Beheaded the snake-haired Gorgon by watching her reflection in a shield
Athena's polished shield let him strike without meeting a gaze that turned men to stone
Myth · Greek
Perseus
Greek mythology — hero, founder of Mycenae
The hero who killed the Gorgon. Begotten by Zeus in a shower of gold on Danaë, who had been shut in a bronze chamber by her father, he was cast adrift as a baby and grew up on Seriphos. Equipped by the gods with winged sandals, a cap of invisibility, a sickle-sword and a mirroring shield, he beheaded the only mortal Gorgon, rescued Andromeda from a sea-monster and founded Mycenae. He and most of his family ended up in the night sky.
How to spot them
- ▸Winged sandals, the cap of darkness, a curved harpe sword and a polished bronze shield
- ▸Carries a severed snake-haired head in a leather bag, the kibisis
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Danaë', 'shower of gold', 'Seriphos', 'the Graeae', 'Andromeda'
- ▸A whole family of constellations comes out of his single story
Stories & episodes
Set adrift in a wooden chest with his mother and washed up on Seriphos
His grandfather Acrisius had been warned that his daughter's son would kill him
Stole the single eye shared by three grey sisters to make them talk
The Graeae then told him where to find the nymphs with the sandals and the cap
Rescued a princess chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea-monster
Andromeda, offered to Cetus because her mother Cassiopeia boasted of her beauty
Turned a king and his whole court to stone in the middle of a feast
Polydectes of Seriphos, who had been pressing his mother to marry
Killed his own grandfather with a stray discus at athletic games
Fulfilling the prophecy the old king had tried to prevent
A winged horse sprang from the neck of the monster he had just killed
Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor, fathered on her by Poseidon
Quick-fire facts
- •Son of Zeus, who came to Danaë as a shower of golden rain
- •His grandfather was Acrisius, king of Argos
- •He gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who set it on her aegis
- •He founded Mycenae; among his descendants was Heracles
- •Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Cetus are all constellations from this one myth
- •The Perseid meteor shower each August radiates from his constellation
- •Algol, the 'Demon Star', marks the Gorgon's head in the constellation Perseus
- •Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Aaron J. Atsma, the Theoi Project — Perseus
- Apollodorus — The Library (Bibliotheca) Book 2.4 tells the Gorgon and Andromeda episodes