Perseus, a popular hero of Greek myths, acquired particular fame for his two heroic deeds - the victory over the Gorgon Medusa and the liberation of Andromeda. The myths tell that the grandfather of Perseus, king Acrisius, was predicted to die at the hand of his grandson. Acrisius imprisoned his daughter Dana¸ in a copper tower, but Zeus visited her in the form of a shower of golden rain and in a due time Dana¸ gave birth to a son. When Acrisius heard the yell of a new-born baby he ordered to put Dana¸ and her son in a chest and cast it into the sea. But the gods saved the son of Zeus - the waves brought the chest to the coast of the Island of Seriphus. Dictys, a fisherman, who had found Dana¸ and Perseus, brought up the boy in his house. The king Polydectes having fallen in love with Dana¸ decided to send Perseus to kill the Gorgon Medusa and demanded to bring her head.

The gods advised Perseus to go to the remote countries to see the Graeae, three sisters who had one eye and one tooth between them and took them in turn. Perseus took possession of both the eye and the tooth and exchanged them for the secret, guarded by the Graeae. They showed him the way to the nymphs who had winged sandals, a cap that would make anybody invisible and a magic bag.

Athena provided Perseus with a shield polished like a mirror and wisely advised him how to avoid the magic gaze of Medusa turning everybody who looked at her into stone. She told him to watch the reflection of the Gorgon on the shield. Hermes gave Perseus a sharp sword. So Perseus flew to the land's end where Medusa with her Gorgon sisters lived. He managed to cut off the Medusa's head, to hide it in his bag and disappear from the sight of the Gorgon sisters with the help of the cap of darkness. When he flew across the sea he beheld Andromeda, daughter of the Ethiopian king Cepheus, chained to a rock. A terrible sea-monster ready to tear her to pieces was rising from the bottom of the sea. Poseidon sent the sea-monster to devastate Ethiopia in order to take revenge on the queen Cassiopeia for boasting that her daughter was more beautiful than all the Nereids. It was Andromeda, as the oracle said, who could be sacrificed to the monster and to stop it from devastating the land of Cepheus. Perseus defeated him and married Andromeda.

When Perseus returned to Seriphus, he protected his mother from the claims of Polydectes by turning him into stone by means of Medusa's head. The brother of Polydectes Dictys became the ruler of the island.

The head of Medusa was presented by Perseus to Athena who put it on her aegis. The prediction of the oracle to the king Acrisius came true - during a discus-throwing gymnastic tournament Perseus badly wounded Acrisius. The wound turned to be fatal.

Perseus in Flight
2nd-3rd centuries
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Breastplate with the head of Medusa
4th century B.C.
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Perseus and Andromeda
Anton Raphael Mengs
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Plate with Perseus and Andromeda
Between 1535 and 1540
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