Текст книги "The Library of Greek Mythology"

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²²When he had been delivered from the Harpies, Phineus told the Argonauts what route to take, and advised them about the Symplegades [or Clashing Rocks], which lay before them in the sea. These were rocks of enormous size which were forced into collision by the power of the winds and closed the passage through the sea. Thick mist swirled over them, the crash was tremendous, and it was impossible even for birds to pass between them. So Phineus advised the Argonauts to release a dove between the rocks, and if they saw it pass safely between them, to sail through in full confidence, but if it was destroyed, to make no attempt to force a passage. After hearing his advice, they put out to sea, and when they were close to the rocks, they released a dove from the prow; and as she flew, only the tip of her tail was snipped off as the rocks clashed together. So they waited until the rocks had drawn apart again, and with hard rowing and some assistance from Hera they made their way through, although the tip of the vessel’s poop was shorn away. Ever afterwards, the Symplegades stood motionless; for it was fated that when a ship had passed through them, they would remain completely still.

²³The Argonauts arrived next at the land of the Mariandynians, where they received a friendly welcome from Lycos, their king. It was there that Idmon the diviner met his death, from a wound inflicted by a boar; Tiphys died there too, and Ancaios took over as steersman of the ship.

Jason, Medea, and the seizure of the fleece

They sailed past the River Thermodon and the Caucasos to arrive at the River Phasis, which lies in the land of Colchis. When the ship was moored, Jason visited Aietes, and explained what Pelias had told him to do and asked to be given the fleece. Aietes promised to hand it over if, without assistance, Jason yoked the bronze-footed bulls. These were two wild bulls that he owned, of exceptional size, a gift from Hephaistos; they had hooves of bronze and breathed fire from their mouths. And after he had yoked these bulls, Jason was to sow some dragon’s teeth—for Aietes had received from Athene half of the dragon’s teeth that Cadmos had sowed at Thebes.* When Jason was at his wit’s end about how he could yoke the bulls, Medea fell in love with him. Now Medea, the daughter of Aietes and Eiduia, daughter of Oceanos, was a sorceress; and fearing that Jason might be killed by the bulls, she offered, in secret from her father, to help him yoke the bulls and obtain the fleece, if he would swear to accept her as his wife and take her with him when he sailed back to Greece. When he swore to do so, she gave him a potion,* and told him to rub it on to his shield and spear and his body when he set out to yoke the bulls, explaining that when he had been anointed with the potion, he would be invulnerable for a day to fire and steel alike. And she revealed to him that when the teeth were sown, armed men would spring up from the ground to attack him; and when he saw them gathered in a group, he should throw stones into their midst from a distance, which would cause them to fight amongst themselves, and he should then kill them. On hearing Medea’s advice, Jason rubbed himself with the potion and made his way to the temple grove to search for the bulls; and although they charged him breathing flame, he put them under the yoke.* And then, after he had sowed the dragon’s teeth, armed men sprang up from the ground. Where he saw a number of them together, he hurled stones at them, without revealing his presence; and as they were fighting amongst themselves, he went forward and killed them.

Although the bulls had been yoked, Aietes refused to surrender the fleece; and he wanted to set fire to the Argoand kill its crew. Before he could put his plan into effect, Medea guided Jason to the fleece by night and used her drugs to send the guardian dragon to sleep, and then, carrying the fleece with her, made her way back to the Argowith Jason. She was accompanied by her brother Apsyrtos too. And during the night, the Argonauts put out to sea with them.

The murder of Apsyrtos and journey to Circe

²⁴When Aietes discovered what Medea had dared to do, he set out in pursuit of the ship. But when Medea saw him drawing close, she murdered her brother,* cut him up, and threw the pieces into the sea; and as Aietes delayed to gather up the limbs of his child, he fell behind in the chase. So he turned his ship around, and buried what he had saved of his son’s remains, naming the burial place Tomoi *But he sent many of the Colchians in search of the Argo, threatening that if they failed to recover Medea, they themselves would undergo the punishment intended for her. So they separated and carried the search to many different areas.

The Argonauts had already passed the River Eridanos when Zeus, angered by the murder of Apsyrtos, sent a violent storm against them and drove them off course. And as they were sailing past the Apsyrtides Islands, the ship spoke out, saying that the anger of Zeus would not come to an end unless they travelled to Ausonia to be purified by Circe for the murder of Apsyrtos. So they sailed past the Ligurian and Celtic peoples,* crossed the Sardinian Sea, skirted Tyrrhenia, and arrived at Aiaie,* where they approached Circe as suppliants and were purified.

