The myths of ancient Greece about Perseus, Orpheus, Theseus, the gods of Olympus and Hercules are known to most even better than the legends of their own people. They are perfectly preserved in the presentation of ancient philosophers. The legends are illustrated with numerous statues - Greek and Roman - as well as images on amphorae and bas-reliefs of temples. The myth of Perseus is one of the central in the host of ancient Greek legends. He was expounded on the pages of his works by Hesiod, Ovid, and other philosophers. He inspired many artists of Antiquity and Renaissance to create masterpieces. Today we have the opportunity to compare different versions of the myth, as well as its many interpretations, accumulated over several centuries.
The birth of a hero
The legends and myths of ancient Greece about Perseus tell of a young man in whose veins divine blood flows, but he is not endowed with any supernatural powers. He carries out his exploits with the help of his own mind and with the support of immortal relatives.
The story begins in Argos, where King Acrisius ruled. He imprisoned his beautiful daughter Danae in the hope that she would never have children. According to the prediction, Acricia was supposed to kill her own grandson. However, Zeus fell in love with the beauty and penetrated her, turning into a golden rain. Soon Danae gave birth to a son. The appearance of the boy did not hide from Acrisius. Hoping to avoid an evil fate, he ordered his mother and child to be imprisoned in a wooden box and dumped into the sea.
Serif Island
Ancient Greek myths about Perseus in the best traditions of such narratives tell about the miraculous salvation of heroes. The wooden box where Danae and Perseus were located was entangled in nets near the island of Serif. He was pulled ashore by Dictis, the fisherman and brother of the king of these lands.
Polydect, the lord of Serif, left Danai with his son at court. The boy grew up and turned into a stately youth, beauty, strength, ingenuity and dexterity surpassing all peers. Danae became the object of the king’s passion. Polydekt tried to achieve what he wanted by force, but he met a serious opponent in the person of young Perseus. It was then that the ruler of the island decided to send the young man behind the head of the gorgon of Medusa to get rid of him forever.
Beautiful and terrible
The myth of Perseus and Medusa was one of the most popular in Antiquity. The most complete list of various versions of it is set forth in the works of Apollodorus. According to one of them, Medusa was a beautiful girl with luxurious hair. In the temple of Athens, Poseidon forcibly seized it. The angry goddess punished the girl who defiled the sanctuary, turning her hair into hissing snakes.
In many paraphrases of the myth, Medusa appears as a creature of dual nature. She could turn all living things into stone with her eyes and was famous for unsurpassed beauty. Blood from one part of her body was able to resurrect, and from snake - it killed like poison. Her two sisters, Sfeno and Euryale, were immortal, but Medusa in this sense did not differ from ordinary people. In one version of the myth, it is said that the body of the monsters was covered with steel scales, copper claws were located on the hands. Gorgons could fly through the air with their golden wings. With such an enemy the hero was to meet.
Travel
Before fighting Medusa, Perseus needed to overcome a considerable path: the Gorgons lived far in the west. The Olympian gods came to the aid of the hero. Athena gave him her shield, in which everything was reflected, as in a mirror. The weapon capable of defeating Medusa was bestowed by Perseus Hermes. The winged messenger of the gods also prompted the hero to the goal.
Myths of Ancient Greece about Perseus tell about the meeting of the son of Zeus with the Gray, the older sisters of the Gorgons. According to legend, they were born old and had one eye and one tooth for three. The grays used them in turn. At the moment when one was transmitting the other eye, everyone was blind. The Grays knew the way to the gorgons and guarded it. The cunning Hermes told the son of Zeus what to do with the old women. Perseus, on his advice, stole a single eye and tooth. Blind grays were ready to do everything to bring their own back. Perseus demanded to point the way to the Gorgons. The old women had no choice but to agree.
On the way to his goal, Perseus also met nymphs (according to one version, the same grays indicated the road to them). They gave the hero magic items. The nymphs presented him with the helmet of the lord of the kingdom of the dead, Hades. The one who put it on became invisible. Perseus also received winged sandals, which allowed him to fly high and fast, like a bird. The third present turned out to be a bag in which one could fit anything: it expanded or narrowed. Thanking the nymphs, Perseus moved on.
Feat
Perseus found the gorgon the moment they were sleeping. Hermes pointed him to Medusa. The hero looked at the monstrous sisters through the shield of Athena. Perseus chopped off the head of a gorgon, and the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chryzaor appeared from the blood of Medusa. According to one version of the legend, their father was the sea god Poseidon.
The body of Medusa fell into the sea, while Perseus put his head in a magic bag. From the splashing of the waves, the Gorgon sisters woke up and began to look for the killer, but he had already disappeared, having put on the helmet of Hades. According to Pindar, Athena, impressed by the moaning of the Gorgons, created a flute that day.
Drops of blood of Medusa fell into the sands of Libya when Perseus flew over this country. According to legend, they turned into poisonous snakes and made the area deserted.
Atlant
Perseus with the help of winged sandals reached the country where the giant Atlant (Atlas), brother of Prometheus, ruled. He guarded his herds of fine-fleeced sheep and the entrance to the magnificent garden, where an apple tree with golden leaves and fruits grew. Atlas did not want to let Perseus come to him: he was predicted that one day the son of Zeus would abduct his apples. The insulted hero took the head of Medusa out of the bag and the giant petrified, turned into a mountain and since that time has supported the vault of heaven. And Perseus, having rested and seized several golden apples, went on.
