At the bottom of the Crypt we find the prototype of female
martyrdom, Andromeda—the helpless, naked woman sacrificed
in order to rescue her people.
At the first glance her tale is one of female weakness and male
superiority. But it is her beauty that attracts the hero, and it is
her helplessness that makes him fight for her, and to act as a hero:
She makes the hero who delivers her.
The fascination of the helpless, naked maiden, which the Greeks
condensed in the Andromeda myth, did not end with antiquity; it
was one of the motivations behind the art representations of
female Christian martyrs, and it is still working today.
This section shows maidens from antiquity who were offered to
monsters, plus some later adaptations of their myths.