To the land of the Phaeacians

²⁵As they were sailing past the Sirens, Orpheus sang a song to counter their own,* thus holding the Argonauts back. Boutes alone tried to swim off towards them; but Aphrodite carried him off and settled him at Lilybaeum.

After the Sirens, Charybdis and Scylla awaited the ship, and then the Wandering Rocks, over which quantities of flame and smoke were seen to rise. But Thetis guided the ship through with the help of the Nereids, in response to a summons from Hera.

After skirting the island of Thrinacia, which held the cattle of the Sun, they came to the island of the Phaeacians,* Corcyra, which was ruled by Alcinoos. Now the Colchians had been unable to find the ship, and some of them went to settle in the Ceraunian mountains, while others travelled to Illyria and colonized the Apsyrtides islands. But some of them came to Phaeacia, and finding the Argothere, they asked Alcinoos to surrender Medea to them. He replied that if she had already slept with Jason, he would leave her with him, but if she were still a virgin, he would send her back to her father. But Arete, the wife of Alcinoos, took the initiative by marrying Medea to Jason; so the Colchians settled amongst the Phaeacians, and the Argonauts set out to sea with Medea.

Anaphe; Talos in Crete

²⁶As they were sailing along by night, they met with a violent storm;* but Apollo, taking position on the summit of the Melantian Rocks, shot an arrow into the sea, causing a flash of lightning. They then beheld an island close at hand, where they cast anchor, naming it Anaphe*because it had appearedto them against all expectation. They raised an altar there to Radiant Apollo, and when they had sacrificed, they settled down to feast. Now Medea had received as a gift from Arete twelve servant girls, who aimed playful jokes at the heroes; and that is why it is the custom even to this day for the women to make jokes* at the sacrifice.

After setting sail from Anaphe, they were prevented from coming ashore at Crete by Talos. It is said by some that he belonged to the race of bronze, while according to others, he had been given to Minos by Hephaistos; he was a man of bronze,* or, according to some accounts, a bull.* He had a single vein* which ran from his neck to his ankles, with a bronze nail driven into its end. Talos kept watch by running round the island three times a day, and so on this occasion too, when he saw the Argoapproaching, he pelted it with stones. But Medea tricked him and caused his death. According to some, she drove him mad with her drugs, while according to others, she promised to make him immortal and pulled out the nail, causing him to die when all the ichor flowed away.* And there are some who say that Poias killed him, by shooting an arrow into his ankle.

The return to Iolcos and murder of Pelias

After remaining in Crete for a single night, they made Aegina their next port of call, to replenish their water; and a competition developed* between them as they fetched the water. From there they sailed between Euboea and Locris to arrive at Iolcos, completing the entire voyage in four months.

²⁷Pelias had abandoned any expectation of the Argonauts’ return and wanted to put Aison to death.* Aison asked, however, that he should be allowed to take his own life, and while he was offering a sacrifice, he drank the bull’s blood* without fear, and died. Jason’s mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself, leaving an infant son, Promachos; but Pelias killed even the son whom she had left behind. When Jason arrived back, he delivered the fleece, and desiring vengeance for the wrongs that he had suffered, he waited for a suitable occasion. For the present, he sailed to the Isthmus with the other heroes and dedicated the ship to Poseidon; but afterwards, he urged Medea to find a way to punish Pelias. So she went to the palace of Pelias and persuaded his daughters to chop their father into small pieces and boil him, promising to restore his youth with her drugs; and to gain their confidence, she cut up a ram and changed it into a lamb by boiling it. After that, they believed her, and chopped their father to pieces and boiled him.* Acastos buried his father with the help of the inhabitants of Iolcos, and banished Jason and Medea from the country.

The later history of Medea

²⁸They went to Corinth, where they lived happily for ten years, until Creon,* the king of Corinth, offered his daughter, Glauce, to Jason, who then put Medea aside and married her. So Medea, calling as her witnesses the gods whom Jason had sworn by, and after many a reproach to Jason for his ingratitude, sent his bride a robe steeped in poison. When Glauce put it on she was consumed by a raging fire,* as was her father when he tried to save her. And then, after killing Mermeros and Pheres, her children by Jason, Medea received from the Sun a chariot* drawn by winged dragons, and fled on it to Athens. According to another account, when Medea was fleeing, she abandoned her children, who were still very young, by seating them as suppliants on the altar of Hera Acraia; but the Corinthians forced them away* from the altar and inflicted fatal injuries on them.