The myth of Perseus and Andromeda
The salvation of the beautiful Andromeda is a plot to which many famous masterpieces are devoted. According to legend, the girl was the daughter of the Ethiopian king Kefey and Cassiopeia. Andromeda's mother was beautiful and overly proud of it. Once she boasted that even sea nymphs could not compete with her in beauty. Offended Nereids complained to Poseidon and asked to take revenge on the proud woman. The sea lord sent a monster to Ethiopia, similar in appearance to a giant fish. Kit (in the earlier traditions of Quito - the name of the sea goddess) began to ruin the coast of the country, to kill its inhabitants. Kefey went to the oracle for advice. He said that the only way to calm the monster was to give him Andromeda, the king’s only daughter. Kefey and Cassiopeia had to send the girl to certain death.
Andromeda was chained to a rock by chains and was left before the monster arrived. Just at that time, Perseus flew past Ethiopia. He saw a beautiful girl and immediately fell in love with her. The hero sat down on a rock and asked the princess about what had happened. Having received the answer, he turned to the unfortunate parents who approached with the question of whether they would give Andromeda his wife if she was saved. Kepheus and Cassiopeia promised Perseus a daughter and his whole kingdom if he defeats the monster.
Two versions
Further, the myth of Perseus is usually told in one of two ways. In the first, the hero defeated Kit with the sword given to him by Hermes. Several times ascending into the sky and rapidly descending on the enemy, Perseus inflicted a mortal wound on the monster and saved the beautiful girl and the whole country. According to the second version, the hero defeated a huge fish by taking the head of Medusa out of a bag. The whale turned into a rock. Ovid also writes that after the battle Perseus laid his weapon face down. The gaze of Medusa fell on the algae, and they turned into corals.
Finey
The ancient Greek myths about Perseus, however, do not end there. The hero made sacrifices to Athena, Zeus and Hermes, and then decided to celebrate the wedding. Universal fun was disturbed by the appearance of an army led by Phineus, the former fiancé of Andromeda. He accused Perseus of stealing the bride and set out to kill him. The forces of the opponents were unequal. Phinea has long been known in these parts, and he brought many soldiers with him. Seeing that he could lose, Perseus again used the head of Medusa, and all his opponents turned to stone.
For some time the hero stayed in Ethiopia. Then he went with Andromeda to the island of Serif, where his mother was waiting.
Death of Polydect
Perseus found Danus in the temple of Zeus, where she had to hide from the harassment of King Polydect. The hero immediately went to the palace to find the offender of the mother. He found a polydect during the feast. The king clearly did not expect Perseus: the hero had long been considered dead. The son of Zeus announced that he had completed the task - he brought the head of Medusa. However, no one believed him. The already furious Perseus, as evidence, lifted the gorgon's head high, and all those present turned into stone.
Perseus transferred power over the kingdom to Dictis, the brother of Polydect, who once saved the hero and his mother. He himself went to Argos.
A true prediction
The myth of Perseus ends with a narrative of his stay in his homeland. Acrisius, learning about the arrival of his daughter and grandson, fled in fear. Perseus began to rule in Argos. He returned the magic gifts to their owners, and gave the head of Medusa to Athena. The goddess placed her on her carapace on her chest (according to another version - on a shield).
Acrisius still could not escape the predicted. He was killed by a disc that Perseus threw during regular games. The saddened hero buried his grandfather and refused to rule in Argos. He went to Tiryns and ruled there for a long time.
Interpretation
To date, there are several interpretations of all the famous ancient mythological subjects. It is sometimes assumed that behind fantastic adventures lies information about real historical events that were transformed by poets of antiquity into such vivid images. The meaning of the Perseus myth was also interpreted in a similar way. History knows cases where this approach is brought to the point of absurdity. And then Zeus becomes a major official, the golden rain that infiltrated Danae - bribing the guards, and Atlas or Atlas - an astronomer.
According to philological theory, myths are the result of distortions of the language. The names of the gods are derived from the ancient names of such common phenomena as sunlight, wind, fire, rain and clouds. Proponents of the theory provide evidence of the existence in ancient times of a single language that gave rise to Sanskrit and Latin. The main ideas inherent in myths were formed at a time when the ancestors of future peoples lived together. Then, with the change of languages, familiar stories began to form in which, however, one can discover the hidden initial meaning.
Sun movement
Myths of Ancient Greece about Perseus in this theory are attributed to the solar. The names of heroes and gods philologists reduce to the names of natural phenomena in Sanskrit. Danae is the drained land or dawn generated by darkness (Acrisius) in the midst of brightness (so the name of the city of Akros can be translated). She was a lover of heaven (Zeus) and gave rise to a bright day (Perseus). According to the prophecy, he will have to kill his grandfather, that is, darkness.
Jellyfish, according to the theory, personifies a starry night - beautiful, but perishing with the advent of the day. The name of Andromeda also comes down to the Sanskrit designation of dawn, and Cassiopeia and Cepheus represent darkness and night.
Thus, the ancient myths of Perseus tell of the victory of light over darkness, the change of night to a new day. Almost all the traditions of antiquity are interpreted in a similar way. Any myth - about Perseus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Theseus and Ariadne, the exploits of Hercules - appears in this theory in the form of a description of physical phenomena.
Whatever the meaning behind the poetic narrative, ancient legends continue to please with their imagery and colorfulness. The myth of Perseus inspired the creation of great paintings by Delacroix, Rubens, Veronese, Titian. The famous sculpture of Cellini, depicting the hero with the severed head of Medusa in his hand, is still considered the most beautiful decoration of Florence. The works of great authors can be said to be the best reviews of the Perseus myth.