Banished from Argos just before he was born (on account of an ominous prophecy), Perseus grew up on the distant island. When he came of age, he was despatched to kill the Gorgon Medusa, a monster whose gaze turned all who looked upon her to stone.

The wedding of Perseus and Andromeda was disturbed, even so, from the arrival of her uncle Phineus, who had initially been engaged to Andromeda. A quarrel erupted. Eventually, Perseus turned Phineus and his supporters to stone by exhibiting Medusa’s head.

Not all historical sources interpreted The parable of Medusa pretty much. Based on Athenaeus, a Greek creator who lived in the late next and early third generations CE, the Gorgons ended up prolonged-haired beasts, so terrifying that each one who looked on them had been paralyzed and killed.[26]

Medusa, the daughter of the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, was one of the most feared on the Gorgons. It absolutely was explained that anybody who appeared right at her was right away turned to stone. Medusa was normally depicted as a terrifying winged feminine with snakes rather than hair.

Homer: Medusa just isn't named inside the eighth-century BCE epics the Iliad along with the Odyssey, but Each time Athena marches into battle, she is said to hold The top in the Gorgon on her armor.

The etymology of Perseus’ identify is obscure. An historic people etymology linked the identify “Perseus” Using the Persians, as he was at times mentioned to are already their ancestor.[1]

As Perseus built his way property, he passed by Ethiopia. There, he witnessed a wierd and awful scene: a beautiful young girl was bound bare to a rock, looking forward to a sea monster to arise within the depths and devour her. Cassiopeia, the queen of Ethiopia, experienced boasted that she was more stunning as opposed to fifty daughters of the sea deity Nereus.

Perseus married Andromeda, an Jap princess. Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, had offended The ocean gods by boasting of her possess attractiveness; as punishment for this arrogance, she was created to sacrifice her daughter for the gods.

Perseus was even now armed Together with the divine weapons the gods experienced offered him for his fight with Medusa: a helmet of invisibility, an adamantine sword, and winged sandals.

Perseus was sent to kill Medusa by Polydectes, the king of Seriphos (Polydectes needed the young person outside of the image so he could marry his mother Danae). The king believed that Perseus could be killed on his mission, because Medusa was a awful Gorgon whose gaze turned people today to stone.

Chained to your rock and still left about the seashore, Andromeda might have been killed had it not been for Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, who handed by at just the appropriate instant.

The serpentine locks of Medusa’s hair experienced an effect very similar to that of The top: while they did not essentially flip persons to stone, they could scatter complete armies. A person this kind of lock was from time to time stated to safeguard the Greek town of Tegea.[23]

Aeneas brought the statuette to Italy, and it at some point arrived to reside during the Temple of Vesta. In accordance with legend, so long as Minerva’s token resided in the temple’s halls, the town of Rome would hardly ever be conquered.

These are most effective remembered for website the 1 eye and a single tooth they shared. In Disney’s Hercules, this facet of their myth is extended towards the three Fates, who, such as the Graeae, need to also share an individual eye.

Nevertheless not as amazing as his godlike 50 %-brother, Iphicles was a hero in his personal suitable, collaborating while in the Calydonian Boar Hunt and accompanying Heracles on a handful of his exploits.