Perseus

For other meanings, see Perseus (disambiguation)

Perseus with the head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova, completed 1801 (Vatican Museums)

Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas (Greek: Περσεύς, Περσέως, Περσέας), the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve Olympians in the mainland of Greece. Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa.

Origin at Argos

Perseus was the son of Danae who, by her very name, was the archetype and eponymous ancestor of all the Danaans She was the only daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, Acrisius consulted the oracle at Delphi, who warned him that although destined to remain without a son himself, he would one day be killed by his daughter's child. Danae was childless and to keep her so, he shut her up in a bronze chamber underground: this mytheme is also connected to Ares, Oenopion, Eurystheus, etc. Zeus came to her in the form of a shower of gold, and impregnated her. Soon after was born their child Perseus— "Perseus Eurymedon, for his mother gave him this name as well" (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica IV).

Fearful for his future but unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods by killing Zeus's offspring, Acrisius cast the two into the sea in a wooden chest (compare the mythemes of Osiris, Moses in the bullrushes and Karna). Danae's fearful prayer made while afloat in the darkness has been expressed by the poet Simonides of Ceos. Mother and child washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys, who raised the boy to manhood. The brother of Dictys was Polydectes, the king of the island.

Overcoming the Gorgon

After some time, Polydectes fell in love with Danae and desired to remove Perseus from the island. He thereby hatched a plot to send him away in disgrace.

Polydectes announced a banquet wherein each guest would be expected to bring him a horse, that he might woo Hippodamia, "tamer of horses". The fisherman's protegé had no horse but promised instead to bring the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, whose very expression turns people to stone. The Medusa was horselike in archaic representations, the terrible filly of a mare— Demeter, the Mother herself— who was in her mare nature when Poseidon assumed stallion form and covered her. Another version of this story is that Medusa was in fact a mortal woman who had an affair with the god Poseidon. One day Athena caught the two of them in her temple and as punishment turned the poor woman into a hideous monster. A third is similar to the Second, but instead of an affair, Poseidon rapes her in a temple to Athena. Polydectes held Perseus to his rash promise.

For such a heroic quest, a divine helper would be necessary, and for a long time Perseus wandered aimlessly, without hope of ever finding the gorgons or of being able to accomplish his mission should he do so.

The Gorgon just before being beheaded by Perseus, as depicted on a pediment from the Atremis Temple on display at the Archaeological Museum of Corfu.

According to the iconography of the vase-painters, the gods Hermes and Athena came to his rescue. Hermes gave him a pair of his winged sandals (talaria), while Athena gave him a sword and a highly-polished shield. For his further journey, the version of Aeschylus, in his lost tragedy, The Daughters of Phorcys must have "simplified the journey of Perseus through the realms of thrice-three goddesses and probably left out the first three, the spring-nymphs.... On an ancient vase-painting we see the nymphs receiving the hero, one bringing him the winged shoes, another the helm of invisibility, the third the wallet, kibisis, for the Gorgon's head" (Kerenyi 1959:49-50).

They told him to go to the island of the golden apples to the west. He went there like a swift walker on the air (Nonnus, Dionysiaca xxv.32) and asked the Hesperidae where the Graeae were. They told him and made him promise to come back and dance with them. He went to the Graeae, sisters of the gorgons, three perpetually old women with one eye and tooth among them. Perseus snatched the eye at the moment they were blindly passing it from one to another so they could see him and he would not return it until they had given him directions. With all this, "Like a wild boar he entered the cave" (This is the one line of Aeschylus, The Phorkides, "The Daughters of Phorkys" that survives). In the cave he came upon the sleeping gorgons. By viewing Medusa's reflection in his shield he could safely approach and cut off her head, which then birthed Pegasus and Chrysaor from her blood. The other two gorgons pursued him, but by using his helm of invisibility he escaped.

Marriage with Andromeda

Perseus and Andromeda.

On the way back to Seriphos, Perseus stopped in the Phoenician kingdom Ethiopia, ruled by King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, having boasted herself equal in beauty to Aphrodite, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea-monster, Ceto, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon having announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, she was fastened to a rock on the shore. Here Perseus, returning from having slain the gorgon, found her, slew the monster, and set her free. (note: some versions feature Perseus trying to use the head of Medusa to turn the monster to stone, but it did not work because the monster lacked eyes and couln't see the head, so he slew it with his sword, instead.)

In the classical myth, he flew using the flying sandals. In Renaissance Europe, and modern imagery, the idea came that Perseus flew mounted on Pegasus.

