Chapter XXV: Perseus

There was once a king of Argos called Acrisius, who had an only daughter. Her name was Danaë and she was very beautiful, but the Oracle said that she would have a son through whom Acrisius would lose his life. This frightened Acrisius very much, and he had a large brazen room made for Danaë to live in under the earth, where she had everything she wished for, but she was never allowed to see the light of day, nor any man. Her father thought he would thus be able to prevent her from marrying secretly and having a son, and for a time everything went on according to his wishes. But Zeus, the king of the gods, loved Danaë, and he one day changed himself into a beautiful golden shower of rain, whose shining drops fell down through the brazen roof. Thus Zeus was married to Danaë, and not long afterwards she had a son. Acrisius was very angry, and he had the mother and son shut up in a wooden chest and cast into the sea.

The chest was tossed about on the waves, and floated far away. On the third day it reached an island where there happened to be a man on the shore fishing, who was the brother of the king of the island. He drew the chest to land and forced open the lid, and when he {96} saw the lovely woman and her child inside it, he took them, just as they were, into the house to show them to the king his brother, who promised to protect them and treat them kindly. Acrisius thought they had perished in the sea, but they were safe on the island, and Danaë was quite happy in taking care of her son, whom she named Perseus. In the course of time, Perseus grew up to be a young man, and he was beautiful and brave and strong.

The king of the island wanted to have Danaë for his wife, but she did not wish to marry him. Then the king thought that if it were not for Perseus he might compel her to do so, and he sought to find some excuse for sending Perseus away on a far journey. So one day he called his friends together, and Perseus among the rest. He told them that he was going to sue for a bride, and that he wished each of them to bring him some present to offer to her father; for it was the custom in those days that anyone who wanted to win a bride should give costly presents to the father of the lady he wished to marry. They all agreed to do as the king desired, and he asked most of his friends to give him splendid horses, but from Perseus he demanded a gift that would involve a difficult and dangerous journey to a distant land. At the far end of the world there lived three sisters called Gorgons, who instantly turned to stone everyone that looked at them; the only one of the three who was mortal was called Medusa, and the king commanded Perseus to bring him her head, hoping that he would perish in the attempt.

Perseus had no fear, and at once set out in quest of the Gorgon's head. There were three nymphs who {97} had three precious things without which it would have been useless for him to try and obtain it, but no one knew where these nymphs lived except the three Grey Sisters, who lived far away from any inhabited land, and would never reveal the secret of where the nymphs were to be found unless they were compelled to do so. They were the sisters of the Gorgons, and had been quite grey ever since their birth, and they had only one tooth and one eye between them, which they used in turns. Perseus went to the cavern where the Grey Sisters lived, and watched till one of them took out the eye and the tooth to pass them to her sister, when he sprang forward and snatched them out of her hand, and said that he would not give them back till they told him where the nymphs lived. So they were obliged to tell him, and then he gave them back their eye and tooth, and went on to the nymphs who were kind to him and gave him the three precious things. These were,--first, a pouch in which to place the head of Medusa after he had cut it off; secondly, a pair of sandals which enabled anyone who put them on to fly through the air; and, thirdly the helmet of Pluto, which made whoever wore it invisible. The gods loved Perseus because he was so brave, and Hermes came down to earth and gave him a sickle of very sharp steel with which to cut off the head of the Gorgon. Perseus put on the sandals, and taking the other things with him, he flew to the great stream Oceanus which flows round the world. There was a rocky island in the middle of the stream covered with rank weeds and full of serpents, and here the Gorgons lived in a cave. When Perseus reached them it was about noonday, and {98} they were asleep. They were larger than mortal women, and had great teeth like tusks and brazen hands and golden wings, and they had live snakes twined among their hair, and everyone who looked at them was turned to stone. Perseus heard them snoring, and he went into the cave on tip-toe so as not to wake them. He was obliged to go backwards, for if he had looked at them he would have been turned to stone; but he had a polished shield which he held up before him as a mirror, and he could see them in the mirror without being harmed. They had stretched themselves out in a row, and lay asleep leaning one against the other; Medusa was smaller than the others, and by this he was able to recognise her. Her head was resting on a stone, and Perseus held up the shield before her and cut through her neck with the sickle till the head fell off, and then he took it up, put it into the pouch without looking at it, and flew away. But the bleeding trunk still palpitated, and the other two Gorgons awoke and saw it, and they darted out of the cavern after Perseus, that they might seize him and tear him to pieces with their iron claws. They flew through the air looking for him, and they had sharp eyes with which they could see to a great distance, but they could not find Perseus because he had on the helmet of Pluto which made him invisible, and were obliged to return without him. Perseus was meanwhile on his way home with the dead head in his pouch.

