping -

'I am the daughter of Cepheus, King of Iopa, and my mother is
Cassiopoeia of the beautiful tresses, and they called me Andromeda,
as long as life was mine. And I stand bound here, hapless that I
am, for the sea-monster's food, to atone for my mother's sin. For
she boasted of me once that I was fairer than Atergatis, Queen of
the Fishes; so she in her wrath sent the sea-floods, and her
brother the Fire King sent the earthquakes, and wasted all the
land, and after the floods a monster bred of the slime, who devours
all living things. And now he must devour me, guiltless though I
am--me who never harmed a living thing, nor saw a fish upon the
shore but I gave it life, and threw it back into the sea; for in
our land we eat no fish, for fear of Atergatis their queen. Yet
the priests say that nothing but my blood can atone for a sin which
I never committed.'