King of the island of Seriphus and brother of Dictys, son of Magnes. Lusting after Danae but barred from her now that Perseus had grown, he dispatched the young hero to fetch the Gorgon's head.1
Polydectes and his brother Dictys were sons of Magnes by a Naiad nymph, and the two of them colonized the island of Seriphus, where Polydectes became king.2
When Danae and her son Perseus came to Seriphus, Polydectes fell in love with her but could gain no access to her now that Perseus had grown to manhood. So he summoned his friends, Perseus among them, under the pretext of collecting contributions toward the bride-price for Hippodamia. Each was to give a horse; when Perseus, who had none, rashly promised even the Gorgon's head, the king held him to it and sent him off after Medusa.3
When Perseus returned with the Gorgon's head, he found that his mother and Dictys had taken refuge at the altars to escape the violence of Polydectes. Entering the palace where the king sat with his friends, Perseus turned his face away and showed them the head: Polydectes and all who beheld it were turned at once to stone, each fixed in the attitude he chanced to hold. The hero then made Dictys king of Seriphus in his brother's place.4
Ovid likewise damns the king's hardened, ungoverned heart and his unjust rage, for Polydectes slandered the deed and argued that Medusa's death was a fraud; for this he too was shown the Gorgon and petrified.5
Hyginus preserves a kinder Polydectes: he received the castaway mother and child from Dictys, married Danae, and brought Perseus up in the temple of Minerva, even interceding for them when Acrisius came to seize them. Yet in another of Hyginus' tellings the king fears the returning hero and plots his death by treachery, only to be shown the Gorgon's head and changed to stone himself; and Perseus is said to have founded funeral games on Seriphus for Polydectes, called his guardian.6
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