Perseus

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• Mythic Heroes cluster specifications
• Common Features of Legends
• Miraculous birth, early threats
• Disinheritance and/or powerful enemy
• Quest(s) impossible tasks requiring strength
  and courage
• Helpers often divine
• Warrior mentality
• Inability to manage women
• Difficulty controlling passions
• Egocentricity

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Perseus Legends of Argos
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Acrisius, King of Argos

• Daughter was Danae
• Oracle foretold that Danaes son would kill
  Acrisius
• So Acrisius hid her away in a Bronze (or Ivory)
  tower (or vault)
• Zeus visited her as a shower of gold and she had
  a son, Perseus

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Acrisius set Danae child adrift locked in a
wooden box

• They come to shore on Seriphos
• Are rescued by Dictys, a fisherman and brother of
  the King of Seriphos, Polydectes
• Perseus boasted that he would bring the head of
  Medusa to the King

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Medusa, one of 3 Gorgons
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Perseus had help

• Athena
• 3 Graeae (with one eye and one tooth)
  representatives of old age
• Nymphs offered cap of Hades (invisibility)
• winged sandals, and leather pouch
• Hermes offered a sword

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In beheading Medusa

• Pegasus Chrysaor were created
• Serpents of Africa from her blood

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Perseus then travels home

• By way of the West and encounters Atlas
• By way of Ethiopia and encounters Andromeda,
  Cassiopeia, and Cepheus
• Cassiopeia had angered the Nereids (nymphs of the
  sea, daughters of Nereus, old man of the sea)
• Neptune sent floods as punishment
• Andromeda was to be sacrificed to Ceto, sea
  monster, to save the people of Joppa

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After the monster was slain

• Battle at the wedding with Phineus, uncle
• of Andromeda
• Return to Seriphos taking care of Polydectes,
  made Dictys king
• Perseus and Andromeda returned to Argos
• Acrisius killed accidently at athletic games when
  Perseus threw the discus
• Descendant of Perseus - Hercules
• Finally, heavenward

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Minerva the Muses
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Calliope tells story of Ceres, her daughter
Proserpina, and Plutos abduction of Proserpina
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Ascalaphus tattles on Proserpinas eating in the
underworld and becomes a screech-owl
The companions who were with Proserpina when she
was abducted become Sirens half bird/half women
and beautiful singers
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Ceres teaches agricultural arts to Triptolemus,
of Eleusis (near Athens), and he teaches mankind.
Story of Lyncus, King of Scythians, who tried to
kill Triptolemus. Ceres turned him into a Lynx.
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Final Tale of Minerva the contest with Arachne
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Arethusa helps Ceres find her daughter and later
we learn her storypursued by the water god
Alpheus, assisted by Diana, she changed into an
underground stream. He followed and mingled his
waters with hers.