Perseus

Polydectes summoned his friends to a feast and invited Perseus. Each guest brought a gift for the bride-to-be. Perseus had nothing to give, so he declared that he would bring a better gift than any other guest. He promised to kill Medusa and return with her head. Polydectes accepted the pledge, since no sensible person would choose such a task. Medusa was one of three Gorgons. They had wings and hair filled with snakes. Mortals who saw them died at once.

Polydectes had already tried to remove Perseus from Seriphos. Perseus had defended his mother, Danaé, when the king and his subjects tried to force her into marriage. Danaé and Perseus had reached the island after Acrisius, Danaé’s father and king of Argos, cast them into the sea in a wooden ark. Dictys, a fisherman, found them alive and took them to his brother Polydectes, who raised Perseus in his own house.

When Perseus became a man, he and Dictys protected Danaé from the king. They took her to Athene’s temple, where the priestess made her one of the temple sweepers. Polydectes could not take her from the temple. He pretended to have forgiven Perseus and forgotten Danaé, then planned to remove Perseus by deceit. At the feast, he allowed Perseus to make the impossible pledge he had intended to provoke.

Polydectes offered Perseus the chance to withdraw his vow and choose a less dangerous task. Perseus refused. He swore to return with Medusa’s head or not return at all. He called this a pledge of blood. The guests laughed as he left the palace. He ran towards his mother’s house and met a tall, black-haired girl dressed in leaves. She already knew that he intended to seek Medusa’s head. Perseus told her that he would leave on the morning tide.

At the games held in Larissa, Perseus joined the youths in the fivefold contest. King Teutamides had arranged the games in honour of Acrisius, who had come to stay with him. Perseus did not reveal his name. He entered the contest wearing no armour and took part among the young men. When the discus throw began, he cast the discus with great force. A wind carried it from its path, and it struck Acrisius, killing him.

Acrisius had feared this death for many years. An oracle had foretold that he would die by the hand of his grandson. To prevent the prophecy, he had confined his daughter Danae in a sealed room, or, in another account, a tower. Zeus visited Danae there as a shower of gold, and Perseus was born. Acrisius then placed Danae and her child in a chest and set them adrift at sea, wishing to escape blood guilt. They were saved on Seriphus, where Perseus later grew to manhood.

After beheading Medusa, Perseus returned towards Argos. He wished to find his grandfather and hoped that their kinship would bring peace between them. Acrisius, however, had left Argos for Larissa after hearing of the prophecy. Perseus travelled there with his Phoenicians and arrived while the people were attending the games. His throw fulfilled the prophecy, although he had not intended to harm Acrisius.

Perseus mourned the death and, in one account, buried Acrisius in the temple of Athene on the local acropolis. Ashamed to rule Argos after killing his grandfather, he went to Tiryns and exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes, the son of Proetus. Megapenthes took Argos, while Perseus ruled Tiryns and later recovered the other two parts of Proetus’s former kingdom. Another account says that Perseus went to Delphi and was purified from the guilt of homicide.

Acrisius learned that his daughter Danae would bear a son who would one day kill him. He shut Danae away to prevent the prophecy. Some accounts place her in a bronze chamber beneath the ground. Others give her a tower or a stone prison. Zeus reached her despite the confinement. He came as a shower of gold that fell through the opening above. Danae later gave birth to Perseus.

When Acrisius discovered the child, he refused to accept that Zeus was the father. He feared the prophecy and the punishment for killing a close relative. Instead, he ordered a great chest to be made. He placed Danae and the infant Perseus inside it, closed it, and carried it to the shore.

The chest was pushed into the sea. Winds and waves carried it away from Argos. A north-west wind blew from the mountains and through the vale of Argos before driving it out to sea. The waves tossed the chest up and down while Perseus slept against his mother. Danae remained awake and watched over him. She wept as darkness gathered and the wind sounded around their shelter. She held him beneath his red cloak and sang to him as they drifted.

The chest travelled to Seriphus. Dictys, a kindly fisherman, found it and recovered Danae and Perseus. Perseus had survived the voyage with his mother. Dictys raised him.

Perseus stood over the sleeping Gorgons. Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal. Their heads were surrounded by coiled serpents. They had tusks, bronze hands, and golden wings. Anyone who looked directly at them was turned to stone.

Athena helped Perseus distinguish Medusa from her immortal sisters. In one account, she first led him to Deicterion in Samos, where images of the three Gorgons were displayed. She warned him not to look at Medusa and gave him a brightly polished shield. He was to use its surface as a mirror. Hermes also helped him. He gave Perseus a sharp weapon, described as an adamantine sickle or a harpe, and helped him find the equipment needed for the journey. The nymphs gave him winged footwear, a sack or magic wallet, and a helmet that made its wearer invisible.

