perseus and medusa
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Let's start with the birth of the mighty hero Perseus. It all began when there was a prophecy about the King of Argos, Acrisius, that said his grandson would be his end. So, fear overcame him, and he locked his only daughter Danae in a prison, and she stayed there, being fed meals through the door.
But Zeus fell in love with her, and so he took the form of golden rain, got in the prison and seduced the young princess. She gave birth to a son, on she named Perseus.
The King heard the sound of the baby crying, and he realised what had happened, but he could not kill the child, as he was the son of Zeus, and no one wanted to anger him. So, he placed Danae and Perseus into a chest and pushed the chest out to see, letting the sea do whatever it wished.
Zeus asked his brother Poseidon to calm the sea, and he did. Days later, the chest washed up on the shore of an island called Serifos. And a fisherman by the name of Dictys, brother to the King, took them into his home.
Perseus grew to be a strong, handsome young man and was kind. His mother Danae, was still a beautiful woman despite no longer being in her youth, and the king, Polydectes wanted her for himself, but he knew that because of Perseus she would never want to be married, and so he began thinking of how to rid himself of the young man.
So, he challenged Perseus, and the boy accepted without knowing the true danger. He was to kill the Gorgon Medusa, and bring her head back.
Polydectes did not know how much Perseus meant to the Gods, and so to help the young man, the Gods sent down gifts. Hermes gave him a curved sword and winged sandals.Athena gave him a mirror of polished bronze to see the Gorgon in, and a cap from Hades would make him invisible.
Perseus found Medusa in her cave, and he flew around with the sandals, and used the mirror to avoid looking in her eyes and being turned to stone. He approached her, still invisible and making sure to look in the mirror, and chopped her head off using the sword given to him by Hermes.
On his way back, Perseus passed Ethiopia, and there he found the beautiful princess Andromeda, chained to the rocks to be devoured by a sea monster. She was the daughter of king Cepheus and queen Cassiopeia. The queen had bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids.
Poseidon had been furious, and had sent a se monster to ravage and attack the coast and the land of Ethiopia. Cepheus asked for help from Zeus, so suggested that perhaps sacrificing Andromeda would appease Poseidon.
Perseus fell in love with the maiden, and killed the sea monster, before bringing Andromeda to her father and asking for her hand in marriage. But, she was already promised to her uncle, who was furious at this. Her uncle Phineus quarrelled with the boy, and Perseus turned him into stone using the head of Medusa.
Now, happily married to Andromeda, Perseus returned to Serifos to find Polydectes still lusting after his mother. So, using the head of Medusa, he turned Polydectes into stone, and his mother was thus freed.
Then, he travelled back home to Argos, and found that his grandfather's brother Proetus had overthrown his grandfather Acrisius. So, yet again, he used the head of Medusa, this time on Proetus, and he restored Acrisius as the rightful ruler.
But, as he told of his tale and how he had aquired the head, the king did not believe his tale and called him a liar. So, Perseus took the head out and fulfilled the prophecy that Acrisius would die at his grandson's hands.
With that, he returned what he had received from the gods, and gave the head of Medusa to Athena, who embossed it onto her bronze shield.