Son of Zeus and Danae — or of a mortal scandal in one tradition — the hero who crossed the sea in a chest, slew the Gorgon with the gods' gifts, freed Andromeda from the sea-beast, and founded Mycenae after the discus that fulfilled his grandfather's oracle.1
The golden shower⚖
Acrisius king of Argos, warned that his daughter's son would kill him, shut Danae in a bronze chamber — yet Zeus came to her as a shower of gold, and she bore Perseus. Apollodorus notes an alternative: that her uncle Proetus seduced her and the brothers went to war. Either way the child was born, and the king cast mother and infant into the sea in a wooden chest.2
Seriphos and the Gorgon
The chest came ashore on Seriphos, where Dictys the fisherman reared the boy while King Polydectes lusted after Danae. To rid himself of the protector, Polydectes feigned a wedding and demanded horse-gifts; Perseus promised the Gorgon's head instead. Hermes and Athena gave him the sickle, the kibisis, the cap of Hades, and winged sandals; from the Graeae he learned the way to the Gorgons and cut off Medusa's head — Pegasus and Chrysaor springing from her neck.3
Andromeda and the return
Flying over Ethiopia he saw Andromeda chained for her mother's boast against the Nereids; he turned Cetus to stone with the Gorgon's face and won the princess. Returning to Seriphos he petrified Polydectes and set Dictys on the throne. At Larisa a discus thrown in the funeral games struck Acrisius by accident — the oracle fulfilled. Perseus exchanged Argos for Tiryns with Megapenthes and built Mycenae; whether he died in peace or by vengeance the poets disagree.4
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