Adventures of Perseus

Adventures of Perseus
Son of Zeus & Danae
Set to sea to die
Kill Medusa
Defeat many Enemies
Slay Sea Monster
Save the Virgin
Marry the Virgin
Live happily ever after

Perseus came just
in time. Andromeda
was a daughter of
Cepheus and
Cassiopea. Perseus
found her bound to
a rock as a
sacrifice to a sea
monster. Perseus
rescued her after
killing the sea
monster so that she
might become his
wife.

See Bulfitch's and
Homers Account
below

BULFINCH

THE GRAEAE AND GORGONS.

THE Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from 
their birth, whence their name. The Gorgons were monstrous 
females with huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, 
and snaky hair. None of these beings make much figure in 
mythology except Medusa, the Gorgon, whose story we shall 
next advert to.

We mention them chiefly to introduce an ingenious theory 
of some modern writers, namely, that the Gorgons and Graeae 
were only personifications of the terrors of the sea, the 
former denoting the strong billows of the wide open main, 
and the latter the white-crested waves that dash against the 
rocks of the coast. Their names in Greek signify the above 
epithets.

PERSEUS AND MEDUSA.

Perseus was the son of Jupiter and Danae. His grandfather 
Acrisius, alarmed by an oracle which had told him that his 
daughter's child would be the instrument of his death, 
caused the mother and child to be shut up in a chest and set 
adrift on the sea.

The chest floated towards Seriphus, where it was found by 
a fisherman who conveyed the mother and infant to 
Polydectes, the king of the country, by whom they were 
treated with kindness.

When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt 
the conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid 
waste the country.

She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief 
glory but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva, the 
goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful 
ringlets into hissing serpents.

She became a cruel monster of so frightful an aspect that 
no living thing could behold her without being turned into 
stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen 
the stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to 
catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified with the 
sight.

Perseus, favoured by Minerva and Mercury, the former of 
whom lent him her shield and the latter his winged shoes, 
approached Medusa while she slept and taking care not to 
look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in 
the bright shield which he bore, he cut off her head and 
gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the middle of her AEgis.

Milton, in his "Comus," thus alludes to the AEgis:

"What thus snaky-headed Gorgon-shield
    That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
    Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
    But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
    And noble grace that dashed brute violence
    With sudden adoration and blank awe!"

Armstrong, the poet of the "Art of Preserving Health," 
thus describes the effect of frost upon the waters:

"Now blows the surly North and chills throughout
   The stiffening regions, while by stronger charms
   Than Circe e'er or fell Medea brewed,
   Each brook that wont to prattle to its banks
   Lies all bestilled and wedged betwixt its banks,
   Nor moves the withered reeds...
   The surges baited by the fierce North-east,
   Tossing with fretful spleen their angry heads,
   E'en in the foam of all their madness struck
   To monumental ice.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .
   Such execution,
   So stern, so sudden, wrought the grisly aspect
   Of terrible Medusa,
   When wandering through the woods she turned to stone
   Their savage tenants; just as the foaming Lion
   Sprang furious on his prey, her speedier power
   Outran his haste,
   And fixed in that fierce attitude he stands
   Like Rage in marble!"- Imitations of Shakespeare.

PERSEUS AND ATLAS.

After the slaughter of Medusa, Perseus, bearing with him 
the head of the Gorgon, flew far and wide, over land and 
sea. As night came on, he reached the western limit of the 
earth, where the sun goes down. Here he would gladly have 
rested till morning.

It was the realm of King Atlas, whose bulk surpassed that 
of all other men. He was rich iii flocks and herds and had 
no neighbour or rival to dispute his state. But his chief 
pride was in his gardens whose fruit was of gold, hanging 
from golden branches, half hid with golden leaves.

Perseus said to him, "I come as a guest. If you honour 
illustrious descent, I claim Jupiter for my father; if 
mighty deeds, I plead the conquest of the Gorgon. I seek 
rest and food."

But Atlas remembered that an ancient prophecy had warned 
him that a son of Jove should one day rob him of His golden 
apples. So he answered, "Begone! or neither your false 
claims of glory nor parentage shall protect you;" and he 
attempted to thrust him out.

Perseus, finding the giant too strong for him, said, 
"Since you value my friendship so little, deign to accept a 
present;" and turning his face away, he held up the Gorgon's 
head. Atlas, with all his bulk, was changed into stone.

His beard and hair became forests, his arms and shoulders 
cliffs, his head a summit, and his bones rocks. Each part 
increased in bulk till be became a mountain, and (such was 
the pleasure of the gods) heaven with all its stars rests 
upon his shoulders.

THE SEA-MONSTER.

Perseus, continuing his flight, arrived at the country of 
the AEthiopians, of which Cepheus was king. Cassiopeia his 
queen, proud of her beauty, had dared to compare herself to 
the Sea-nymphs, which roused their indignation to such a 
degree that they sent a prodigious sea-monster to ravage the 
coast.

To appease the deities, Cepheus was directed by the 
oracle to expose his daughter Andromeda to be devoured by 
the monster.

As Perseus looked down from his aerial height he beheld 
the virgin chained to a rock, and waiting the approach of 
the serpent.

She was so pale and motionless that if it had not been 
for her flowing tears and her hair that moved in the breeze, 
he would have taken her for a marble statue.

He was so startled at the sight that he almost forgot to 
wave his wings. As he hovered over her he said, "O virgin, 
undeserving of those chains, but rather of such as bind fond 
lovers together, tell me, I beseech you, your name, and the 
name of your country, and why you are thus bound."

At first she was silent from modesty, and, if she could, 
would have hid her face with her hands; but when he repeated 
his questions, for fear she might be thought guilty of some 
fault which she dared not tell, she disclosed her name And 
that of her country, and her mother's pride of beauty.

Before she had done speaking, a sound was heard off upon 
the water, and the sea-monster appeared, with his head 
raised above the surface, cleaving the waves with his broad 
breast.

The virgin shrieked, the father and mother who had now 
arrived at the scene, wretched both, but the mother more 
justly so, stood by, not able to afford protection, but only 
to pour forth lamentations and to embrace the victim.

Then spoke Perseus; "There will be time enough for 
tears; this hour is all we have for rescue. My rank as the 
son of Jove and my renown as the slayer of the Gorgon might 
make me acceptable as a suitor; but I will try to win her by 
services rendered, if the gods will only be propitious.

If she be rescued by my valour, I demand that she be my 
reward." The parents consent (how could they hesitate?) and 
promise a royal dowry with her.

And now the monster was within the range of a stone thrown 
by a skilful slinger, when with a sudden bound the youth 
soared into the air.

As an eagle, when from his lofty flight he sees a serpent 
basking in the sun, pounces upon him and seizes him by the 
neck to prevent him from turning his head round and using 
his fangs, so the youth darted down upon the back of the 
monster and plunged his sword into its shoulder.

Irritated by the wound, the monster raised himself into 
the air, then plunged into the depth; then, like a wild boar
surrounded by a pack of barking dogs, turned swiftly from 
side to side, while the youth eluded its attacks by means of 
his wings.

Wherever he can find a passage for his sword between the 
scales he makes a wound, piercing now the side, now the 
flank, as it slopes towards the tail.

The brute spouts from his nostrils water mixed with 
blood. The wings of the hero are wet with it, and he dares 
no longer trust to them.

Alighting on a rock which rose above the waves, and 
holding on by a projecting fragment, as the monster floated 
near he gave him a death stroke.

The people who had gathered on the shore shouted so that 
the hills reechoed with the sound. The parents, transported 
with joy, embraced their future son-in-law, calling him 
their deliverer and the saviour of their house, and the 
virgin, both cause and reward of the contest, descended from 
the rock.

Cassiopeia was an AEthiopian, and consequently, in spite 
of her boasted beauty, black; at least so Milton seems to 
have thought, who alludes to this story in his "Penseroso," 
where he addresses Melancholy as the

"...goddess, sage and holy,
      Whose saintly visage is too bright
      To hit the sense of human sight,
      And, therefore, to our weaker view,
      O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.
      Black, but such as in esteem
      Prince Memnon's sister might beseem.
      Or that starred AEthiop queen that strove
      To set her beauty's praise above
      The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended."

Cassiopeia is called "the starred AEthiop, queen" because 
after her death she was placed among the stars, forming the 
constellation of that name.

Though she attained this honour, yet the Sea-Nymphs, her 
old enemies, prevailed so far as to cause her to be placed 
in that part of the heaven near the pole, where every night 
she is half the time held with her head downward, to give 
her a lesson of humility.

