Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Acrisius.
The gallery
Acrisius Orders Danaë and Perseus into the Chest (Attic calyx-krater, after the Triptolemos Painter)
Triptolemos Painter (lithograph after), first half of the 5th century BC
Side B of the Hermitage calyx-krater (ARV² 360.1): King Acrisius commands that Danaë and the infant Perseus be shut in the chest — the Argive oracle made into Attic red-figure before the sea takes them.
Danaë and the Infant Perseus Cast Out to Sea by Acrisius
Giorgio Ghisi (after Giulio Romano), 1543
Ghisi's engraving (Metropolitan Museum of Art) stages the exile: Acrisius sets his daughter and grandson into the vessel that will float to Seriphos — the grandfather's fear made into a Mannerist print.
Danaë and Perseus Set in a Boat
Battista Angolo del Moro (after Giorgio Ghisi), c. 1543–1573
A Rijksmuseum etching after Ghisi's design repeats the same Argive sentence: Acrisius consigns Danaë and Perseus to the water, hoping to outrun the discus that will still find him at Larissa.
In play
Acrisius
The Argive king who locked Danae in bronze and cast her to sea — the grandfather Perseus' discus was fated to kill.
Danaë
Acrisius' daughter and the shower of gold — her imprisonment is the father's fear that made Perseus' birth inevitable.
Clash of the Titans
Desmond Davis
Harryhausen's film keeps Acrisius' oracle and the chest at sea as the opening move of Perseus' quest.