Perseus and Medusa

In Ancient Greece there was city called Argos, and the king of the city was named Acrisius. Acrisius did not have a son, only a daughter, and therefore had no heir to take his place as king. He had a rivalry with his brother, so he did not want him to be king. In desperation he went to the oracle of Delphi to learn what to do about his lack of an heir. When he asked the oracle his question, it told him he would have a grandson who would then kill Acrisius. The king decided to do the only rational thing and imprisoned his only daughter Danae in a prison that had only one opening to let air into the cell. He didn’t kill his daughter because it would be family murder and Zeus would smite him for it. While Zeus was deciding whether or not to smite him anyway, he saw how beautiful Danae was through the roof opening and decided to visit her by turning into golden rain so as to get past the bars on the roof hole. He impregnated her while there and when she gave birth to Perseus king Acrisius was furious. Once again he didn’t kill them for the same reason as last time, but he did stuff them in a pot and sent them into the sea. Zeus asked Poseidon to calm the sea so that they would be safe from harm. Poseidon also made a current to take them to a nearby island called Seriphos. A friendly fisherman hooked the pot and dragged it to shore. It was here that Perseus grew up and trained to become a very good fisherman. One day at a feast for the new king of the island the fisherman and his family were invited to celebrate with the other people of the palace. When the king saw Danae he immediately wanted her to be his wife, despite Danae’s disagreement. The king would have married her anyway, but he was scared of Perseus, who was now a very strong man. The king decided the easiest way to get rid of perseus was to send him on an impossible journey that would get him killed, like, say, killing Medusa. Since he was a young man who wanted to prove himself he accepted the quest. Since no one knew where the Gorgons lived he decided to visit the Graeae, the sisters of the Gorgons. The three Graeae shared one eye and one tooth to share between them. Perseus took their eye hostage and said he would give it back if they gave him the location of the Gorgons. They cooperated and he gave back the eye. On his way to the gorgons he finds the island of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas. While there his half-brother Hermes and half-sister Athena visit him and give him winged sandals and a polished mirror shield respectfully. The Hesperides gave him a magic sword, helmet and sack, the sword being one of only a few things that could kill Medusa. The helmet was modeled off of Hades’ and could turn anyone wearing it invisible. The sack was big enough to hold the head of Medusa. Using the sandals he flies to Gorgon island and sneaks into Medusa’s cave with the helmet, chops off the head with the sword while she’s sleeping and stuffs it in the bag. While flying back to Seriphos, however, Perseus sees a beautiful woman strapped to a rock facing the sea. He lands next to her and asks her her name and why she’s tied to a rock. She tells him her name is Andromeda and that mother said she (Andromeda) was even more beautiful than the Nereids, the spirits of the sea. The Nereids were greatly offended and demanded a sacrifice. Poseidon decided it would be easier to force the queen into a sacrifice than to fight the Nereids, so he told the city to sacrifice the daughter or else a sea monster would eat the island. So the king and queen put their own daughter on the rock. As Andromeda finished the story the sea monster that was planning on eating her burst up out of the water. Perseus decided to rescue Andromeda from the sea monster, so he killed after a very long fight, in which he flew around it and made little cuts with the magic sword. He brought Andromeda with him to his home island of Seriphos. When he went to the palace he found out the king had written him off as dead and forcibly married Danae. While in the court of the king where he found this out he pulled out the Medusa head and turned the king and his whole court to stone. He set up the fisherman who had fished him out of the water so long ago as king and married Andromeda. If you were wondering how Perseus killed his grandfather even though he had no desire whatsoever to take vengeance on him then you should hear about a very special Olympics festival where Perseus threw a discus and the wind blew it into the head of king Acrisius of Argos. Despite this accidental murder of his grandfather Perseus is one of the very, very few heroes who got a happy ending and a happily ever after.