Perseus is one of the oldest Greek heroes, in myth the founder of Mycenae and ancestor of Heracles. His most famous deed is killing Medusa, the snake-haired Gorgon.
The shower of gold
King Acrisius of Argos learned from an oracle that he would be killed by a son of his daughter Danaë. So he locked her in a bronze chamber, but Zeus reached her as a shower of gold, and Perseus was born. The frightened king shut mother and child in a chest and threw it into the sea. The chest washed up on the island of Seriphos, where a fisherman, Dictys, took them in.
An impossible challenge
Years later, the king of Seriphos, Polydectes, wanted to marry Danaë against her will and, to get rid of Perseus, challenged him to bring back the head of Medusa. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, the only mortal one: she had snakes for hair and anyone who looked into her eyes turned to stone.
The gifts of the gods
Perseus was helped by Athena and Hermes. He received:
- a gleaming bronze shield, from Athena;
- a sharp sickle, from Hermes;
- from the nymphs, winged sandals, a magic bag and the helmet of Hades, which makes its wearer invisible.
To learn where to find the nymphs he questioned the Graeae, three old sisters who shared a single eye and a single tooth: Perseus snatched the eye as they passed it between them and returned it only in exchange for the information.
The killing of Medusa
Reaching the Gorgons' lair while they slept, Perseus did not look at Medusa directly but watched her reflection in the shield and cut off her head with the sickle. From Medusa's neck sprang the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor. Perseus put the head in the bag and fled invisible, chased by Medusa's sisters.
Andromeda
On the way home, on the coast of Ethiopia, he saw a girl chained to a rock: Andromeda, offered to a sea monster to appease Poseidon, offended by her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, who had boasted of being more beautiful than the Nereids. Perseus killed the monster, freed Andromeda and married her.
The return
On Seriphos, Perseus found his mother persecuted by Polydectes: he drew Medusa's head from the bag and turned the king and his court to stone. He then gave the head to Athena, who set it on her aegis. The oracle came true all the same: during a discus contest, a throw by Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather Acrisius in the crowd.
See also monsters and Bellerophon and Pegasus.