Since Medusa was the only Gorgon who was capable of being killed, it was her head that Perseus was going to seek. But there was one, huge problem: anyone who looked at Medusa would instantly be turned into stone. So how could anyone kill her without dying before he could complete the mission?
Fortunately for Perseus, however, Athena already hated Medusa for the reason why, see Poseidon , so Athena decided to help Perseus kill her. First, Athena helped Perseus find the Graeae. The Graeae were three old sisters, who shared a single eye between them. The Graeae did not want to help Perseus, but he managed to steal their eye as they were passing it from one to another; Perseus refused to give back the eye until they helped him, so they agreed.
The Graeae told Perseus about some nymphs and where to find them. As Perseus was flying home on his winged sandals, Perseus passed by Ethiopia or in some versions, Phoenicia and he saw a beautiful girl, Andromeda, who was the princess of the land, chained to a rocky cliff and about to be devoured by a sea-serpent. The stories of the legendary heroes were designed to fit into a predictable pattern. The circumstances of their births were what allowed them to outshine more ordinary people.
As the sons of gods, these men were granted attributes such as exceptional strength. Their mothers, too, played a role in legitimizing them as heroes. These princesses also gave them a claim to material wealth and power. What distinguished the heroes from ordinary princes, however, was that they had to earn this power. They did so by defeating a monster, an act that both demonstrated strength and courage and had important symbolic meaning. The monsters of ancient Greece often embodied real threats that existed in the world.
They were extreme examples of the dangers faced in daily life. In defeating these creatures, the heroes symbolically made the world safer and easier to manage. The dangers of the sea that Medusa represented still existed, but they no longer actively hunted down those that faced them. The heroes also often defeated an earthly power, usually in the form of a usurping uncle or cousin. In doing so, they restored the natural order of rightful inheritance that made society, as the Greeks saw it, stable and able to flourish.
This also allowed the heroes to be incorporated into local legends. As the founding kings of their cities, or the father of those kings, they legitimized the state and its rulers by giving a direct link to both the legendary past and the gods.
The heroes of ancient Greece were often venerated in hero cults, which had their own shrines and rites. While most were believed to have been human, they were thought to have a special position in the afterlife that allowed them to still be aware of the affairs of the living world.
The story of Perseus fit all of these standards for the portrayal of the heroic in Greek mythology, but he also influenced later views of the hero. Because of their position, the heroes were idealized, but that did not mean that they exhibited virtues that the modern world would find laudable. Hercules, for example, was a notorious womanizer and Theseus abandoned Ariadne after they eloped.
Perseus, however, more closely resembled the type of man that later readers would find heroic. His story, more than that of any other Greek hero, influenced the modern heroic ideal.
After killing the Gorgon, Perseus rescued Princess Andromeda, who had been offered as a sacrifice to appease a sea monster. This is the earliest example of what would become a common motif in heroic tales, the rescue of the damsel in distress. By killing Polydictes and his men, Perseus ensured the safety of his mother.
Perseus was not the only hero to father several children, Hercules was said to have dozens, but unlike his great-grandson he was by all accounts loyal to his wife and their marriage was not marred by later disaster, betrayal, or trauma. Once Perseus had reached the cave, he found Medusa asleep and took the opportunity to attack. He used the winged sandals to fly so that his steps could not be heard and used the shield to look at Medusa without exposing himself to her murderous stare.
He used the adamantine sword to behead her. He acquiesced and did this by flooding the land and sending Cetus, a sea monster, to ravage it. The princess was chained naked to a rock and was left there to for Cetus to devour her. He immediately fell in love with her and wanted to rescue her. He then married Andromeda married and they left together to Sisipho.
Perseus used the head of Medusa and turned him into stone to make him pay. He freed his mother and made Dictys the new king and consort of Danae. Athena placed the head on her shield, where it became known as the Gorgoneion. Perseus returned to Argos, but when Acrisius found out that his grandson was returning, he fled in fear, not knowing what his intentions were. There are at least three different variations of how Perseus fulfilled the prophecy and killed Acrisius. Perseus competed in the discuss throw, but the discuss accidently struck and killed Acrisius, who had been in hiding from Perseus in Larissa.
Of is offspring, Perses went on to become the founder of the Persians, while the others ruled in various capacities. Perseus was a popular figure in art, often depicted in paintings and sculptures. In the 21st Century, the image of Perseus has been used repeatedly in novels, series, and movies. When Zeus saw what happened he asked his brother Poseidon to calm the sea and the chest was flown to the island of Seriphos , where fisherman Dictys found it and took Danae and Perseus to his home.
The fisherman helped Perseus to become a healthy youth, teaching him all about fishing and life. After Perseus was reaching manhood, things got complicated when king Polydectes, a brother of Dictys, fell in love with Danae and wanted to marry her.
After unsuccessful courting and consecutive denial by Danae, Polydectes thought that Perseus is the main obstacle for their marriage. The king therefore sent Perseus on a quest to bring the head of Medusa, thinking it would be his doom. Medusa was once a woman with beautiful hair who had sexual intercourse with Poseidon in a temple of Athena. In revenge for the desecration of her temple, Athena turned all three sisters into gorgons.
Perseus was favoured by the gods and A thena instructed him to find Hesperides who were entrusted with the item needed to defeat the Gorgon. The hero first had to find Graeae , three old women, who shared a single eye, in order to convince them to reveal the Hesperides whereabouts. As the women passed the eye from one to another, with the intention to take a closer look at the handsome young man, Perseus snatched it from them and was holding it for a ransom in return for the location of the Hesperides.
This being their only way to see things, they had no choice but tell him about the location. Later, when the hero finally found Atlas' daughters, they gave him kibsis , the only sack able to contain the head of Medusa. To increase his chances of defeating the monster, Zeus borrowed him a curved sword and Hades ' helm of darkness. Hermes lent him a pair of winged sandals , while Athena borrowed him a polished bronze shield , to serve him as a reflection to be able to see Medusa indirectly and not get turned into stone.
Perseus, fully equipped with divine items, proceeded to the lair of Medusa which was believed to be somewhere in the lands of present Liberia. He had flown silently into the cave and put on the helm of darkness which made him invisible.
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