The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a leader of the national preservation movement, is committed to saving America's diverse historic environments and to preserving and revitalizing the livability of its communities. This sculpture is from the museum collection of Chesterwood, the historic Stockbridge, Massachusetts summer home, studio and garden of American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). He is best known for creating two of the nations most powerful symbols; the seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and the Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts. Today, Chesterwood houses nearly 500 pieces of sculpture -- one of the largest collections of fine art devoted to a single American sculptor and period.

The horrified king consulted Ammon, the oracle of Jupiter, who said that Neptune could be appeased only by sacrificing Cassiopeia's beautiful virgin daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Andromeda was duly chained to a rock on the coast, fully exposed to the monster. Fortunately for her, the hero Perseus happened to be flying by on his way back from killing the Gorgon
Medusa:

When Perseus saw the princess, her arms chained to the hard rock, he would have taken her for a marble statue, had not the light breeze stirred her hair, and warm tears streamed from her eyes. Without realizing it, he fell in love. Amazed at the sight of such rare beauty, he stood still in wonder, and almost forgot to keep his wings moving in the air. As he came to a halt, he called out: "You should not be wearing such chains as these--the proper bonds for you are those which bind the hearts of fond lovers! Tell me your name, I pray, and the name of your country, and why you are in chains."

At first she was silent; for, being a girl, she did not dare to speak to a man. She would have concealed her face modestly behind her hands, had they not been bound fast. What she could do, she did, filling her eyes with starting tears. When Perseus persisted, questioning her again and again, she became afraid lest her unwillingness to talk might seem due to guilt; so she told him the name of her country, and her own name, and she also told him how her mother, a beautiful woman, had been too confident in her beauty.

Before she had finished, the waters roared and from the ocean wastes there came a menacing monster, its breast covering the waves far and wide. The girl screamed. Her sorrowing father was close at hand, and her mother too. They were both in deep distress, though the mother had more cause to be so (Metamorphoses IV 674-692)

Perseus says to Andromeda's parents that he'll kill the monster if they agree to give him their daughter's hand in marriage. They of course give him their consent, and Perseus kills the monster. Andromeda is freed, and the two joyously marry.