Perseus married Andromeda in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head. Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and became the ancestress of the family of the Perseidae through the son of Perseus and Andromeda, Perses. After her death she was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Pierre Corneille) made the episode of Perseus and Andromeda the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art.

Flying in his return above the sands of Libya, according to Apollonius of Rhodes, the falling drops of Medusa's blood engendered a race of toxic serpents, one of whom was to kill the Argonaut Mopsus. On returning to Seriphos and discovering that his mother had had to take refuge from the violent advances of Polydectes, Perseus killed him with Medusa's head, and made his brother Dictys king.

The oracle fulfilled

Perseus then returned his magical loans and gave Medusa's head as a gift to Athena, who set it in her shield, as the gorgoneion (see also: Aegis) .

The fulfillment of the oracle was told several ways, each incorporating the mythic theme of exile. In Pausanias he did not return to Argos, but went instead to Larissa, where athletic games were being held.

Perseus frees Andromeda (detail), by Piero di Cosimo, 1515 (Uffizi)

He had just invented the quoit and was making a public display of them when Acrisius, who happened to be visiting, stepped into the trajectory of the quoit and was killed: thus the oracle was fulfilled. This is an unusual variant on the story of such a prophecy, as Acrisius's actions did not, in this variant, cause his death.

In Apollodorus' version, the inevitable occurred by another route: Perseus did return to Argos, but when he learned of the oracle, went into voluntary exile in Pelasgiotis (Thessaly). There Teutamides, king of Larissa, was holding funeral games for his father. Competing, Perseus struck Acrisius in the foot, killing him instantly.

In a third tradition, Acrisius had been driven into exile by his brother, Proetus. Perseus turned the brother into stone with the Gorgon's head and restored Acrisius to the throne.

Having killed Acrisius, Perseus, who was next in line for the throne, gave the kingdom to Megapenthes son of Proetus and took over Megapenthes' kingdom of Tiryns. The story is related in Pausanias, which gives as motivation for the swap. Perseus was ashamed for becoming king of Argos by inflicting death.

In any case, early Greek literature reiterates that manslaughter, even involuntary, requires the exile of the slaughterer, expiation and ritual purification. The exchange might well have been a creative solution to a difficult problem; however, Megapenthes would have been required to avenge his father, which, in legend, he did, but only at the end of Perseus' long and successful reign.

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus

King of Mycenae

The two main sources regarding the legendary life of Perseus—for he was an authentic historical figure to the Greeks— are Pausanias and Apollodorus, but from them we obtain mainly folk-etymology concerning the founding of Mycenae. Pausanias asserts that the Greeks believed Perseus founded Mycenae. He mentions the shrine to Perseus that stood on the left-hand side of the road from Mycenae to Argos, and also a sacred fountain at Mycenae called Persea. Located outside the walls, this was perhaps the spring that filled the citadel's underground cistern. He states also that Atreus stored his treasures in an underground chamber there, which is why Heinrich Schliemann named the largest tholos tomb the Treasury of Atreus.

Apart from these more historical references, we have only folk-etymology: Perseus dropped his cap or found a mushroom there (both named myces), or perhaps the place was named from the lady Mycene, daughter of Inachus, mentioned in a now missing poem, the great Eoeae.

For whatever reasons, perhaps as outposts, Perseus fortified Mycenae according to Apollodorus along with Midea, implying that they both previously existed. It is unlikely, however, that Apollodorus knew who walled in Mycenae; he was only conjecturing. In any case, Perseus took up official residence in Mycenae with Andromeda.

The Perseids

Perseus by Salvador Dalí.

Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons: Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Electryon and Cynurus, and two daughters, Gorgophone and Autochthoe. Perses was left in Aethiopia and became an ancestor of the emperors of Persia. The other descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus got the kingdom. However, the Perseids included the great hero, Heracles, son of Amphitryon, son of Alcaeus. The Heraclides, or descendants of Heracles, successfully contested the rule of the Atreids.

A statement by the Athenian orator, Isocrates helps to date Perseus roughly. He said that Heracles was four generations later than Perseus, which corresponds to the legendary succession: Perseus, Electryon, Alcmena, and Heracles, who was a contemporary of Eurystheus. Atreus was one generation later, a total of five generations. Taking 1223 as the start of Atreus' reign and assuming an average generation of 25 years brings the date for the start of Perseus' reign to about 1373, which is roughly consistent with the archaeology.

It would have been Perseus after all who had the Cyclopean wall built ca. 1350. The Egyptian embassy of about 1380 might have been for the purpose of cementing diplomatic relations with the new dynasties in power. It is logical to assume that the first act of the Pelopids when they obtained the throne of Mycenae would be to strengthen the defenses, adding the extension to the north and the secret cistern about 1220.