Perseus watched Medusa’s reflection in Athena’s shield and avoided her gaze. While Athena guided his hand, he struck with the sickle and cut off her head. He placed the head in the sack. As Medusa died, Pegasos, the winged horse, and Chrysaor sprang from her body. One account says that she had conceived them earlier by Poseidon.

The other Gorgons woke and pursued Perseus. He escaped with the winged footwear and the helmet of invisibility. The helmet concealed him from their sight. Another account says that he flew away just as the sisters awoke, disturbed by the hissing of their snake-filled hair.

On his return to Polydectes, the king refused to believe what Perseus had done until he saw Medusa’s head. The sight turned him to stone.

Perseus stood over the sleeping Gorgons. Athene guided his hand and warned him not to look at Medusa directly. He watched her reflection in a brightly polished shield instead. The three Gorgons were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal. Their heads were covered with coiled serpents, and they had tusks, bronze hands, and golden wings. Anyone who looked upon them was turned to stone. Hermes had given Perseus an adamantine sickle, and he held it ready while he watched the reflection shift across the shield.

The snakes on Medusa’s head writhed and bit one another. Their blood ran across her forehead, and its stench began to overcome Perseus. He acted before he lost consciousness. Guided by the reflection, he struck with the sickle and severed Medusa’s head. Her head rolled from her neck. Perseus lifted it by the limp snakes and placed it in his magic wallet.

As Medusa’s blood fell, two figures sprang from her severed body. One was Pegasos, the winged horse. The other was Chrysaor, a warrior who held a golden sword or falchion. Chrysaor was later called the father of Geryon. The two had been conceived by Medusa and Poseidon before her death. Perseus did not know their parentage and hurried away with the head. Stheno and Euryale awoke and pursued him, but they could not see him because he wore the helmet of invisibility. He escaped with the Gorgon’s head concealed in the wallet.

Perseus killed the sea monster and released Andromeda from the rock where she had been bound as its prey. Her mother, Cassiepeia, had claimed that she surpassed the Nereids in beauty. The Nereids were angered, and Poseidon sent a flood and a monster against the land. Ammon had declared that the calamity would end if Andromeda were offered to the monster, so Cepheus was compelled to expose his daughter. When Perseus saw her, he fell in love and promised Cepheus that he would destroy the monster if Andromeda were given to him as his wife. They swore oaths to this agreement, and Perseus then confronted and killed the monster.

Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus, and her joyful parents went to the palace, where a banquet was prepared. Their celebration was interrupted by the arrival of Phineus and his followers. Phineus had been promised Andromeda beforehand and demanded her as his own. Cepheus replied that Phineus should have claimed her when she lay bound to the rock. The sentence that had given her to the monster, he said, had ended all previous agreements, as death would have done.

Phineus answered by throwing a javelin at Perseus. It missed, and Phineus hid behind the altar. His attack began a fight between his followers and the guests. Cepheus withdrew after his protests failed. Perseus resisted the attackers, then brought out the Gorgon’s head. Those who looked at it became stone. Aconteus, one of Perseus’s companions, was also turned to stone after seeing the head. Phineus begged for his life, but Perseus held the Gorgon’s head towards him, and Phineus became stone while kneeling with his hands extended and his face turned away.

Perseus then claimed Andromeda as his bride. One account says that he brought her to Seriphus. Another places the marriage feast at Cepheus’s palace and says that Perseus agreed to remain there for a year before returning to Greece with honour. In that account, Cepheus offered Perseus half his kingdom, but Perseus refused it.

Perseus returned to Seriphus with Danae and Andromeda and found Danae and Dictys hiding in a temple from Polydectes. Polydectes held a banquet with his companions in the palace. Perseus entered and revealed the Gorgon’s head when Polydectes mocked him. Polydectes and his guests looked at the head and turned to stone where they sat. Perseus gave the kingdom to Dictys and sailed away with Danae and Andromeda.

Acrisius feared the oracle that foretold his death at the hands of his grandson. He left Argos and went to Larissa in Thessaly. King Teutamides held funeral games for his dead father, and Perseus competed in the fivefold contest. During the discus throw, wind carried Perseus’s discus from its path, and it struck Acrisius’s foot and killed him. Perseus buried Acrisius in the temple of Athene on the local acropolis.

Acrisius and Proetus had been twins. After they quarrelled, Acrisius ruled Argos and Proetus ruled Tiryns, which he founded. Perseus felt ashamed to rule in Argos after Acrisius’s death, so he went to Tiryns. Proetus had been succeeded by his son Megapenthes. Perseus exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes, who moved to Argos while Perseus ruled Tiryns. Perseus later regained the other two parts of Proetus’s former kingdom, fortified Midea, and founded Mycenae.