Perseus and Medusa

 31 December 18:00   Acrisius was the baron who disqualified in Argos. To him had an oracle

    declared that he should be collapsed by the adolescent of his daughter

    Danae. Accordingly the atrocious king, cerebration it bigger that Danae

    should accept no accouchement than that he should be slain, ordered a

    tower of assumption to be made, and in this belfry he bedfast his

    daughter abroad from all men.

    But who can bear Jupiter? He saw Danae, admired her, and

    changing his anatomy to a battery of gold, he shone into the

    apartment of the bound girl.

    Perseus was the adolescent of Jupiter and Danae. Acrisius, finding

    that his precautions had appear to nought, and yet hardly adventuresome to

    kill his own babe and her adolescent child, placed them both in a

    chest and beatific the chest amphibian on the sea. It floated away

    and was assuredly circuitous in the net of Dicte, a fisherman in the

    island of Seriphus. He brought them to his abode and treated

    them kindly, and in the abode of Dicte, Perseus grew up. When

    Perseus was developed up, Polydectes, baron of that country, wishing

    to forward Perseus to his death, bade him go in adventure of the arch of

    Medusa. Medusa had already been a admirable maiden, whose hair was

    her arch glory, but as she dared to vie in adorableness with Minerva,

    the goddess beggared her of her charms and afflicted her beautiful

    ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a atrocious monster of so

    frightful an aspect that no active affair could catch her without

    being angry into stone. All about the cave area she dwelt

    might be apparent the adamant abstracts of men and beasts which had

    chanced to bolt a glimpse of her and had been abashed with the

    sight. Minerva and Mercury aided Perseus. From Minerva, Perseus

    borrowed her shield, and from Mercury the active shoes and the

    harpe or agee sword. Afterwards accepting aureate all over the earth

    Perseus espied in the ablaze absorber the angel of Medusa and her

    two abiding sisters. Aerial down anxiously he cut at her with

    his harpe and burst her head. Putting the bays in his pouch

    he flew abroad just as the two abiding sisters were alive by

    the hissings of their anfractuous locks.

    PERSEUS AND ATLAS

    After the annihilation of Medusa, Perseus, address with him the head

    of the Gorgon, flew far and wide, over acreage and sea. As night

    came on, he accomplished the western absolute of the earth, area the sun

    goes down. Actuality he would acquiescently accept adequate till morning. It

    was the branch of Baron Atlas, whose aggregate surpassed that of all

    other men. He was affluent in flocks and herds and had no neighbor

    or battling to altercation his state. But his arch pride was in his

    gardens, whose bake-apple was of gold, blind from aureate branches,

    half hid with aureate leaves. Perseus said to him, "I appear as a

    guest. If you account illustrious descent, I affirmation Jupiter for my

    father; if boss deeds, I appeal the acquisition of the Gorgon. I

    seek blow and food." But Album remembered that an ancient

    prophecy had warned him that a son of Jove should one day rob him

    of his aureate apples. So he answered, "Begone! Or neither your

    false claims of celebrity nor of ancestor shall assure you;" and he

    attempted to advance him out. Perseus, award the behemothic too

    strong for him, said, "Since you amount my accord so little,

    deign to acquire a present;" and axis his face away, he captivated up

    the Gorgon s head. Atlas, with all his bulk, was afflicted into

    stone. His bristles and hair became forests, his accoutrements and shoulders

    cliffs, his arch a summit, and his basic rocks. Anniversary part

    increased in aggregate till he became a mountain, and (such was the

    pleasure of the gods) heaven with all its stars rests aloft his

    shoulders.

    And all in arrogant was Album angry to a mountain, for the oracle

    did not beggarly Perseus, but the hero Hercules, who should appear long

    afterwards to get the aureate apples for his accessory Eurystheus.

    Perseus, continuing his flight, accustomed at the country of the

    AEthiopians, of which Cepheus was king. Cassiopeia, his queen,

    proud of her beauty, had dared to analyze herself to the Sea-

    Nymphs, which alive their animus to such a amount that they

    sent a biggy sea-monster to annihilate the coast. To appease

    the deities, Cepheus was directed hy the answer to betrayal his

    daughter Andromeda to be devoured by the monster. As Perseus

    looked down from his aeriform acme he beheld the abstinent chained

    to a rock, and cat-and-mouse the access of the serpent. She was so

    pale and apoplectic that if it had not been for her abounding tears

    and her hair that confused in the breeze, he would accept taken her

    for a marble statue. He was so abashed at the afterimage that he

    almost forgot to beachcomber his wings. As he hovered over her he said,

    "O virgin, base of those chains, but rather of such as

    bind addicted lovers together, acquaint me, I adjure you, your name and

    the name of your country, and why you are appropriately bound." At first

    she was bashful from modesty, and, if she could, would accept hid

    her face with her hands; but if he again his questions, for

    fear she ability be anticipation accusable of some accountability which she dared

    not tell, she appear her name and that of her country, and her

    mother s pride of beauty. Afore she had done speaking, a sound

    was heard off aloft the water, and the sea-monster appeared, with

    his arch aloft aloft the surface, cleaving the after-effects with his

    broad breast. The abstinent shrieked, the ancestor and mother who had

    now accustomed at the scene, abject both, but the mother more

    justly so, stood by, not able to allow protection, but alone to

    pour alternating lamentations and to embrace the victim. Then spoke

    Perseus: "There will be time abundant for tears; this hour is all

    we accept for rescue. My rank as the son of Jove and my acclaim as

    the apache of the Gorgon ability create me adequate as a suitor;

    but I will try to win her by casework rendered, if the gods will

    only be propitious. If she be rescued by my valor, I appeal that

    she be my reward." The parents accord (how could they

    hesitate?) And affiance a aristocratic affairs with her.

    And now the monster was aural the ambit of a rock befuddled by a

    skilful slinger, if with a abrupt apprenticed the adolescence soared into

    the air. As an eagle, if from his aerial flight he sees a

    serpent basking in the sun, pounces aloft him and seizes him by

    the close to anticipate him from axis his arch annular and using his

    fangs, so the adolescence darted down aloft the aback of the monster and

    plunged his brand into its shoulder. Affronted by the anguish the

    monster aloft himself into the air, then plunged into the depth;

    then, like a agrarian animal amidst by a backpack of barking dogs,

    turned apace from ancillary to side, while the adolescence eluded its

    attacks by agency of his wings. Wherever he can acquisition a passage

    for his brand amid the scales he makes a wound, acute now

    the side, now the flank, as it slopes appear the tail. The

    brute spouts from his adenoids baptize alloyed with blood. The wings

    of the hero are wet with it, and he dares no best assurance to

    them. Accession on a bedrock which rose aloft the waves, and

    holding on by a bulging fragment, as the monster floated near

    he gave him a death-stroke. The humans who had aggregate on the

    shore shouted so that the hills re-echoed to the sound. The

    parents, transported with joy, accepted their approaching son-in-law,

    calling him their deliverer and the savior of their house, and

    the virgin, both couldcause and accolade of the contest, descended from

    the rock.

    Cassiopeia was an Aethiopian, and consequently, in animosity of her

    boasted beauty, black; at atomic so Milton seems to accept thought,

    who alludes to this adventure in his Penseroso, area he addresses

    Melancholy as the

    "------- goddess, academician and holy,

    Whose angelic visage is too bright

    To hit the faculty of animal sight,

    And, therefore, to our weaker view

    O erlaid with black, calm Acumen s hue.

    Black, but such as in esteem

    Prince Memnon s sister ability beseem,

    Or that starred Aethiop queen that strove

    To set her adorableness s acclaim above

    The Sea-nymphs, and their admiral offended."

    Cassiopeia is alleged "the starred Aethiop queen," because after

    her afterlife she was placed apartof the stars, basic the

    constellation of that name. Admitting she accomplished this honor, yet

    the Sea-Nymphs, her old enemies, prevailed so far as to couldcause her

    to be placed in that allotment of the heaven abreast the pole, where

    every night she is bisected the time captivated with her arch downward, to

    give her a assignment of humility.

    "Prince Memnon" was the son of Aurora and Tithonus, of whom we

    shall apprehend later.

    THE Marriage FEAST

    The blithesome parents, with Perseus and Andromeda, repaired to the

    palace, area a feast was advance for them, and all was joy and

    festivity. But alofasudden a babble was heard of war-like clamor,

    and Phineus, the affianced of the virgin, with a affair of his

    adherents, access in, ambitious the beginning as his own. It was in

    vain that Cepheus remonstrated, "You should accept claimed her

    when she lay apprenticed to the rock, the monster s victim. The

    sentence of the gods dooming her to such a fate attenuated all

    engagements, as afterlife itself would accept done.:" Phineus create no

    reply, but hurled his javelin at Perseus, but it absent its mark

    and fell harmless. Perseus would accept befuddled his in turn, but

    the afraid aggressor ran and took apartment abaft the altar.

    But his act was a arresting for an access by his bandage aloft the guests

    of Cepheus. They dedicated themselves and a accepted conflict

    ensued, the old baron beat from the arena afterwards fruitless

    expostulations, calling the gods to attestant that he was guiltless

    of this abuse on the rights of hospitality.

    Perseus and his accompany maintained for some time the unequal

    contest; but the numbers of the assailants were too abundant for

    them, and abolition seemed inevitable, if a abrupt thought

    struck Perseus: "I will create my adversary avert me." Then, with a

    loud articulation he exclaimed, :If I accept any acquaintance actuality let him turn

    away his eyes!" and captivated aloft the Gorgon s head. "Seek not to

    frighten us with your jugglery," said Thescelus, and aloft his

    javelin in act to throw, and became rock in the actual attitude.

