The Tale of Perseus

As part of King Acrisius' attempt to rid himself of Perseus, the King sent him to slay the gorgon Medusa, whom he thought would kill Perseus. However, not only did he manage to kill the Medusa, he also rescued the princess, Andromeda, and took her as his wife. Part 1, 2.



A prophet once told King Acrisius that his grandson would kill him. Terrified that the prophet's advice might come true, he locked his daughter, Danae, in the deep dungeons of his castle not allowing her to have any male contact. Danae spent a long time in that dreary dungeon before Zeus, from his place in Olympus, noticed the beautiful creature. Immediately, she enchanted Zeus, and he entered the chamber in a shower of gold. Soon, Danae was pregnant.
When the guards reported that they heard a baby crying in the dungeon, King Acrisius was appalled. He immediately set out to getting rid of the mother and child. He did so by putting the two of them into a chest and floating it out into sea, hoping that they would die from hunger or thirst in the sea. When Zeus learnt of this, he was furious at the way his son was treated. He asked Poseidon to guide the chest safely to the town of Seriphus, where a fisherman found the chest.
Mother and child were taken to the king Polydectes, and Polydectes, learning of their plight, took the two in. Apart from that, Polydectes was also enchanted by Danae's beauty, and wanted to take her as his wife, but was refused by Danae repeatedly.
Danae's child was named Perseus, and he soon grew up to be a fine young man. The king's requests for marriage were getting impatient and more violent, but Perseus now defended his mother from the overbearing king. Finally, the king decided that once and for all he should get rid of Perseus so he could force Danae to marry him, and so he sent Perseus on a quest to kill the gorgon Medusa.
Medusa had once been a beautiful woman. However, when Poseidon seduced her and lay with her in Athene's temple, Athene was furious and turned her into a gorgon, to be with two other gorgons who lived at the world's end. Her beautiful locks of hair were turned into snakes, and her stare alone, would turn people into stone.
Perseus knew not how to get to the gorgon's lair. Thankfully, his father, Zeus, who sent the gods Athene and Hermes to help him, aided him. Perseus was led to the cave of three old witches where he would find directions to Medusa. The three old witches were blind and shared one eye between them. At first, the three witches refused to tell Perseus of the location of the gorgon, wishing more to devour Perseus by tricking him to approach them. Perseus was faster than them though, and he snatched the eye that they shared between them. Without the eye, the witches were completely blind, and Perseus managed to blackmail the witches to divulging the location of the gorgon.
Medusa dwelt near the River Styx, at the boundary of the underworld. The gods helped him again, by lending him a pair of winged sandals from Hermes, which would help him get to the lair. Athene lent him a shield that was smoother than any other, and that would allow him to slay the gorgon without looking at it, using the shield as a mirror. Hades lent him the cap of darkness, which would render him invisible. Perseus set out across the sea with his immortal gifts.

While entering the lair of the gorgon, Perseus saw many statues: the petrified bodies of valiant heroes that had come before him to kill Medusa, and who had failed. Perseus entered the lair quietly, with the cap of invisibility on and with his shield and sword. He found the gorgon sleeping alongside its two sisters. Looking into his shield, Perseus sliced off the head of Medusa, who let out a huge scream. When the blood of Medusa touched the floor, out came the winged horse Pegasus. Medusa's sisters woke up and were terrified by their invisible assailant, and tried to hit him but to no avail. Perseus took Medusa's head and put it into a pouch he had brought along for the purpose. He then rode the horse Pegasus into the sky.
Along the way back, he flew past the titan Atlas, who had been condemned to holding up the earth until the end of time by Zeus, after he led the rebellion of the Titans. Taking pity on the Titan, Perseus held up Medusa's head to him so that he might be relieved of his burden forever, and be turned into cold hard stone, forming the Atlas Mountain, as we know it today.
Continuing on his journey, Perseus found a beautiful woman chained to a rock beside the sea. Just as he would find out what was going on, a large sea monster rose out of the sea to take the woman. Perseus flew up on Pegasus and stabbed the monster repeatedly between its scales, eluding it with the aid of the swift Pegasus. After many deep strokes, the monster finally fell into the sea, and the woman was safe.
He later found out that the woman was the princess of the city, named Andromeda. Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, had the nerve to boast of her beauty even surpassing the sea nymphs. The sea nymphs were angry at the comparison, and they asked Poseidon to release the sea monster to destroy the city. The King was alarmed at learning of that, and he sought advice from an oracle, who told him that the only way to avert the crisis was to offer his daughter as sacrifice to the monster, to appease it.
Now that Perseus had saved Andromeda's life, the two fell in love. Their wedding was soon held, and a great feast was held in their honor. However, in the middle of the ceremony, in strode Phineus the betrothed of Andromeda, who claimed the bride for himself. The King reproached him for not saving her when the monster rose, but Phineus did not bother and he threw a javelin at Perseus, but it flew past him harmlessly.
What ensued next was a battle where those on the side of Perseus fought against those on the side of Phineus. However, the number on Perseus' side fell quickly as Phineus gained the upper hand. Finally, Perseus shouted 'Let all who are my friends turn away their eyes', whence he held up the head of Medusa, turning all those who looked upon it into stone.
So Perseus married Andromeda, and together they returned to Seriphus. There, Danae had been forced by Polydectes to be his wife. Perseus was enraged and killed the king, saving his mother from it. Time passed, and many years later, when Perseus took part in a series of athletic competitions, Perseus threw the discus way beyond its target and hit King Acrisius who had been in the spectator's stand. Perseus had finally fulfilled the prophecy that many years ago had been told to his grandfather- that Acrisius would die at the hands of his grandson.