Immediately after killing Medusa, Perseus employed her severed head as being a weapon, turning most of his enemies to stone. In Libya, he employed Medusa’s head to get rid of the monster Cetus and preserve Andromeda, who turned his wife.
Biding her time, the unborn Minerva plotted her emergence within the womb. At long last, she burst forth from Jupiter’s forehead, totally developed and ready for fight. Some accounts claimed that Vulcan, the god of metallurgy, served like a midwife of sorts by prying open up Jupiter’s head using an axe and delivering Minerva; the moment has been the topic of inventive renderings equally ancient and modern-day.
Not all ancient resources interpreted the myth of Medusa virtually. As outlined by Athenaeus, a Greek writer who lived in the course of the late 2nd and early 3rd hundreds of years CE, the Gorgons have been extended-haired beasts, so terrifying that all who appeared on them have been paralyzed and killed.[26]
Many later versions of the myth claimed that she was after a wonderful maiden loved by Poseidon. Nevertheless the younger Medusa offended Athena and was for that reason cursed to generally be a terrible monster, eternally hunted by Adult men.
Impressed by Roman antiquities, this 18th century Minerva wears a flooring-size chiton and an aegis fastened with a Medusa head believed to beat back evil. She carries a protect and wears a Corinthian struggle helmet that is pushed back to reveal her attributes. The Metropolitan Museum of ArtPublic Domain
Cassiopeia and Cepheus agreed (however no Model of the myth describes why they abandoned their ideas for sacrifice). Perseus subsequently killed Cetus and established Andromeda totally free.
Perseus and Andromeda soon traveled to Greece, wherever they had several small children. These are remembered as being the ancestors of many fantastic heroes, which includes Heracles.
Medusa was sooner or later killed by Perseus, one among Zeus’ heroic sons. With the assistance of quite a few gods, Perseus tracked Medusa down to her remote lair and beheaded her.
Pausanias, a geographer who lived in the next century CE, wrote that in his own time The key sanctuaries to Perseus ended up in Seriphos and Athens. He also described an altar for the hero on the street from Mycenae to Argos.
Andromeda was So chained to a cliff about the seashore to be devoured by a sea monster despatched by Poseidon.
Chained to a rock and remaining within the seashore, Andromeda would've been killed experienced it not been for Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, who passed by at just the proper instant.
Acrisius, nonetheless scared of the prophecy that he would be killed by his grandson, locked Danae and the infant Perseus in a chest, which he threw into your sea. The upper body floated throughout the sea For lots of times until it last but not least washed ashore over the island of Seriphos.
She also warned him that after he sowed the dragon’s enamel, a race of warriors would sprout from your earth, and that the only method to beat them can be to trick them into killing each other.
The parable of Perseus does seem in present-day well-liked culture, whether or not Perseus will not be as familiar as A few other Greek mythical figures (such as Heracles).
An early hero in addition to a famous slayer of monsters, Perseus was ordinarily read more represented While using the weapons and artifacts he been given with the gods to combat Medusa: an unbreakable sword, a helmet of invisibility, a mirror shield, winged sandals, and a magic satchel.