So Medea went to Athens, where she married Aigeus,* and bore him a son, Medos.* Afterwards, however, when she tried to plot against Theseus, she was driven from Athens and went into exile with her son. Medos conquered many of the barbarians, and gave the name Media to the whole territory under his control. He died during an expedition against the Indians. Medea returned to Colchis without being recognized, and finding that Aietes had been deprived of his kingdom by his brother Perses, she killed Perses* and restored the throne to her father.

BOOK II

4. Early Argive mythology (the Inachids, Belid line)

The early descendants of Inachos

¹Now that we have given a full account of the family of Deucalion, let us proceed to that of Inachos.

Oceanos and Tethys had a son, Inachos,* after whom the River Inachos in Argos is named. To Inachos and Melia, daughter of Oceanos, two sons were born, Phoroneus and Aigialeus.* Aigialeus died without offspring, and the whole country was called Aigialeia; and Phoroneus, who reigned over the whole of what would later be called the Peloponnese, fathered Apis and Niobe by a nymph, Teledice.

Apis turned his power into a tyranny; a brutal tyrant, he named the Peloponnese Apia after himself, and died childless as the result of a plot by Thelxion and Telchis. He was reckoned to be a god and was called Sarapis.* Niobe, for her part, had a son, Argos, by Zeus (she was the first mortal woman with whom he had intercourse), and according to Acousilaos, she had another son, Pelasgos,* and the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called the Pelasgians* after him. According to Hesiod, however, Pelasgos was born from the earth; ²but we will return to him later. Argos took over the kingdom, calling the Peloponnese Argos* after himself; and marrying Evadne, daughter of Strymon and Neaira, he had four sons, Ecbasos, Peiras, Epidauros, and Criasos, who succeeded to the kingdom in his turn.

Ecbasos had a son, Agenor, and Agenor had a son, Argos, the one who is known as Panoptes [or the All-Seeing]. He had eyes all over his body,* and being endowed with exceptional strength, he killed the bull that was bringing ruin to Arcadia and clothed himself in its hide; and when a Satyr ill-treated the Arcadians and robbed them of their cattle, he confronted him and put him to death. And they say of Echidna* too, the daughter of Tartaros and Ge who used to snatch away passers-by, that Argos watched out until she was asleep and then killed her. He also avenged the death of Apis by killing those who were responsible.

The wanderings of Io, and division of the Inachid line

³Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, had a son, Iasos, who is said to have been the father of Io. But Castor, the author of the Chronicles, and many of the tragic poets claim that Io was a daughter of Inachos; while Hesiod and Acousilaos say that she was a daughter of Peiren.* Zeus seduced Io* while she held the priesthood of Hera, but when Hera found him out, he transformed the girl with a touch into a white cow and swore that he had never made love with her; and for that reason, according to Hesiod, oaths made for love attract no anger from the gods. But Hera asked Zeus for the cow, and placed it under the guard of Argos the All-Seeing. (Pherecydes says that this Argos was a son of Arestor, Asclepiades that he was a son of Inachos, and Cercops that he was a son of Argos and Ismene, daughter of Asopos, while according to Acousilaos, he was born from the earth.) Hera tethered the cow to the olive tree which lay in the sacred grove of the Mycenaeans. Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, but the plan was betrayed by Hierax,* and since Hermes was now unable to steal the cow without being seen, he killed Argosby throwing a stone at him; and that is how he came to be called Argeiphontes*Hera sent a gadfly after the cow; the animal went first to the IonianGulf,* which bears that name because of her, and then, after travelling through Illyria and over Mount Haimos, she crossed what was then called the Thracian Sound but is now called the Bosporos*because of her. From there she went to Scythia and the land of the Cimmerians, wandering a great distance overland and swimming a great distance through the sea, in Europe and Asia alike, until she finally arrived in Egypt, where she recovered her original form, and gave birth to a son, Epaphos, by the banks of the River Nile. Hera asked the Curetes to steal the child away, and they did so. When Zeus learned of it, he killed the Curetes, and Io, for her part, went in search of her child. She wandered through the whole of Syria (for it had been revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblos was nursing her son there), and when she had discovered Epaphos,* she returned to Egypt and married Telegonos, who was king of the Egyptians at the time. She erected a statue of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis; and they gave this name, Isis, to Io likewise.

