Perseus was one of the oldest and most important of the Greek heroes, the son of Zeus and the mortal princess Danaë, the slayer of Medusa, the rescuer of Andromeda, and the legendary founder of Mycenae. He was the great-grandfather of the heroes of the Trojan War, including Heracles and Helen of Troy, and his myth was subjects in Greek art. The constellation Perseus, named for the hero, is one of the most recognizable in the night sky.
The Birth of Perseus
Perseus was the son of Zeus and the mortal princess Danaë, the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. According to one tradition, Acrisius had received a prophecy that he would be killed by the son of his daughter, so he locked Danaë in a bronze chamber to keep her from any man. Zeus, however, came to her in the form of a shower of gold, and she conceived Perseus.
When Acrisius discovered that Danaë had borne a child, he refused to believe that the father was Zeus. He locked Danaë and the infant Perseus in a chest and set them adrift on the sea. They drifted to the island of Serifos, where they were rescued by the fisherman Dictys. Dictys took them to his brother, King Polydectes, who raised Perseus as his foster son.
The Quest for Medusa
As Perseus grew to manhood, King Polydectes fell in love with his mother Danaë and wanted to marry her. Perseus opposed the match, so Polydectes devised a trick. He announced that he was going to marry the daughter of a friend, and he asked all the eligible young men of the island to bring him a gift of horses. Perseus had no horses and could not afford a gift, so he rashly offered to bring the king the head of the Gorgon Medusa, one of the most dangerous beings in the world.
Perseus set off on the quest, and the gods came to his aid. Athena gave him a polished bronze shield, which he could use as a mirror to look at Medusa without being turned to stone. Hermes gave him winged sandals to fly, a magical cap of invisibility, and a special curved sword, the harpe. Hades, the god of the underworld, also lent him his helm of darkness, which made the wearer invisible.
Perseus flew to the ends of the earth, where the three Gorgons lived. He found the Gorgons asleep, and using Athena’s shield as a mirror, he cut off Medusa’s head with a single stroke of his sword. From the blood of Medusa, two beings sprang forth: the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor, both conceived by Poseidon when he had raped Medusa in Athena’s temple.
The Rescue of Andromeda
On his way back to Serifos, Perseus flew over the kingdom of Aethiopia, where he saw the princess Andromeda, the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia, chained to a rock by the sea, about to be devoured by a sea-monster. The monster had been sent by Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia for her boast that she (or, in some versions, her daughter) was more beautiful than the Nereids.
Perseus fell in love with Andromeda at first sight, and he offered to kill the monster in exchange for her hand. Cepheus and Cassiopeia agreed, and Perseus killed the sea-monster, in some versions by showing it the head of Medusa and turning it to stone. He married Andromeda, and they had several children, including Perses, who became the ancestor of the Persians (in the Greek version of the myth), and Electryon, the grandfather of Heracles.
The Return to Serifos
Perseus returned to Serifos with Andromeda and found that Polydectes had finally forced Danaë to marry him. Perseus went to the palace, where Polydectes was feasting with his friends. Perseus refused to give him the Gorgon’s head, and Polydectes attacked him. Perseus drew the head from the bag and turned Polydectes and all his friends to stone. He made Dictys, the fisherman who had saved his mother, the new king of Serifos.
Perseus then returned the magical weapons: the winged sandals and the cap of darkness to Hermes, and the Gorgon’s head to Athena, who mounted it on her aegis, where it continued to terrify the enemies of the gods.
The Founding of Mycenae
Perseus, with his wife Andromeda, traveled to the Peloponnese, where he founded the city of Mycenae. According to the myth, he was wandering in search of water when he saw a mushroom growing from the ground. He struck the mushroom with his sword, and water gushed forth. He named the city Mycenae after the mushroom (myces in Greek).
Perseus was unable to enter the city of Argos, his grandfather Acrisius’s kingdom, because of the prophecy that he would kill his grandfather. He exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes, the king of Tiryns, and ruled Tiryns instead. But fate, as it always does in Greek myth, caught up with him.
The Death of Perseus
According to the prophecy, Perseus was destined to kill his grandfather Acrisius. The opportunity came when Perseus was competing in athletic games at Larissa. He threw a discus, and the wind carried it into the crowd, where it struck and killed an old man. The old man turned out to be Acrisius, who had come to the games.
Perseus was filled with grief at having killed his grandfather, and he refused to return to Argos. He went to Tiryns and ruled there for a time, and was eventually buried in the city. According to Pausanias, his tomb was at the head of the road leading to Mycenae.
The Children of Perseus
Perseus and Andromeda had several children:
- Perses, the ancestor of the Persians
- Electryon, the grandfather of Heracles and the father of Alcmene
- Sthenelus, the king of Mycenae who was the father of Eurystheus, the king who set Heracles the Twelve Labors
- Heleus, in some traditions
- Cassiopeia, in some traditions
- Gorgophone, who married two husbands in succession
The descendants of Perseus thus included the greatest of Greek heroes, including Heracles and the heroes of the Trojan War.
The Cultural Legacy of Perseus
Perseus is of the Greek heroes, and his myth has been retold in countless works of literature, art, and film. Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa, in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, is one of the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. The constellation Perseus, named for the hero, contains many famous stars, including Algol, the “demon star,” which is said to represent the eye of Medusa.
In modern fiction, Perseus appears in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, in the 2010 remake, in countless video games, and in the Percy Jackson series, where he is portrayed as a wise mentor to the hero. The Perseus legend has been retold by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, by Apollodorus in the Bibliotheca, and by countless other ancient and modern writers.
For more on the mythological context, see our profile of Perseus, our guide to the Greek heroes, and our profiles of Medusa, Andromeda, and Pegasus. For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture.