Perseus

(Slayer of Medusa And Did A Lot Of Other Stuff)
This is I, Tommy, telling the only myth on Perseus that there is. And I am going to tell it as a choose-your-own-adventure story: Pick a number that's from 1-4. As you read the story, when there are several options, choose the one that corresponds to your number. If you want to know all different versions, go back to the beginning, take a new number, and start again.

So, King Acrisius of Argos learned from the oracle that his grandson would kill him. So he locks up his daughter, Danae, in a tower, to prevent anyone from making her pregnant. However, walls block only humans. Zeus entered the tower as a golden rain shower, and of course had fallen in love with Danae and wanted to make her happy. This eventually or immediatly meant having sex and giving birth to Perseus. Then King Acrisius found Danae pregnant with the baby she had named Perseus, and locked her in a box or casket of some kind and threw her into the sea. She drifted through the sea until …

1. A fisherman named Dictys, who is also the brother of King Polydectes of Seriphos, finds them and takes them in, and King Polydectes eventually hears of them.

2. King Polydectes of Seriphus finds them and takes them in.

3 & 4. A fisherman found them and took them to the palace of King Polydectes where he is delighted to take care of them.

Perseus grows into a strong and capable young man, but then Polydectes...

1. Polydectes always wanted Danae, but she always said no, and now Perseus was blocking him.

2 & 4. Wants to get with Danae now, but can’t use his power on her because Perseus is protecting his mother and standing in the way.

3. Gets tired of Perseus and wishes he would go away.

Then…

1. Polydectes pretends to have his daughter marry someone, and invites the entire kingdom to a banquet, as long as they bring a gift. Perseus is poor and empty-handed, and Polydectes gets his temper up, and then sends Perseus to bring back Medusa’s head while Perseus in angry and not really knowing what he’s doing.

2 & 3. Polydectes sends Perseus on a quest to kill Medusa and bring back her head.

4. Polydectes invites all the young men of the kingdom to feast, and the men were expected to bring gifts. Perseus offers to do any feat of Polydectes’ choice in exchange, and Polydectes tells him to bring back the head of Medusa.

Now Perseus is in for it. Medusa used to be a beautiful woman and Poseidon’s girlfriend, until they had sex in Athena’s temple and Athena changed Medusa into a gorgon as punishment, so Medusa now was a monster that had snakes for hair and could turn someone into stone with a glance and/or also… 1. Had 2 sisters who were also gorgons, and had bronzed hands...

4. And also tusks like a pig, brass scales on her neck, and huge wings.

So Perseus set on his quest and…

1. Wandered for days, finally realizing the insanity of the quest, and meant Athena and Hermes.

2. Meant Athena and Hermes and took their advice on the quest.

3. Athena called upon Hades and Hermes to help Perseus along with her.

4. Zeus sent Athena and Hermes to help Perseus on what he realized was a desperate quest.

Perseus then did the part of the quest that is possibly the most debated. He…

1. Received Hermes’ sandals, the scythe used by Kronos to kill Ouranos, and Athena’s mirror-like shield, and directions to go to the cave of the Graeae, who were a trio of aged sisters that had only one eye and one tooth and shared it between them. Remember that. Perseus hid and then jumped out as they were passing the eye around and threatened to not give the eye back unless they told him where the Nymphs of the North were. They told him reluctantly where, and Perseus gave back the eye and went to the Nymphs of the North, who gave him a cap of darkness to make him invisible and a magic wallet to hold the head of Medusa, and told him where the gorgons were.

2. Hermes took him to the Graeae, and Perseus took the eye and the tooth. The Graeae agreed to help him with his quest and helped him get a pair of winged sandals, a bag, and Hades’ helmet of invisibility, and then Perseus went to where Medusa lived.

3. Hermes gave Perseus his winged sandals, Hades gave him his cap of invisibility, and Athena gave him her unbreakable shield. Perseus went to the Graeae’s cave and got their eye, feeling sorry, but he asked for directions and the Graeae told him which direction and where to go.

4. Hermes gave Perseus a powerful sword, and Athena gave him her shield, then Hermes took Perseus to the Nymphs of the North, where Perseus gained a pair of winged sandals, a magic bag, and a cap of invisibility, and then Perseus flew to the gorgons’ home.