⁴When Epaphos became king of the Egyptians, he married Memphis, daughter of the Nile, founded the city of Memphis in her name, and fathered a daughter, Libya, after whom the land of Libya was named. By Poseidon, Libya had twin sons, Agenor and Belos. Agenor departed to Phoenicia, where he became king and the founder of a great line, and for that reason, we shall reserve our treatment of him until later.* But Belos* remained in Egypt, where he became king, and married Anchinoe, daughter of the Nile, who bore him twin sons, Aigyptos and Danaos (and according to Euripides, Cepheus and Phineus in addition).

Aigyptos, Danaos, and the Danaids

Belos established Danaos in Libya and Aigyptos in Arabia; but Aigyptos conquered the land of the Melampodes* too, and named it Egypt after himself. Both had children by many different women, Aigyptos fifty sons and Danaos fifty daughters. Later, they quarrelled over the throne, and Danaos, fearing the sons of Aigyptos, constructed a ship on the advice of Athene– he was the first man to do so*—and putting his daughters on board, he fled the country.

Calling in at Rhodes, he set up the statue of Lindian Athene; and from there he went to Argos, where Gelanor, who was king at the time, surrendered the throne to him.* [After he had taken control of the country, Danaos named its inhabitants the Danaans after himself.*] There was no water in the land, because Poseidon had caused even the springs to run dry in his anger against Inachos for having testified that the land belonged to Hera;* so Danaos sent his daughters in search of water. Now one of them, Amymone, during her search, threw a javelin at a deer and hit a sleeping Satyr, who leapt up and was eager to make love with her; but when Poseidon appeared, the Satyr fled, and Amymone slept with Poseidon, who then revealed the springs of Lerna* to her.

⁵The sons of Aigyptos came to Argos, and they invited Danaos to call an end to his hostility and asked to marry his daughters. Although Danaos distrusted their protestations and bore them a grudge because of his exile, he agreed to the marriages and apportioned the girls by lot. Hypermnestra, the eldest, was selected to be the wife of Lynceus, and Gorgophone to be the wife of Proteus; for Lynceus and Proteus were borne to Aigyptos by a woman of royal blood, Argyphie. Of those who remained, Bousiris, Encelados, Lycos, and Daiphron obtained in the lot the daughters who were borne to Danaos by Europe, namely, Automate, Amymone, Agave, and Scaie. These were borne to Danaos by a woman of royal blood; Gorgophone and Hypermnestra, for their part, were borne to him by Elephantis. Istros obtained Hippodameia in the lot; Chalcodon, Rhodia; Agenor, Cleopatra; Chaitos, Asteria; Diocorystes, [Phylodameia]; Alces, Glauce; Alcmenor, Hippomedousa; Hippothoos, Gorge; Euchenor, Iphimedousa; and Hippolytos, Rhode. These ten sons were borne by an Arabian woman, and the daughters by hamadryad nymphs, some being daughters of Atlanteia, others of Phoebe. Agaptolemos obtained Peirene in the lot; Cercetes, Dorion; Eurydamas, Phartis; Aigios, Mnestra; Argios, Evippe; Archelaos, Anaxibia; and Menemachos, Nelo. These seven sons were borne by a Phoenician woman, and the daughters by an Ethiopian woman. The sons borne by Tyria obtained the daughters of Memphis as their wives, not through the lot, but because of the similarity of their names, Cleitos obtaining Cleite; Sthenelos, Sthenele; and Chrysippos, Chrysippe. The twelve sons of Aigyptos by the naiad nymph Caliadne cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by the naiad nymph Polyxo. The sons were Eurylochos, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermos, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixos, Imbros, Bromios, Polyctor, and Cthonios; the daughters were Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Antheleia, Cleodore, Evippe, Erato, Stygne, and Bryce. The sons of Aigyptos by Gorgo cast lots for the daughters of Danaos by Pieria. Periphas obtained Actaie; Oineus, Podarce; Aigyptos, Dioxippe; Menalces, Adite; Lampos, Ocypete; and Idmon, Pylarge. To proceed to the youngest sons, Idas obtained Hippodice, and Daiphron Adiante (the mother of these two girls was Herse); Pandion obtained Callidice; Arbelos, Oime; Hyperbios, Celaino; and Hippocorystes, Hyperippe: these were sons of Hephaistine and daughters of Crino respectively.

