Mythic Monday: Intrepid Perseus
October 2, 2017
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The cards were stacked against Perseus from birth, but with the help of a few gods, he did not let that stop him from making a name for himself and becoming one of the greatest heroes in ancient Greek mythology.
This statue shows Perseus holding aloft the severed head of the monster Medusa. Credit: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. (SCALA/Art Resource)
Perseus was born in a unique way. The king of Argos, King Acrisius, imprisoned his daughter and only child, Danaë, because the Oracle of Apollo told him that there would come a day when Danaë’s son would kill him. King Acrisius locked Danaë away in hopes that she would never marry or have children. One version of the myth tells how Danaë’s sadness grew and grew, until one day, a bright golden light came through the small window where she was imprisoned. A man appeared holding a thunderbolt in his hand and offered to make her happy. At the time, Danaë did not know which god had visited her, but eventually she learned it was Zeus.
One day, King Acrisius saw light coming from Danaë’s small prison window. After his servants tore down one of the prison walls, the king found Danaë smiling and holding a baby: Perseus. King Acrisius was enraged—and afraid for his life. Unable to kill them himself, he packed the mother and son in a chest and set them adrift at sea. Dictys, a fisherman, rescued them, and Danaë and young Perseus lived in Dictys’s home on the island of Seriphus. There, Perseus grew into a handsome and strong young man.
King Polydectes, Dictys’s brother, tried to force Danaë into marriage. To prevent that from happening, Perseus agreed to slay the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. Medusa’s hideous face turned all who looked at her to stone. With the help of the goddess Athena and the god Hermes, Perseus beheaded Medusa. He killed her while gazing at her reflection in his polished shield. Unhappy with Polydectes, Perseus turned him to stone with Medusa’s severed head, which Perseus kept hidden in a magic bag. As a reward for ridding the world of Medusa, Perseus earned a constellation in the northern sky.
Perseus’s other adventures included the rescue of the princess Andromeda from the giant sea monster Cetus. Soon after, Perseus and Andromeda married. Among their descendants was Hercules, another great hero in Greek mythology. Perseus also fulfilled his destiny foretold by the oracle by accidentally killing his grandfather, King Acrisius, with a discus. Perseus refused to take his grandfather’s place on the throne in Argos, but he became a successful king in nearby Tiryns.
