Cassiopeia, the Queen, was the wife of Cepheus and the mother of Andromeda. She boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids or Sea Nymphs. This made the Nereids angry. She was punished by being bound to her chair so that she must circle the pole with her head down.

Most people today recognize Cassiopeia as the "W". Cassiopeia is always in the sky for observers in the northern hemisphere, because Casseopeia is near Polaris, the North Star.