Perseus and Medusa. When Perseus and his mother, Danaë, were living in Seriphus at the court of Polydectes, the king gave a banquet at which each of the island's leading citizens was required to present him with a horse. Perseus boasted that he could just as easily give him the head of the Gorgon Medusa, a monster with snakes for hair and eyes that could turn a man to stone. Eager to get the young man out of the way so that he could pursue Danaë, Polydectes ordered Perseus to make good his boast. In despair, Perseus went to an isolated part of the island, where he met Hermes (Mercury) and Athena (Minerva), who pledged to help him. They told him to seek out the three Graiae, sisters of Medusa.

     The Graiae possessed only one eye among the three of them; Perseus took the eye while it was being passed from one to the other, refusing to give it back until they had directed him to Medusa. In a variant of the legend, he was directed to nymphs who possessed the magical objects he would need to kill the Gorgon. The nymphs gave Perseus a helmet or cap that would make its wearer invisible (Greek, Aidos kyne), a pair of winged sandals that gave him power of flight (Greek, talaria), and a wallet or pouch (kibisis in which to store the Gorgon's head. Some versions state that it was Hermes who gave him these objects as well as a sword; others say that Hades (Pluto) provided the helmet. Athena gave the hero a mirror (or her polished sheild), so that he could see Medusa without having to look directly at her.

     Thus armed, Perseus sought and found Medusa asleep with her two sister Gorgons and slew her. When Medusa was beheaded, Chrysaor and Pegasus, her children by Poseidon, were born from the wound in her neck.

     Flying back to Seriphus, Perseus stopped to ask hospitality from Atlas. When the Titan refused, Perseus turned him to stone with Medusa's head, thus creating Mount Atlas. Proceeding homeward, Persues rescued then married the Ethiopian princess Andromeda. Upon his return to Seriphus he restored the sandals, wallet, and helmet to Hermes and gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who set it in a place of honor in the middle of her shield.

     See also: Medusa