America as The Woman, the Man, and the Monster) offers what was called at the time a "wholly unconventional" retelling of the Andromeda story in a modern setting. Robert Nichols's 1923 short story Perseus and Andromeda satirically retells the story in contrasting styles. In her 1978 novel The Sea, the Sea, Iris Murdoch uses the Andromeda myth, as presented in a reproduction of Titian's painting Perseus and Andromeda in the Wallace Collection in London, to reflect the character and motives of her characters. Charles has an LSD-fuelled vision of a serpent; when he returns to London, he becomes ill on seeing Titian's painting, whereupon his cousin James comes to his rescue. In the performing arts In theatre The theme, well suited to the stage, was introduced to theatre by Sophocles in his lost tragedy Andromeda (5th century BC), surviving only in fragments. Euripides took up the theme in his play of the same name (412 BC), also now lost, but parodied by Aristophanes in his comedy (411 BC) and influential in the ancient world. In the parody, Mnesilochus is shaved and dressed as a woman to gain entrance to the women's secret rites, held in honour of the fertility goddess Demeter. Euripides swoops mock-heroically across the stage as Perseus on a theatrical crane, trying and failing to rescue Mnesilochus, who responds by acting out the role of Andromeda. The legend of Perseus and Andromeda became popular among playwrights in the 17th century, including Lope de Vega's 1621 , and Pierre Corneille's famous 1650 verse play , with dramatic stage machinery effects, including Perseus astride Pegasus as he battles the sea monster. The play, a , presented to King Louis XIV of France and performed by the , the royal troupe, met with enormous and lasting success, continuing in production until 1660, to Corneille's surprise. The production was a radical departure from the tradition of French theatre, based in part on the Italian tradition of operas about Andromeda; it was semi-operatic, with many songs, set to music by D'Assouci, alongside the Italian painter Giacomo Torelli's stage scenery. Corneille chose to present Andromeda fully-clothed, supposing that her nakedness had been merely a painterly tradition; Knutson comments that in so doing, "he unintentionally broke the last link with the early erotic myth." Pedro Calderón de la Barca's 1653 was also inspired by Corneille, and like was heavily embellished with the playwrights' inventions and