When they had obtained their brides in the lot and the marriage feast had been celebrated, Danaos handed daggers to his daughters, and they killed their bridegrooms as they slept, except for Hypermnestra, who spared Lynceus* because he had allowed her to preserve her virginity. Danaos imprisoned her for this, and kept her under guard. The rest of his daughters buried the heads of their bridegrooms at Lerna and held funerals for their bodies in front of the city; and they were purified* by Athene and Hermes on the orders of Zeus. Danaos later reunited Hypermnestra to Lynceus, and gave his other daughters in marriage to the victors at an athletic contest.*

Amymone bore a son, Nauplios, to Poseidon. This Nauplios lived to a great age, sailing the seas, and using beacon fires to draw those who came across him to their death. And it turned out that he himself met his death in that very manner.* Before his death, he married Clymene, daughter of Catreus (according to the tragic poets, but according to the author of the Returns, Philyra, or according to Cercops, Hesione), and had three sons by her, Palamedes, Oiax, and Nausimedon.

Proitos and Acrisios divide the Argolid

¹Lynceus became king of Argos after Danaos, and had a son,

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Abas, by Hypermnestra; and Abas had twin sons, Acrisios and Proitos, by Aglaia, daughter of Mantineus. The twins quarrelled with one another even while they were still in the womb, and when they grew up, they went to war over the kingdom. (It was during this war that they became the first inventors of shields.) Acrisios gained the upper hand and drove Proitos from Argos. Arriving in Lycia at the court of Iobates, or according to some, of Amphianax, Proitos married the king’s daughter, whom Homer calls Anteia,* and the tragic poets, Stheneboia. His father-in-law, with a Lycian army, restored Proitos to his own land, and he took possession of Tiryns, which was fortified for him by the Cyclopes.* The brothers divided the whole of the Argolid between them, and made it their home, Acrisios ruling in Argos, and Proitos in Tiryns.

Bias, Melampous, and the daughters of Proitos

²By Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaimon, Acrisios had a daughter, Danae, and Proitos had three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboia. When the daughters of Proitos were fully grown, they went mad, because, according to Hesiod, they refused to accept the rites of Dionysos, or, according to Acousilaos, because they had disparaged the wooden image of Hera.* In their madness, they wandered through the whole of the Argolid, and then, after passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese, rushed through the desert in a state of complete abandon. Melampous, the son of Amythaon and Eidomene, daughter of Abas, who was a diviner and the first man to discover that illnesses could be cured by drugs and purifications, promised to cure the girls if he was given a third of the kingdom in return. When Proitos refused to hand them over for treatment at such a high price, not only did the girls’ madness grow worse, but the other women* went mad also; for they too deserted their houses, destroyed their own children, and wandered into the wilderness. The calamity had developed to such an extreme that Proitos now offered to pay the demanded fee; but Melampous would promise to undertake the cure only if his brother Bias received a share of the land equal to his own. Fearing that if the cure were delayed, a still greater fee would be demanded of him, Proitos agreed to the cure on these terms.* So Melampous took the most vigorous of the young men, and with loud cries and ecstatic dancing, they chased the women out of the mountains and into Sicyon. During the pursuit, the eldest of Proitos’ daughters, Iphinoe, met her death; but the other two were duly purified, and recovered their reason. Proitos gave his daughters in marriage to Melampous and Bias, and later became the father of a son, Megapenthes.

Excursus: the story of Bellerophon

¹Bellerophon, the son of Glaucos and grandson of Sisyphos,

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had accidentally killed his brother* Deliades (or according to some, Peiren, or according to others, Alcimenes) and came to Proitos to be purified.* Stheneboia fell in love with him,* and sent word to him proposing an assignation; but when he refused, she told Proitos that Bellerophon had been sending her messages in the hope of seducing her. Proitos believed her, and gave Bellerophon a letter to deliver to Iobates,* which con tained a message that he should put Bellerophon to death; so when Iobates had read it, he told him to kill the Chimaera, believing that he would be destroyed by the monster. For it was no easy prey for a multitude of men, let alone for one, seeing that it was a single creature which yet had the power of three, having the foreparts of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a third head in the middle*—a goat’s head, through which it breathed fire. The beast was devastating the land and destroying the cattle. It is said, furthermore, that this Chimaera was reared by Amisodaros,* as Homer has stated also, and was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, as Hesiod records.*

²So Bellerophon climbed on to his winged horse, Pegasos,* the offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring high into the air, killed the Chimaera by shooting arrows at it from above. After his battle with the Chimaera, Iobates told him to fight against the Solymoi,* and when he had fulfilled that task also, ordered him to attack the Amazons. When he had killed these also, Iobates picked out the Lycians who were thought to excel at the time in youthful vigour,* and told them to mount an ambush and kill him. But when Bellerophon had killed all of these in addition, Iobates, marvelling at his strength, showed him the letter and urged him to remain at his court; and he gave him his daughter, Philonoe, in marriage, and left him the kingdom when he died.

