Chapters 9-12
MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS & HEROES
PERSEUSFirst of the mythic Greek heroes
Origins of Perseus Son of Zeus and Denae Zeus came to Denae in a shower
of gold The Oracle told Denae’s father,
King Acrisius of Argos, that his daughter’s son would one day kill him
The king threw Denae and Perseus into the water in a wooden chest
Mother and child washed onto shore
Perseus raised by Dictys (brother to Polydectes) who rescued them
The Quest for Medusa Polydectes, the king of the
island Seriphos is in love with Denae
Perseus will not allow the king to marry his mother
The king sends Perseus on a seemingly impossible quest
He is to bring back the head of Medusa as a gift
The king figured Perseus would be turned to stone once he looked at her
Medusa the Gorgon One of the Gorgon sisters Depicted as beautiful and
terrifying Born beautiful like her sisters;
she was vain about her hair Athena punishes Medusa for
her relationship with Poseidon Athena turns her hair into
serpents Athena makes her face so
terrifying that one look at her would turn a man to stone
The Graeae – The Gray Women
Perseus consults Athena about how to cut off Medusa’s head
He’s directed to the Graeae to ask them the whereabouts of the Hesperides, who have weapons to defeat Medusa
The Graeae are three perpetually old women who share one eye and one tooth between them
Perseus steals the eye and demands to know where he can find the Hesperides (nymphs)
Hesperides (Nymphs) Nymphs tending Hera’s
orchard Hesperides give Perseus
a knapsack to hold the head of Medusa
From Zeus he receives an “adamantine sword” and the “cloak of invisibility”
Hermes loans Perseus some winged sandals
Athena gives him a polished shield
The Slaying of Medusa Perseus visits the gorgons’
cave He views Medusa only through
the reflection on his polished shield
He hovered above her with his winged
Slays Medusa with his adamantine sword
Escapes from the sisters Gorgon by using the cloak of invisibility
The Rescue of Andromeda On his return journey Perseus
stops at Ethiopia He finds that a lovely maiden
has been given up to be devoured by a horrible sea serpent
Andromeda was daughter of Casiopeaia, who was being punished for her vanity
Poseidon sends sea serpents to gobble up the Ethiopians
Perseus falls in love with Andromeda and rescues her
Polydectes Turned to Stone Perseus returns to his
mother with Andromeda and Medusa’s head
His mother is in hiding, afraid of King Polydectes
When he shows the head to the kin and his servants they all turned to stone
The island was free from the tyrant Polydectes
The Prophecy Fulfilled Perseus and Denae return to
Argos to be reconciled with Acrisius
They found the king had been driven away and no one knew where to find him
Perseus enters a discus-throwing competition in Larissa
He hurls the discus into the crowd and it hits and kills Acrisius
THESEUS
Theseus, King of Athens Son of Athenian King, Aegeus Raised by his mother in
southern Greece When he first went to Athens to
meet his father, he refused to go by sea, because it was too safe
He wanted to prove himself as a hero on the way to Athens
He meets and defeats a number of nasty monsters and villains along the way, including:
Villian: Procrustes Kept a house by the side of the road
where he offered hospitality to passing strangers
Invited his guests in for a night’s rest in his very special bed.
Procrustes described it as having the unique property that its length exactly matched whomsoever lay down upon it.
This "one-size-fits-all" was achieved by stretching the guest on the rack if he was too short for the bed and chopping off his legs if he was too long.
Theseus turned the tables on Procrustes, fatally adjusting him to fit his own bed.
Villain: Sinis the Pinebender Bandit and son of Poseidon Known as “Pinebender” Killed people by fastening
them to two pine trees bent to the ground
Catapulted them to their deaths
Theseus captured Sinis and catapulted him to his death in the same manner
Villian: Sciron
Made those he captured kneel to wash his feet and then kicked them over a cliff into the sea into the mouth of a giant turtle
Theseus killed Sciron by hurling him over a precipiece
Quest for the Minotaur Greatest deed was killing the
minotaur Every seven years King Minos
of Crete forces Athenians to send a seven boys and seven girls to Crete where they are fed to the Minotaur - a half-man, half-bull who lives a maze called the Labyrinth.
Theseus volunteers to be one of the boys and gets sent to Crete
Ariadne When Theseus arrives at
Crete, King Minos’s daughter falls in love with him
Ariadne assists Theseus to slay the Minotaur by giving him a ball of string
Theseus agrees to take Ariadne with him in exchange for her help
He slays the minotaur Finds his way out by
following the ball of string
The Return to Athens On the return trip to Athens
Theseus leaves Ariadne on the island of Naxxos
Dionysus claims her as his wife-to-be
Theseus forgets to remove the black sail on his ship and to replace it with a white one
Aegeus then thinks Theseus is dead and throws himself into the sea
The Geography of Greece
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