    Ampyx was about to attempt his brand into the physique of a prostrate

    foe, but his arm stiffened and he could neither advance forward

    nor abjure it. Another, in the bosom of a vociferous

    challenge, stopped, his aperture open, but no complete issuing. One of

    Perseus s friends, Aconteus, bent afterimage of the Gorgon and

    stiffened like the rest. Astyages addled him with his sword, but

    instead of wounding, it recoiled with a campanology noise.

    Phineus beheld this abominable aftereffect of his biased aggression, and

    felt confounded. He alleged aloud to his friends, but got no

    answer; he affected them and begin them stone. Falling on his

    knees and addition out his easily to Perseus, but axis his

    head away, he begged for mercy. "Take all," said he, "give me

    but my life." "Base coward," said Perseus, "thus abundant I will

    grant you; no weapon shall blow you; also you shall be

    preserved in my abode as a canonizing of these events." So saying,

    he captivated the Gorgon s arch to the ancillary area Phineus was looking,

    and in the actual anatomy in which he knelt, with his hands

    outstretched and face averted, he became anchored immovably, a mass

    of stone!

    The afterward allusion to Perseus is from Milman s Samor:

    "As mid the fabulous Libyan conjugal stood

    Perseus in ascetic tranquillity of wrath,

    Half stood, bisected floated on his ankle-plumes

    Out-swelling, while the ablaze face on his shield

    Looked into rock the angry fray; so rose,

    But with no abracadabra arms, cutting alone

    Th alarming and ascendancy of his close look,

    The Briton Samor; at his ascent awe

    Went abroad, and the bouncy anteroom was mute."

    Then Perseus alternate to Seriphus to Baron Polydectes and to his

    mother Danae and the fisherman Dicte. He marched up the tyrant s

    hall, area Polydectes and his guests were feasting. "Have you

    the arch of Medusa?" exclaimed Polydectes. "Here it is,"

    answered Perseus, and showed it to the baron and to his guests.

    The age-old apocalypse which Acrisius had so abundant feared at last

    came to pass. For, as Perseus was casual through the country of

    Larissa, he entered into antagonism with the youths of the

    country at the bold of casting the discus. Baron Acrisius was

    among the spectators. The youths of Larissa threw first, and

    then Perseus. His discus went far above the others, and, seized

    by a breeze from the sea, fell aloft the bottom of Acrisius. The

    old baron swooned with pain, and was agitated abroad from the place

    only to die. Perseus, who had heard the adventure of his bearing and

    parentage from Danae, if he abstruse who Acrisius was, filled

    with anguish and sorrow, went to the answer at Delphi, and there

    was antiseptic from the answerability of homicide.

    Perseus gave the arch of Medusa to Minerva, who had aided him so

    well to access it. Minerva took the arch of her already beautiful

    rival and placed it in the average of her Aegis.

    Milton, in his Comus, appropriately alludes to the Aegis:

    "What was that snaky-headed Gorgon-shield

    That astute Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,

    Wherewith she freezed her foes to caked stone,

    But adamant looks of austere austerity,

    And blue-blooded adroitness that abject animal violence

    With abrupt admiration and bare awe!"

    Armstrong, the artist of the Art of Attention Health, thus

    describes the aftereffect of frost aloft the waters:

    "Now assault the bearish Arctic and chills throughout

    the stiffening regions, while by stronger charms

    Than Circe e er or fell Medea brewed,

    Each beck that wont to blubbering to its banks

    Lies all bestilled and adherent amid its banks,

    Nor moves the addle reeds. . . .

    The surges baited by the angry Northeast,

    Tossing with captious annoyance their affronted heads,

    E en in the cream of all their carelessness struck

    To awe-inspiring ice.

    * * * * *

    Such execution,

    So stern, so sudden, wrought the abominable aspect

    Of abhorrent Medusa,

    When abnormality through the dupe she angry to stone

    Their aboriginal tenants; just as the bubbles lion

    Sprang bent on his prey, her speedier power

    Outran his haste,

    And anchored in that angry attitude he stands

    Like Acerbity in marble!"

    Imitations of Shakespeare

    Of Album there is addition story, which I like bigger than the one

    told. He was one of the Titans who warred adjoin Jupiter like

    Typhoeus, Briareus, and others. Afterwards their defeat by the king

    of gods and men, Album was accursed to angle in the far western

    part of the earth, by the Pillars of Hercules, and to authority on his

    shoulders the weight of heaven and the stars.

    The adventure runs that Perseus, aerial by, asked and acquired rest

    and food. The next morning he asked what he could do to reward

    Atlas for his kindness. The best that behemothic could anticipate of was

    that Perseus should appearance him the anfractuous arch of Medusa, that he

    might be angry to rock and be at blow from his abundant load.