Memnon was an AEthiopian prince, of whom we shall tell in 
a future chapter.

THE WEDDING FEAST.

The joyful parents, with Perseus and Andromeda, repaired 
to the palace, where a banquet was spread for them, and all 
was joy and festivity. But suddenly a noise was heard of 
warlike clamour, and Phineus, the betrothed of the virgin, 
with a party of his adherents, burst in, demanding the 
maiden as his own.

It was in vain that Cepheus remonstrated- "You should 
have claimed her when she lay bound to the rock, the 
monster's victim.

The sentence of the gods dooming her to such a fate 
dissolved all engagements, as death itself would have done." 
Phineus made no reply, but hurled his javelin at Perseus, 
but it missed its mark and fell harmless.

Perseus would have thrown his in turn, but the cowardly 
assailant ran and took shelter behind the altar. But his act 
was a signal for an onset by his hand upon the guests of 
Cepheus.

They defended themselves and a general conflict ensued, 
the old king retreating from the scene after fruitless 
expostulations, calling the gods to witness that he was 
guiltless of this outrage on the rights of hospitality.

Perseus and his friends maintained for some time the 
unequal contest; but the numbers of the assailants were too 
great for them, and destruction seemed inevitable, when a 
sudden thought struck Perseus,- "I will make my enemy defend 
me."

Then with a loud voice he exclaimed, "If I have any 
friend here let him turn away his eyes!" and held aloft the 
Gorgon's head.

"Seek not to frighten us with your jugglery," said 
Thescelus, and raised his javelin in the act to throw, and 
became stone in the very attitude.

Ampyx was about to plunge his sword into the body of a 
prostrate foe, but his arm stiffened and he could neither 
thrust forward nor withdraw it.

Another, in the midst of a vociferous challenge, stopped, 
his mouth open, but no sound issuing.

One of Perseus's friends, Aconteus, caught
sight of the Gorgon and stiffened like the rest. Astyages struck him
with his sword, but instead of wounding, it recoiled with a ringing
noise.

Phineus beheld this dreadful result of his unjust 
aggression, and felt confounded. He called aloud to his 
friends, but got no answer; he touched them and found them 
stone.

Falling on his knees and stretching out his hands to 
Perseus, but turning his head away, he begged for mercy. 
"Take all," said he, "give me but my life."

"Base coward," said Perseus, "thus much I will grant 
you; no weapon shall touch you; moreover, you shall be 
preserved in my house as a memorial of these events."

So saying, he held the Gorgon's head to the side where 
Phineus was looking, and in the very form which he knelt, 
with his hands outstretched and face averted, he became 
fixed immovably, a mass of stone!

The following allusion to Perseus is from Milman's "Samor":

"As 'mid the fabled Libyan bridal stood
    Perseus in stern tranquillity of wrath,
    Half stood, half floated on his ankle-plumes
    Out-swelling, while the bright face on his shield
    Looked into stone the raging fray; so rose,
    But with no magic arms, wearing alone
    Th' appalling and control of his firm look,
    The Briton Samor; at his rising awe
    Went abroad, and the riotous hall was mute."

--Bulfinch CHAPTER XV.

HOMER
Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

(ll. 216-237) There, too, was the son of rich-haired Danae, 
the horseman Perseus: his feet did not touch the shield and 
yet were not far from it -- very marvelous to remark, 
since he was not supported anywhere; for so did the famous 
Lame One fashion him of gold with his hands.

On his feet he had winged sandals, and his black-sheathed 
sword was slung across his shoulders by a cross- belt of 
bronze.

He was flying swift as thought.

The head of a dreadful monster, the Gorgon, covered the 
broad of his back, and a bag of silver -- a marvel to see 
-- contained it: and from the bag bright tassels of gold 
hung down.

Upon the head of the hero lay the dread cap (4) of Hades 
which had the awful gloom of night.

Perseus himself, the son of Danae, was at full stretch, 
like one who hurries and shudders with horror.

And after him rushed the Gorgons, unapproachable and 
unspeakable, longing to seize him: as they trod upon the 
pale adamant, the shield rang sharp and clear with a loud 
clanging.

Two serpents hung down at their girdles with heads curved 
forward: their tongues were flickering, and their teeth 
gnashing with fury, and their eyes glaring fiercely.

And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons great Fear was 
quaking.

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