After some days he came to a country in Africa, where there was a king whose name was Cepheus. The queen was called Cassiopea, and she was very beautiful {99} and very proud of her beauty, and every day she went down to the sea that she might have the pleasure of looking at her picture in the water. One day she said that she was more beautiful than the sea-nymphs, and the nymphs heard it and were so angry with her that they begged Poseidon, the sea-god, to punish her for her pride. Then Poseidon created a huge monster which came up every day out of the sea and wasted the land, devouring men and cattle, so that there was great distress among the people. They asked the Oracle what they should do, and the Oracle said that they must give the king's daughter to the monster to devour, and then he would not come again any more. The king's daughter was called Andromeda, and she was beautiful like her mother, but she was not vain of her beauty, and the king and queen loved her very dearly. She was their only child, and they cherished her as their most precious treasure, and refused to give her up to be food for the horrible monster. But at last they were obliged to consent to this, and the day came when Andromeda was to be taken to a rock in the sea and bound fast with iron chains, so that she could not run away when the monster came to devour her. The king and queen wept bitterly, and many people followed them to the shore, weeping also.

They had just reached the rock when Perseus also approached it, and he took the helmet off his head so that he could be seen, and asked why the beautiful princess was to be chained to it. They told him all about it, and he said that if they would promise to let him have Andromeda for his wife, he would undertake to kill the monster and deliver her. The king had {100} already promised Andromeda in marriage to a brother of his named Phineus, but though she was in such great peril, Phineus did not trouble himself much about it, and had no intention of risking his life for her. Perseus, however, felt very differently; he longed to have her for his wife, and the parents promised him that if he slew the monster he should be their son-in-law. Soon afterwards the monster appeared, rising up from the bottom of the sea, and making great waves as he swam along. Perseus waited till he came near the shore, and then flew down and struck him a mighty blow on the neck with his sword. The monster snapped at him with his great jaws, but Perseus had already flown up high above him, and before the monster could look round he had received another wound, and he lashed his tail in fury till the water was quite red with his blood, but he could not reach Perseus who flew round him and struck him again and again, till at last he bled to death.

Then there was great joy among the people: the chains were taken off from Andromeda, and the king and queen kissed her, feeling as if she had been raised from the dead. They went back into the city, and Perseus walked by the side of Andromeda who liked well the appearance of the brave and noble hero. On the seventh day the marriage took place, and they offered sacrifices, and danced and sang and feasted. Phineus however was not there, but in the middle of the marriage feast he came into the hall of the palace at the head of a large band of armed servants, and said that he would kill Perseus and all who sided with him, for that Andromeda had been promised to him, and {101} ought to be his wife. Then a struggle took place in the hall, and Perseus slew several of the servants, but they were twenty to one, and it was no fair fight. At last Perseus cried out with a loud voice, 'Let all who are on my side turn away their faces,' and then he thrust his hand into the pouch, drew forth the head of Medusa, and held it out towards Phineus and his servants, and in a moment they were all turned to stone.

The king gave Perseus a beautiful ship, in which he sailed with Andromeda to the island where his mother was. He found her in sore distress, for the king of the island had tried to compel her to marry him, and she had fled for refuge to the altar. Those who took refuge at an altar were under the protection of the gods as long as they remained there, and no one dared to touch them; but the king commanded that no one should bring Danaë anything to eat, and he placed watchmen all round to see that his orders were obeyed, for he thought that when she was absolutely starving the would be compelled to leave the altar, and then he would be able to seize her and make her his wife. But at this moment Perseus arrived at the island in his ship, and when he heard where his mother was, he went to her, and she told him everything, which made him very angry. The treacherous king heard that Perseus had come back, and he was afraid, and summoned his servants to go with him to the altar to kill Perseus. Then Perseus again drew forth the head of Medusa and turned them all to stone, and he gave the kingdom to the king's brother, who had always been kind to Danaë.

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Danaë had a great love for her father, although he had thrust her away from him, and as Perseus also wished very much to see his grandfather, they determined to pay him a visit, and they sailed with Andromeda to Argos in the ship that Cepheus had given them. But when the old Acrisius heard that his daughter and her son were coming, he was afraid, for he remembered what the Oracle had said, and he left the country, telling no one where he was going; so that when the ship reached Argos, Acrisius was not there. And as it happened that a rich king had lately died, and that games were to be celebrated in his honour, Perseus thought he would go and take part in these games, for anyone could go that liked, and those who did best would receive prizes by which their names would become known and honoured throughout Greece. Acrisius also went to the games, for he wanted to see what was going on, and he thought that there he would surely be safe from his grandson. No one knew who Perseus was, but he excelled all others and won the best prizes. One of the things they did was to try who could throw farthest a plate of stone called a discus. Perseus was just going to take his turn at throwing the discus, when it slipped out of his hand, and flying sideways, hit the old Acrisius on the head and killed him. Thus it happened that Acrisius was running to meet his fate at the very moment when he thought he was escaping from it. Perseus was very sorrowful when he heard that it was his grandfather, the king of Argos, whom he had killed accidentally, and he had the corpse brought to Argos and buried with great magnificence. The kingdom of Argos was now his, but he could never {103} forget that he had killed his grandfather, and this made the country so distasteful to him that he was glad to exchange with another king who ruled over the cities of Mycenae and Tiryns.

Perseus gave the three precious things by means of which he had obtained the head of Medusa, to Hermes, to be returned to the nymphs, and the Gorgon's head he presented to the goddess Athene, who fastened it to her shield. He lived honoured and esteemed to the end of his days, and his wife Andromeda bore him many beautiful children.

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