Etymology

Because of the obscurity of the name and the legendary character of its bearer, most etymologists pass it by, on the presumption that it might be pre-Greek. However, the name of Perseus’ native city was Greek and so were the names of his wife and relatives. There is some prospect that it descended into Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language. In that regard Robert Graves has espoused the only Greek derivation available.

Perseus might be from the ancient Greek verb, perthein, “to waste, ravage, sack, destroy”, some form of which appears in Homeric epithets. According to Carl Darling Buck (Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin), the –eus suffix is typically used to form an agent noun, in this case from the aorist stem, pers-. Pers-eus therefore is a man who habitually sacks cities; that is, a soldier by occupation, a fitting name for the first Mycenaean warrior.

The origin of perth- is more obscure. J. B. Hofman (Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen) lists the possible root as *bher-, from which Latin ferio, "strike". This corresponds to Julius Pokorny’s *bher-(3), “scrape, cut.” Ordinarily *bh- descends to Greek as ph-. This difficulty can be overcome by presuming a dissimilation from the –th– in perthein; that is, the Greeks preferred not to say *pherthein.

Graves carries the meaning still further, to the Perse- in Persephone, goddess of death. John Chadwick in the second edition of Documents in Mycenaean Greek speculates as follows about the goddess pe-re-*82 of Pylos tablet Tn 316, tentatively reconstructed as *Preswa:

”It is tempting to see...the classical Perse...daughter of Oceanus...; whether it may be further identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative.”

The Greeks made a folk-etymologic connection with the name of the Fars people, whom they called the Persai. The native name, however has always had an -a- in Iranian. Herodotusrecounts this story, devising a foreign son, Perses, from whom the Persians took name. Apparently the Persians themselves knew the story, as Xerxes tried to use it to suborn the Argives during his invasion of Greece.

Cyrus Gordon, known for his daring theories, proposed that Perseus is a Semitic name, from p-r-s, "to cut." Nothing in the lore or the evidence excludes the possibility of Semitic elements among the early Greeks. The Greeks thought that Perseus meant "destroyer", but p-r-s would mean that as well.

Perseus on Pegasus

The replacement of Bellerophon as the tamer and rider of Pegasus by the more familiar culture hero Perseus was not simply an error of painters and poets of the Renaissance. The transition was a development of Classical times which became the standard image during the Middle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of the Renaissance and later: Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum gentilium libri (10.27) identifies Pegasus as the steed of Perseus, and Pierre Corneille places Perseus upon Pegasus in Andromède.

Other connections

One legend holds that Perseus turned Atlas the Titan into Atlas the mountain using the head of Medusa when Atlas refused to give Perseus shelter, or that Atlas asked to be shown Medusa's head to end the weary labor of holding heaven and earth apart.

Perseus had a daughter called Gorgophone, whose name means "Gorgon Killer".

Abas was a good friend of Perseus.

Modern uses of the theme

• Andrew Lang retold the story, removing all the specific names, in the story "The Terrible Head" in The Blue Fairy Book.

• John Barth also retells the myth of Perseus in his novel Chimera.

• The legend of Perseus was the basis for the film Clash of the Titans. Perseus was played by Harry Hamlin.

• The computer game Heavy Gear II uses Perseus as a model name for one of the mechs.

• The computer game Freespace II uses Perseus as a nickname for one of the fighters.

• The heavy metal band Virgin Steele has an album titled Invictus which has a picture of Perseus holding Medusa's head.

• In the book series The Lightning Thief, the main character is named Perseus.

• The book "Tom Sawyer", written by Mark Twain, has many similar connections to the tales of Perseus.

• Perseus appears as a boss in the video game God of War II, where he is defeated by Kratos. Notably, Kratos defeated Medusa in the first God of War. As in Clash of the Titans, Perseus was voiced by Harry Hamlin.

• Ann Halam's book "Snakehead" is a retelling of the Perseus myth for young adults.

• In Hermann Melville's Moby Dick, the narrator asserts that Perseus was the first whaleman, when he killed Ceto to save Andromeda.

• In Wonder Woman #200, Wonder Girl Cassie tells an edited story of Perseus to children she is babysitting. this provides background to a later adventure.

• Nike, Inc. manufacture a running shoe called 'Air Perseus'.

• In Watch Over Me, Perseus is a fictional biochemical cure-all to any disease created by Krieger Laboratories. The opposite of this is Medusa. (See Television)

References

• Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks.

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