Valentines Day Countdown: 03

Like I promised, here’s another tale to tuck you into bed through the night: a retelling of Perseus, the man who killed a beast, saved a mother, and earned a country.

 

A long time ago, many gods ruled over our planet. And the king of the gods was called Zeus. One day, he fell in love with a mortal girl and they became lovers.

But the girl’s father had visited the oracle before and the oracle had told him that if his daughter had a son, he would one day kill him. So the king locked up his daughter in a tower, but Zeus visited her there in the form of a golden shower and soon the girl became pregnant.

Since only Zeus could be the boy’s father, the king could not kill either his daughter or her baby. So he locked them in a thick, wooden chest and cast them into the sea, so it would be Poseidon’s-lord of the sea-fault.

But Zeus ordered Poseidon to save the girl and the baby and the sea carried them to a small island far away.

 

Danae, visited by Zeus, in the form of a golden shower.

 

There an elderly fisherman found her and invited her to live with him. The girl accepted and raised her son, who she named Perseus, into a young man. He was a fine swordsman, skilled with all weaponry he handled, and a famed rider and hunter. But he always wished to go off his island, though his mother had forbidden him.

One day, his mother caught the eye of the king of the small island, the brother of the fisherman who had offered the mother and son a home. He desired to marry her, but she refused to leave her son in case he needed her. So the king devised a way to disgrace Perseus and force him to stay away from the island.

The king of the small island announced that he would be marrying another woman, a fabled tamer of horses, and to win her heart he would hold a banquet, where each guest would present a horse. Perseus was poor and had no horse to give.

“I am your king,” said the king. “And I must marry to insure that the wealth of our people continue. How am I to do so if my men will not aid me? Are you not some “prince”? Have you no honor, no shame?”

And so the king berated Perseus again and again, insulting him and his poverty. Perseus before had never regretted his lack of his wealth, but on this day he did.

“I will give you the greatest gift you have ever received!” Perseus shouted when he could stand it no more. “I will give you the head of the Medusa!”

 

The Medusa was a hideous monster, said to be cursed by the goddess of love, and any man who hunted her wound up dead, their blood seeping out from their very pores. No one had reached the home of this creature and returned alive.

The king was pleased and announced that he would accept nothing less than this promised gift. If Perseus was to return without the Medusa’s decapitated head tied to his belt, he would be disgraced and outcast from the island.

So Perseus packed his meager belongings and set to the mainland, despite his mother’s weeping. He had no hope of finding the Medusa, but he still refused to give up. His sword, he swore to those he met, would taste the Medusa’s deadly blood! He would slaughter this monster and glory and honor would be his.

Finally, after many weeks of warning, the children of Zeus intervened. Zeus had seen his son wander and deemed that two of his children, Hermes and Athena, should help. So the two went to earth and gave Perseus gifts to aid him.

From Athena he was got a shield made of the smoothest, clearest metal and from Hermes he got a sword that could slice through solid stone. They told him to find the Hesperidea, on the island Hesperides, and to ask the wild nymphs where the Graeae, sisters of the Medusa, lived. The nymphs told him, but only after Perseus promised to come back and dance.

 

Perseus and the Graeae.

 

Perseus made a long journey to the cave of the Graeae, three, blind women who shared one eye that could see into the feature. Perseus stole their eye and held away from them as they scrambled helplessly on the floor, reaching for it.

“Tell me where the Medusa lies and you can have your eye back!” Perseus called and the crones shrieked at him. “Tell me where she is, hags! And tell me what I need to defeat her or I’ll crush your eye beneath my foot!”

The Graeae told him the secret of Hades’ cap, which allowed its wearer to turn invisible, a satchel that could hold anything without tearing, and a pair of sandals that would allow him to fly across the land. Once Perseus had acquired these-collected deep in the crones’ cave-they told him how to reach their sister.

With this knowledge, Perseus flew across the ocean to a distant island where the deadly Medusa resided. He wore the Hades’ cap and passed the island’s many monster guardians and reached the inner sanctum of the monster.