Danae and the birth of Perseus

¹When Acrisios consulted the oracle about the birth of male

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children, the god replied that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. For fear of this, Acrisios built a bronze chamber beneath the ground and kept Danae guarded within it. She was seduced none the less, some say by Proitos* (so giving rise to the quarrel between the brothers), while according to others, Zeus had intercourse with her by transforming himself into a shower of gold and pouring through the roof into Danae’s lap. Later, when Acrisios learned* that a child, Perseus, had been born to her, he refused to believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and put his daughter into a chest along with her child, and threw it into the sea. The chest was cast ashore at Seriphos, where Dictys recovered it, and raised the child.

Perseus fetches the Gorgon’s head

²Polydectes, the brother of Dictys,* who was king of Seriphos at the time, fell in love with Danae; and when he was unable to achieve his desire now that Perseus was a grown man, he summoned his friends together, with Perseus amongst them, and claimed that he was gathering contributions for a marriage-offering* to enable him to marry Hippodameia, the daughter of Oinomaos. When Perseus declared that he would not deny him even the Gorgon’s head, Polydectes demanded horses from all the others, but did not take the horses of Perseus* and ordered him to fetch the Gorgon’s head.

Guided by Hermes and Athene, he went to see the daughters of Phorcos:* Enyo, Pephredo, and Deino. Daughters of Phorcos by Ceto, they were sisters of the Gorgons, and had been old women from the time of their birth. The three of them had only a single eye and a single tooth, which they exchanged in turn between themselves. Perseus gained possession of the eye and tooth, and when they asked him to give them back, he said that he would surrender them if they showed him the way to the nymphs. These nymphs had in their possession some winged sandals,* and the kihisis, which is said to have been a kind of wallet, † They also had the cap [of Hades*]. When the daughters of Phorcos had told him the way, he returned the eye and tooth to them, and visited the nymphs and obtained what he desired. He slung the kihisisaround his neck, tied the sandals to his ankles, and placed the cap on his head; as long as he wore it, he could see whomever he wished while remaining invisible to others. After he had received in addition an adamantine sickle from Hermes, he flew to the Ocean, and when he arrived there, he caught the Gorgons asleep.

Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal, and for that reason it was her head that Perseus was sent to fetch. The Gorgons had heads with scaly serpents coiled around them, and large tusks like those of swine, and hands of bronze, and wings of gold which gave them the power of flight; and they turned all who beheld them to stone. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athene guided his hand, he turned aside, and looking into a bronze shield in which he could see the reflection of the Gorgon, he cut off her head. As her head was severed, Pegasos, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon, sprang from the Gorgon’s body. (She had conceived them previously by Poseidon.*) ³So Perseus placed Medusa’s head in the wallet, and as he was making his way back, the Gorgons started from their sleep and tried to pursue him, but they were unable to see him because of the cap, which hid him from their view.

Perseus and Andromeda

Arriving in Ethiopia, which was ruled by Cepheus, he found the king’s daughter Andromeda exposed as prey to a sea monster; for Cassiepeia,* the wife of Cepheus, had claimed to rival the Nereids in beauty, boasting that she surpassed them all. The Nereids were enraged by this, and Poseidon, who shared their anger, sent a sea-flood and a monster against the land. Now Ammon* had prophesied deliverance from this calamity if Cepheus’ daughter Andromeda were offered as prey to the monster, and compelled by the Ethiopians, Cepheus had done so and tied his daughter to a rock. As soon as Perseus saw her, he fell in love, and promised Cepheus that he would destroy the monster if he would give him the rescued girl as a wife. When oaths had been sworn to this effect, Perseus confronted the monster and killed it, and set Andromeda free. Phineus, however, who was a brother of Cepheus and had been promised Andromeda beforehand, plotted against Perseus; but when Perseus learned of the conspiracy, he showed the Gorgon to Phineus and his fellow plotters, turning them to stone on the spot.