Hello, my name's Maria Whatton and I'm a storyteller.
There was once a king, his name was Acrisius. He was King of Argos.
He had a beautiful daughter called Danaë, who he loved very much.
But he longed to have an heir to his throne.
And so, he decided that he would go to the temple
and ask the Priestess. Perhaps she could prophesy what would happen.
The Priestess cleansed herself in spring water,
took the king down the dark stairs to the chamber beneath the temple.
There, she cleansed the area with barley meal and laurel leaves
and waited for the prophecy to come to her, as she stood over the cauldron.
"King" she said, "The flower of your heart will give birth to a son."
At this Acrisius was delighted. "But", she said,
"That boy will bring your death."
Well...
the king staggered out of the temple and he was distraught, but already
a plan was forming in his mind.
He made sure that a building was constructed.
Here, his daughter would be kept.
He would make sure that his daughter never fell in love.
The building was made of copper, it had just
one small hole at the top so she could breathe,
and a small door at the bottom so that food could be fed to her,
so that she wouldn't starve. It was like a prison.
Poor Danaë, she was so lonely and miserable.
One day...
she looked up, she saw a glittering golden raindrop fall through that
one hole at the top of the building and then...
a shower of golden rain came down, a mist formed around her bare shoulders
it drenched her body. She felt alive then each little golden raindrop
rolled away from her skin, coagulated and began to form feet,
steady legs, a torso, shimmering arms and neck, upon that neck, a head.
Upon that head, wavy golden hair, upon the jaw, a beard, a face!
This was Zeus... the King of all the Gods.
Nine months later, Danaë gave birth to a son, she named Perseus.
And, Perseus as we know
was a monster-slayer, a great warrior and the bringer of death
to his own grandfather.
When you look up in the Night Sky in August,
you can see, Perseids Meteor Shower.
When you do, remember the story I've told you
and perhaps you'll tell it again.