But there was a problem! The legend of the Medusa went that any many who looked upon the creature would be turned to stone. And Perseus saw this was true as countless stoned bodies lined the walkways, their faces twisted into screams of horror and pain.

As he entered the Medusa’s lair, he lifted his shield and looked only through it. He saw no trace of the monster, not of the hideous snakes in her hair, or the rattle of the end of her body as she slithered like a worm across-

CRACK!

Perseus’s head jerked back as his cap went flying off. He had forgotten that Hades’ cap made him invisible, not silent. He pivoted to the left to avoid a deadly swipe of talons and rolled, careful to look only into his shield.

The Medusa coiled on him, her face twisted in a permanent mask of rage. Her long fingernails, filled with snake venom, were lifted to strike him. An inhuman hiss escaped her lips as she descended on him…

…Perseus swung his sword in a backward arch, never looking away from his shield. His sword found its mark and sliced clean through the Medusa’s neck, blood spraying all over the floor, steam rising from it like acid eating away flesh.

The heavy body of the Medusa fell at Perseus’s feet, blood pouring out from her gaping neck, eating at the stone. The end of the monster’s body twitched, once, twice, and was still for all of time.

 

The head of Medusa.

 

Her head went sailing through the air, spinning in a wheel of blood and guts, and hit a pillar hard. It crashed to the floor, the Medusa’s eyes wide and horrified, still trying to freeze her enemies in her gaze, her pointed teeth bared, and her face contorted in rage.

The rank stench of death filled the air and Perseus relaxed his shield arm, pointing his sword at the ground and shaking off the blood from his defeat foe.

Perseus placed the severed head of the Medusa into his satchel and used the flying sandals to leave Medusa’s liar. With the head of the hideous beast now locked around his waist, no monster dared to attack him.

As Perseus flew back to his island to present his gift, he flew over a country named Ethiopia where he saw a woman chained to a large stone by the sea. Curious, he flew down to her and asked her name. She replied that she was called Andromeda and related to him her sad tale.

 

Perseus and Andromeda’s first meeting.

 

She said that she was the daughter of the king and queen of the country and that her mother had boasted that she was more beautiful than the goddess of love. The land then was attacked by a horrible beast, called the Ceto, and could not be held back. An oracle announced to the king that his land would have no peace until his daughter was sacrificed to the Ceto and the gods were appeased.

With no other choice, Andromeda’s father did as he was told.

Perseus could not stand for this and he flew high above the girl, taking from his satchel the head of the Medusa. From the water rose the horrid Ceto, but as it opened its massive mouth, Perseus thrust the head of the Medusa at it and it froze in horror, crumbling to stone.

He freed Andromeda from her chains and the king and queen were so pleased to have her alive, that they both agreed that Perseus would be given her hand in marriage and would one day be king of their country. Perseus agreed to this, but only after he returned to his home and collected his mother.

So he bid Andromeda farewell and returned to his island, where he learned from the fisherman who had looked after him and his mother, that his brother-the king-had forced Perseus’s mother to marry him. Perseus, realizing he had been tricked all along, rushed to the palace just as the wedding ceremony began.

“Mother, shield your eyes!” Perseus shouted and his mother obeyed as he withdrew the head of the Medusa and turned all traitors in the room into stone.

Perseus made the fisherman king of the island and took his mother away to live with his wife Andromeda. There they lived happily for many years.

 

Perseus and Andromeda as they were wed.

 

Then, one day, shortly after Andromeda had given birth to their first son, Perseus traveled to Argos to participate in the annual games. It was in the discus throw that Perseus lost his footing and sent his disc flying into the crowd. A man screamed and collapsed to the floor, the disc lodged between his eyes.

Perseus, guilty, went to see the old man, and gently wiped the blood that covered his face away. He yanked the discus out and buried it with the man’s body on the pyre. He regretted his actions deeply and vowed never to play again in the games. He then returned to Ethiopia and ruled long with Andromeda.

What he never knew was that the old man he had killed was his grandfather, the Oracle’s prophecy fulfilled at last.

The end.

 

The tale of Perseus, everybody. A little revision on Greek Mythology could never do any harm, right? Hope you liked!