Perseus / Perseus
Hero who slew Medusa and rescued Andromeda
Perseus was the greatest Greek hero before Heracles, the demigod son of Zeus and the princess Danae. Armed with gifts from the gods, he beheaded the Gorgon Medusa and rescued the princess Andromeda from a sea monster.
How they were born
Perseus was born to Danae, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. An oracle had warned Acrisius that his grandson would kill him, so he locked Danae in a bronze chamber, but Zeus visited her as a shower of gold and she bore Perseus. Acrisius set mother and baby adrift in a wooden chest, and the chest washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where the kind fisherman Dictys took them in and raised the boy.
The greatest stories
The Slaying of Medusa
When Perseus grew up, King Polydectes of Seriphos, who wanted to marry Danae, tricked him into promising to fetch the head of Medusa, the one mortal Gorgon, whose gaze turned people to stone. Athena and Hermes guided him: he stole the single shared eye of the three Graeae to force them to show him the way, and received winged sandals, a cap of invisibility, a mirrored shield, and a curved sword. Finding the Gorgons asleep, he looked only at Medusa's reflection in his shield and cut off her head, and from her neck sprang the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor. He slipped the head into his bag and escaped unseen while her immortal sisters woke and searched the sky in vain.
The Rescue of Andromeda
Flying home over Ethiopia, Perseus saw a beautiful girl chained to a rock by the sea. It was Andromeda, whose mother Cassiopeia had boasted she was fairer than the sea nymphs, so Poseidon sent a flood and a sea monster, and an oracle demanded the princess as its meal. Perseus promised her parents he would kill the monster if he could marry her, then fought the beast as it rose from the waves, killing it with his sword, or in some versions turning it to stone with Medusa's head. He freed Andromeda, married her, and at the wedding feast turned her former suitor Phineus and his men to stone when they attacked him.
Polydectes Turned to Stone
Back on Seriphos, Perseus found that Polydectes had been threatening Danae while he was away. He walked into the king's hall, announced that he had kept his promise, and held up the head of Medusa. Polydectes and his courtiers turned to stone on the spot. Perseus gave the head to Athena, who set it on her shield, gave the kingdom to the good fisherman Dictys, and sailed home to Greece with Andromeda.
The Prophecy Fulfilled and the Founding of Mycenae
Perseus returned to Argos to make peace with his grandfather Acrisius, but the old king had fled to Larissa to avoid the prophecy. At games held there, Perseus threw a discus that veered off course and struck Acrisius dead, fulfilling the oracle by accident. Ashamed to take the throne of the man he had killed, Perseus exchanged kingdoms with his cousin and founded a new city, Mycenae, which would become one of the greatest cities of the Greek Bronze Age and the home of his descendants, including Heracles.
Family & connections
Symbol, animal & weapon
Fun facts
- Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and the sea monster Cetus were all placed among the stars as constellations, so the whole rescue story can still be seen in the night sky.
- Drops of Medusa's blood that fell on the Libyan desert as Perseus flew home were said to have become the venomous snakes of Libya.
- Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa in Florence was cast in a single pour in 1554, a feat the sculptor proudly described in his autobiography.
- Perseus is the great-grandfather of Heracles: his son Alcaeus was the father of Amphitryon, the mortal father of Heracles.
Gallery — sculpture & art
