Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained - in
today’s video we’re going to be discussing Perseus.
Here’s what you can expect: a god transforming into a stream of gold to impregnate a woman
imprisoned in a buried bronze chamber; someone who extorts three old ladies by stealing the
one eye they share between them; someone who’s outfitted in more magical armaments than all
the other greek heroes combined; a monster with snakes for hair that can turn people to stone;
a titan who’s turned to stone for not being hospitable enough;
and someone who slays a sea monster to rescue the woman he fell in love with at first sight.
Let’s get into it.
A demigod, Perseus was the son of Zeus and of the princess Danae,
the daughter of Acrisius, who was the king of Argus. After consulting an Oracle,
Acrisius learned that he would be killed by his grandson, so he endeavoured to prevent this from
happening by imprisoning his daughter so that she could never become pregnant. One version
describes this prison as a buried bronze chamber, another as a tower of bronze, and yet another
as a bunker of stone. Regardless of the make, the prison proved ineffective in all versions.
Zeus infiltrated the prison and then impregnated Danae by manifesting himself as a stream of gold.
The pregnancy filled Acrisius with dismay, and though he wanted the threat dealt with,
he didn’t want his daughter's blood on his hands. (The murder of one’s family was considered among
the most heinous crimes a person could perpetrate in ancient Greece.) Instead of murdering his
daughter outright, he had her locked in a chest and then set that chest adrift at sea.
This attempt was thwarted when the chest washed up on the shore of a distant island and subsequently
discovered by a local fisherman. At some point Danae, who was still radiantly beautiful,
became lusted after by the fisherman’s brother, who, as it would turn out, was the king of the
island. They were later wed. At the ceremony, Acrisius manipulated Perseus into embarking on a
perilous quest to bring him back Medusa’s head as a wedding present. Acrisius contrived for this to
happen because he knew that, for any normal mortal without divine blood coursing through their veins,
the quest was a thinly-veiled death sentence, and he wanted Perseus out of the way.
Left to his own devices, Perseues would never have found his quarry and almost certainly would have
perished in the process, but more than one god was watching over him; both Athena and Hermes
came to his aid, and together they lead him to the Graiae, who were three wizened old crones
that shared but a single eye and a single tooth. They were sisters of the gorgons, and so it was
known that they would know how to find them. Perseus was warned that they wouldn’t willingly
divulge the gorgons’ whereabouts, so he stole their single eye and threatened to destroy it,
extorting the information from them. From them he learned he had to find the Nymphs of the North,
for they possessed an array of magical items he would need to see his quest to fruition.
They gave Perseus winged sandals that granted the gift of flight, a magic wallet that expanded and
contracted according to the user's need, and a magical cap that bestowed perfect invisibility.
Here he also received two additional gifts. Perseus presented him with a sickle of adamant
whose keen edge could slice through virtually anything, and Athena presented a well-polished
shield so that its reflection could guide Perseus by protecting him from Medusa’s petrifying gaze.
Perseus found the Gorgons’ lair. He came upon them - writhing nests of snakes for hair,
plated in scales, cruel tusks - while they slept. Invisible, he flew in, lopped off Medusa’s head,
tossed it in his magic wallet, and flew out before either of Medusa’s wrathful sisters
could exact their revenge. Supposedly Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chryasor,
“He Who Has a Golden Sword” both emerged from the stump of Medusa’s neck. As Perseus flew across
the sky, droplets of blood fell to the ground from Medusa's severed head, creating venomous
snakes that slithered forth from the earth. He flew past Atlas, the titan Condemned to hold the
sky up on his shoulders for eternity, and turned the colossal titan to stone as retribution for
having earlier withheld hospitality from Perseus. Below he saw Andromeda, who had been chained to
a rock so that she could be sacrificed to a sea monster sent by Poseidon. Andromeda was condemned
to this fate as punishment for her braggart of a mother foolishly boasting that Andromeda was more
beautiful than all the nymphs of the sea. Perseus slew the sea monster and made Andromeda his wife.
He then took her with him back to the island where his quest began so that he could confront the man,
king Polydectes, who thought he had sent Perseus to his death. Perseus unveiled Medusa’s head,
turning Polydectes to stone, and then made Dictys, Polydectes' brother, regent of the island. He then
departed in search of his grandfather, who had fled his kingdom and went into hiding when he
learnt Perseus was alive. Later, Perseus was competing in a series of athletic contests.
A discus he threw flew into the stands. By happenstance and unbeknownst to Perseus,
Acrisius was in the stands, and the wayward disc struck him in the head,
killing him, finally fulfilling the words prophesied by the oracle those long years ago.
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