Perseus, << PUR see uhs, >> was a hero in Greek mythology. He was the son of the god Zeus and a mortal woman named Danaë. King Acrisius, Danaë’s father, learned from an oracle that his own grandson would someday kill him. In fear, he set the infant Perseus and Danaë adrift in a chest. Dictys, a fisherman, rescued them. Perseus grew to manhood in Dictys’s home on the island of Seriphus.
King Polydectes, Dictys’s brother, tried to force Danaë to marry him. To prevent the marriage, Perseus agreed to slay Medusa. Medusa was a snake-haired monster called a Gorgon. Her horrible face turned all who looked at her to stone. With the help of the goddess Athena, Perseus beheaded Medusa. He killed her while gazing at her reflection in his shield (see Gorgons; Medusa).
While returning home, Perseus rescued the princess Andromeda from a giant sea monster. Perseus and Andromeda married. In Seriphus, he turned Polydectes to stone with the head of the Medusa. Perseus later accidentally killed his grandfather with a discus. He thus fulfilled the prediction of the oracle.
See also Andromeda.
