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The Oracle
King Acrisius has a beautiful daughter, Danae, but he wanted a son, so he travels to the Oracle of Delphi to see if he would ever have one. The Oracle tells him no, and brings even graver news: Danae would soon bear a son that would kill Acrisius. -
Imprisonment
In order to try and prevent his own foretold death, King Acrisius locks away his daughter in a bronze box, where he hopes that she will live the rest of her life in detatchment. He does not want to outright kill her, because the wrath of the gods would be unleashed on him then for murdering his own kindred, but he believes that if he keeps her improsined that he will avoid the Oracle's prophecy. -
Raining Gold
Zeus notices this lovely maiden locked away in a box, and what better than the most beautiful of the lands to be trapped with nothing to do? Zeus enters the box in the form of raining gold, and magically, Danae becomes pregnant with a son. -
Analysis
Zeus was pretty much the biggest man whore of ancient Greece. The scale at which he got involved with women can't even really be compared to anything else. So of course he was going to "pay a vist" to Danae, who was one of the loveliest ladies of all the land (like every other woman in Greek myths), the temptation would simply be too great for Zeus to deny. -
Birth of a Hero
Being that Danae was trapped in a small box with nothing put a window, it did not take long for the king to discover that she had a son. Outraged, he asked her who the father was, but Acrisius did not believe her when she said it was Zeus. Rather than run the risk of angering the gods for killing the child, he instead locks away both in a chest and sets it off to sea, hoping both would parish. -
An Unlikely Rescue
Danae and her son, Perseus, eventually wash up on land and are discovered by Dictys, a kind fisherman. Perhaps it was Zeus, pitying his son, or even maybe Poseidon, who saved the mother and the boy. In any case, the fisherman's wife was just as kind as her husband and they took the two in to be cared for. There, the mother and son lived for a couple of years and Perseus was trained in the fisherman's trade. -
Tyranny
A cruel ruler of the area, Polydectes (Dictys brother), eventually discovers Danae. Danae, though a couple years older now, was still very much beautiful, and he desired to have her as his wife. However, Polydectes did not want Danae's son Perseus, so he subtlely challenges the man with an impossible task: to kill a Gorgon. Perseus accepts, believing that he'd bring the greatest wedding gift of all, and sets out to kill Medusa. -
An Impossible Quest
As Perseus sets off in his impossible mission, the gods favor him and come to give him aid. Hermes provides for him the winged sandles and a magic sword that can cut through the Gorgon's tough hide. Athena also provides help for Perseus by giving him a mirrored shield so that he doesn't have to directly look at Medusa to avoid becoming stone. Finally, the two give him the cap of invisibility and directions to where the nymphs are. -
Analysis
Being a man in Greece was showing that you could be a man, and that meant taking on impossible odds. It's not surprise that Perseus eagirly took up the king's challenge to get Medusa's head, as no one else had done it before. Either you die trying and have a somewhat honorable death, or you walk away or deny the challenge as a coward and lose your right as a man. -
Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye
Hermes leads Perseus to the nymphs, who have information as to where the Gorgons are located. However, he must wait until the nymphs pass their one eye to another. As this is done, Perseus snatches it and asks for the information in return of the eye. The nymphs eagerly give him where the Gorgons are located and he return the eye. -
Analysis
As far as most "boss" battles go in Ancient Greece, this one is surprisingly flat. Though Perseus faced a great challenge to slay the Gorgon without looking at her, she was alseep and he made an easy escape with his sandles and cap. I'm actually rather shocked that it wasn't more action packed or that the myth didn't have a "fight scene" as many other Greek myths normally do. -
Slaying the Beast
Fortunately for Perseus, the three Gorgons were all asleep, and Medusa was seperate from the other two. Using his mirrored shield, he swung out at Medusa and with the help of Athena's guiding hand, slayed the creature. He put the head of Medusa into the magic wallet and flew away with the flying sandels, unseen by the other two Gorgons because of the invisible cap. -
A Wife
As Perseus flew back, he came acrossed Ethiopia which was being savaged by a sea serpent, eating everyone. A beautiful woman was offered as a sacrifice, Andromeda, at the suggestion of the Oracle. Using the head of Medusa, Perseus turned the sea serpent to stone and saved Andromeda, taking her as his wife. Together, the two continued to fly back. -
Hide and Seek
Upon Perseus' return, he discovered that his mother Danae and the fisherman that was like a father to him, Dictys, had gone into hiding from the king because Danae refused to marry him. Perseus soon learned that the king and many of his loyal men were meeting at the palace, so he came to them and showed them Medusa's heading, turning them to stone and freeing the people from tyranny. -
A Turn of Events
Dictys becomes king of the island and Perseus finds Danae. Danae decides to go back to Greece though, with Perseus and Andromeda, in hopes of being reconciled. Upon reaching Argos, the trio found out that Acrisius had been driven away. -
Fate
The King of Larissa, in the North, was holding an athletic's contest and Perseus wanted to partake, so he journeyed there. In a discus throwing event, Perseus hurled the disc and it swerved into the spectators, hitting an elderly man. The man ended up being Acrisius, who was visiting the king. The blow killed him instantly and the Oracle's prophecy became true. -
Analysis
A strange twist of irony at the end of the story that Acrisius did indeed get killed by his grandson as the Oracle foretold, and in a rather embaressing fashion at that. It shows that the Greeks still had a strong sense of humor, and liked a good laugh just as much as they did their gods and art. -
Epilogue
It was unknown whether or not Perseus knew that it was Acrisius that he had accidently killed, but if he did know it was him, Perseus also knew that Acrisius tried very hard for him and his mother to die. Perseus and Andromeda ended up living happily for several years, and their son, Electryon, would be the grandfather to Hercules.