Perseus finally arrives at the home of the gorgon Medusa, a island with bones of victims and statues of men and a cave where Medusa slept. Perseus waited until she was asleep, and then approached her, looking at her reflection in the shield, and cut off her head. He then grabbed the head or put it in whatever package he had, and…

1. Flew off, avoiding injury from Medusa’s sisters, and flew back to the island of Polydectes, meeting Atlas on the way(Atlas was the titan forced to carry the sky). Perseus felt sorry for Atlas and turned him into stone so he wouldn’t feel the burden.

2. Flew off, meant Atlas, had a struggle with Atlas, then turned Atlas into stone.

3. Flew off and tried to get food and rest from a king named Atlas. Atlas refused and Perseus turned him into stone.

4. Saw Pegasus, the winged horse, fly up from inside Medusa’s neck, and took Pegasus for his steed to escape Medusa's sisters.

Now comes my favorite part. Perseus is flying over a land, or over the Kingdom of Ethiopia, and sees the princess Andromeda chained to a rock far from the shore. Perseus flies down on whatever flying thing he’s using and asks her why she is chained to the rock. Andromeda tells him, and apparently her mother, Queen Cassopeia, bragged that her daughter was more beautiful then the Nereids, the spirits of the sea. That made the Nereids mad and either asked Poseidon to send a sea serpent to terrorize the kingdom or did it themselves. King Cepheus and Queen Cassopeia consulted the oracle and learned that they must sacrifice their daughter to appease the monster. The sea serpent is bearing down at them, and Perseus defeats the monster…

1 & 2. By lifting up Medusa’s head and turning it to stone or

3 & 4. By killing it with his sword,

Perseus carries Andromeda back to her parents, and then…

1 & 3. Asks if he may marry Andromeda, and the king and queen say yes.

2. Marries Andromeda, and at the wedding feast Andromeda’s former husband-to-be, named Phineus, demands his bride back. Notice that he didn’t try to save Andromeda from the monster because he was a coward. Perseus then fights him and uses Medusa’s head to turn him and his followers to stone.

4. The king and queen welcome the couple, but Andromeda’s nameless former fiancé arrives with armed followers/ The king and queen give in to his protests, but Perseus turns them into stone.

Following this, Perseus flew with Andromeda back to his homeland, and drops of blood dropped from Medusa’s head, falling on the sand of Africa and turning into poisonous snakes. He arrived home, and…

1. He was meant by Dictys the fisherman, who told him Polydectes had made Danae his handmaiden since she wouldn’t marry him. Perseus went to the palace and turned everyone but his friends and Danae into stone.

2. Polydectes was still trying to get with Danae, and Perseus used the head on him. Perseus returned the gifts to Hermes and gave Medusa’s head to Athena, who emblazoned it onto her shield.

3. Perseus returned his gifts to their appropriate gods.

4. Perseus found the fisherman and Danae in hiding from Polydectes, and Perseus entered the palace and turned Polydectes and his friends to stone.

So Andromeda and Perseus lived a boring happily ever after, except

1. Perseus had stopped on the way back to Polydectes’ kingdom to participate in some games in Larisa. While throwing a discus, he accidentally killed his grandfather, Acrisius, who was sitting nearby. After mourning, they moved on. After Perseus turned Polydectes into stone, he and Andromeda lived as king and queen and birthed many heroes, Herakles among them.

2 & 3. Perseus returned to Acrisius’ kingdom and accidentally kills his grandfather while throwing the discus.

4. Perseus refused to replace Polydects as king and returned to Argos, his birthplace. Acrisius fled, and Perseus became king. Perseus competed in games of physical prowess all over Greece in the years following, and killed Acrisius in one of these games while throwing the discus.

And more or less, that is the tale of Perseus.

My interpretation of how the tale was used was probably used for drama shows as entertainment, or as a story for kids. Perseus and other heroes were probably used by parents as idols for their children, I think. You could tell them the tale and then say something like “Eat your broccoli, do you want to grow up and become as strong as Perseus?”

The tale gives explanations for poisonous snakes, the Atlas mountains in Africa, possibly statues of people found on the road that no one owned, and in one version, it introduced Pegasus into the mythology, to be later used by Bellerphon against the chimera.

My interpretation of what the tale was trying to teach was: Live up to the hero code, exhibit the qualities of a hero, punish the wrong and injust, and respect the gods.

__ Bibliography __

__Perseus__, December 28, 2010 []

Hunter, James. __Perseus.__ 1997, March 3 []

Authors Not Listed, __A Children’s Treasury Of Mythology__. Hong Kong, Barnes & Noble Books: 1994

Love, Ann and Drake, Jane __The Kids Book Of the Night Sky: The Adventures of Perseus__. Ontario: Kids Can Press, 2004.