Perseus is one of the big heroes of the Greek mythology, such as Heracles, the Argonaut Iason or the king from Athens, Theseus. Like all of them, Perseus was once entrusted with an important task.

The uncle of Lynceus was Acrisios, the king of Argos, who was told by the oracle that he would be killed by the son of his daughter Danae. For this reason, he closed her in a bronze tower, although other versions say that it was in a subterranean apartment -nothing nice any way. Whatever, he had not reckoned on the strong fantasies of Zeus, who seeing the beautiful Danae seating so sad in the tower, turned himself into golden rain and impregnated her.

And so Perseus was born. Warned by the oracle, the King Acrisios abandoned both of them in a basket in the middle of the sea letting them to their own destiny. But he did not know that Zeus would lead the events and that they would arrive to the shores of the island of Seriphos after a few days. There they found the shepherd Dictys, who brought them to his brother Polydectes, the king of the island. The king was neither a kind nor a lovely person, and he soon put his eye on Danae, who was in fact really beautiful. However, Perseus grew up pretty fast and he was able to protect his mother always on time.

Then the king decided that he had to get Perseus out of the island. For this purpose he invented the taxes, that had to be paid by all the citizens from the island… in the form of horses. Perseus and Danae had of course no horses at all, and the king said he would get something else instead. Perseus, who was very intelligent but also very ingenuous, told him that he would bring him whatever he ordered. It took not long to the king to think that he wanted the skin of the Gorgon Medusa.

Perseus accepted and left straight away hoping to get guidance from a good spirit. And no doubt he had it. Athena, who had a weakness for intelligent heroes, gave him a shield as shining as a mirror and told him that he should never look a big danger in the eyes. After, she explained him how to continue his way and vanished.

On the way to Medusa, Perseus run into the three Graeae, who lived next to a lake somewhere in Africa. The Graeae stank so much that you could smell them from far far away and they had just one eye and one tooth for the three of them, so they had to take turns to see and to eat. Perseus offered them some food that could be eaten without teeth and then the Graeae, in order to have both hands free to eat, gave him their only eye and their only teeth. This way the hero managed to have them in his power and they had no choice but to show him the right way to the Gorgons. Before leaving he threw the eye into the water, forcing them with this to get a bath. The nymphs who were leaving next to the Graeae were so happy that they had taken a bath that gave three presents to Perseus for his trip: a magic hat that made the wearer invisible, a winged pair of shoes, and a big saddle-bag. And so he flied around the big wide world. Somewhere in the air he met Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, who, aware of his mission, gave him a sword to fight.

Finally he found the three Gorgons. These were amazingly beautiful creatures once upon a time, but one day Medusa claimed that she was more beautiful than Athena. Those who know the Goddess will know that this is a very delicate subject for her… When she got to know, she became so angry that she turned the three of them into the most disgusting beings on the Earth. Their hairs looked like snakes, their arses like horses’ arses, and their bodies and faces were all bloated.

Perseus was supposed to take the head of Medusa. When he arrived they were all sleeping, so he had no problem to take the sword and cut her head off. Luckily, he remembered the advice of Athena and he looked in the shield when he was cutting her head, as it is said that those who look Medusa in the eyes are immediately turned into stone. When he had the head, he put it in the bag that the Nymphs have given him. From the head of Medusa came out two creatures. The first one was Chrysaor, which means red golden steel. The second one was Pegasus, the winged horse. By this time he had almost finished his work, but at that moment the other two Gorgons woke up and started to hunt him. He then put on his magic hat and his winged shoes, and disappeared.