Favorite Greek Myths (Yesterday's Classics) (8 page)

Then Mercury and Perseus started out again, and this time they went far to the west, over land and sea, till they found the Garden of the Hesperides.

The nymphs of the Garden received Mercury and Perseus in a friendly manner. They said they had been expecting the hero who was to slay the Medusa, and should be glad to help him. They pointed out to Perseus the Island of the Gorgons, already dimly visible on the horizon. Then they brought him a pair of winged sandals which had the power to bear their wearer through the air as fast as Mercury's own; the helmet of darkness, which belonged to Pluto, and made its wearer invisible; and the magic pouch, in which he could safely carry the head of the Medusa. Perseus was now well armed, and ready for his work. With Minerva's bright shield, Mercury's crooked sword, the winged shoes, the helmet of darkness, and the magic pouch, he had not so very much to fear after all even from the terrible Gorgons, and was eager to begin the battle.

Thinking that the Gorgons would be asleep by midnight, he waited until that time, and then flew straight to the Island. As he hovered over it, like a great golden hawk, he looked into Minerva's shield, by the light of the full moon, and saw a frightful sight. There were all three of the Gorgons fast asleep. Around them was what looked at first like a confusion of strange brown rocks, but the seeming rocks were really men and animals that had been changed to stone by the sight of the Medusa's face.

Keeping his eyes on the shield, Perseus dropped lightly down, and in a flash he had cut off the Medusa's head and dropped it into the magic pouch. Then he sped away on the winged sandals, and it was well that he had these sandals and Pluto's helmet to make him invisible; for the remaining Gorgons woke and sprang after him with a terrible cry. He could hear the rushing of their gold-feathered wings, the rattle of their brass claws, and the hissing of the snakes on their heads. But these sounds and even their terrible cry soon died away; for the Gorgons could not follow far a foe they could not see. So Perseus got safe away with the Medusa's head.

Minerva and Mercury had been near Perseus all the time, although, since he left the Garden of the Hesperides, they had not chosen to make themselves visible to him. Minerva heard the shrill cry of the Gorgons, and she set it into a musical instrument, which she made on the spot, of thin-beaten bronze, taken, no doubt, from the hard scales of the Medusa. Many people have said that this musical instrument was the flute, but as Minerva was a war goddess, I am sure that it must have been some kind of a war trumpet, and it probably sounded like our fife. Afterward the goddess set the dreadful head of the Medusa on her shield, or sometimes she wore it on her ægis. But before Perseus returned the shield to Minerva and presented her with Medusa's head, he met with many more adventures.

W
HEN
the Gorgon sisters had left off following Perseus, he began to fly more slowly with the golden wings of his sandals, and to look down at the mountains and rivers underneath, to see what country he was passing over. When he saw on the tops of the mountains a pink glow from the coming sun, he knew that it would soon be day.

All at once from a clear sky he heard what seemed like a peal of thunder. As the sound echoed back from a hundred hills, it seemed strangely human, like the sighing groan of some gigantic being. Then he saw what appeared to be a weird-looking mountain, with its top among the clouds; but, on coming nearer, he discovered that what he had taken for a mountain was a huge, clumsy giant, who stood holding up the sky on his head and shoulders. The giant had white hair hanging down around his face, and he seemed very tired with the weight of the sky, which had now become yellow with the sunrise light, and looked like an enormous brass bowl turned upside down. No wonder that the poor old giant groaned with the weight of it! Perseus knew that this must be the giant Atlas, of whom he had often heard.

Atlas was as much interested in Perseus as Perseus was in him. For the nymphs who kept the Garden of the Hesperides, the same who had given Perseus the winged sandals and the magic pouch, were the nieces of Atlas, and had told him all about Perseus. This poor giant, with the great weight of the sky on his shoulders, wished that he might get a glimpse of that wonder-working head so that he could be turned into hard, unfeeling rock. Then, he thought, he could hold up the sky forever and not mind the weight of it.

So when he saw Perseus, he hailed him and asked him if he did not carry the Medusa's head in his pouch. When Perseus said that he did, Atlas asked to see it. Perseus warned the giant that the bare sight of this head would turn any living thing into stone; but when Atlas explained that this was just what he wanted, Perseus held up the head for an instant.

Soon after, on his way to Seriphus, Perseus turned and looked back. Where he had left the giant Atlas, he was sure that he now saw a lofty mountain, with snow at the top and forests on the sides. He began to think that he had been dreaming, and that what he had taken for Atlas was really a mountain all the time.

He next flew over a sandy desert, where the sun shone very hot. Here he began to notice a great number of ugly, venomous snakes crawling in all directions. Then he saw a drop of blood fall from the pouch where he carried the Medusa's head, and as it struck the hot sands it became a snake like the rest he had seen, and went crawling away to find some dark hole. Soon another drop of blood fell, and this, too, became a snake. It was plain, now, where all the snakes had come from. That desert is said to be infested with snakes to this day.

After this he began to come to inhabited countries, and he rose higher and flew more swiftly, for he hoped soon to reach Seriphus and set his mother free.

Now it had happened, not very long before the adventure of Perseus with the Medusa, that in a certain country, ruled over by King Cepheus, the people were greatly frightened by the appearance, on their coasts, of a terrible sea-monster—a huge, scaly creature, with wings like a dragon and a tail like a fish. It must have been a kind of sea-serpent. When the fisherman's little children were playing on the beach, it used to come rushing in from the sea with a great roar, seize a child in its jaws, and carry it off.

The people had shot at it with their bows and arrows, but the arrows had glanced off from its hard scales and fallen harmlessly into the water. Then they had tried to set a net and catch it in that way; but when the great creature found itself entangled, it bit at the cords with its teeth, and lashed about furiously with its tail, till it broke away and went off with what was left of the net clinging to its back.

When this happened, an old priest stepped forward, out of the crowd by the shore, and said that it was of no use for the people to fight with this sea-monster because, undoubtedly, it had been sent by one of the gods.

King Cepheus had a very beautiful daughter. The queen boasted that this daughter, whose name was Andromeda, was even more beautiful than the Nereids, that is, the daughters of the sea-god Nereus. These daughters of Nereus, of whom there were fifty, lived close by in the sea, where they were sometimes seen driving chariots drawn by dolphins. All were beautiful, and one, Galatea, was famous for her beauty.

So this old priest was sure that Nereus himself had sent this sea-monster, and he said it would never go away unless the king caused Andromeda to be chained to a rock, at the edge of the water, and to be left there until the monster took her for its prey.

These were terrible words for the king and queen to hear. They attempted to take Andromeda away and hide her in the palace; but they were prevented from doing so by the people, who, rushing in between them and the palace gates, took Andromeda, themselves, bound her with chains, and then fastened her to a great rock, where at high tide the water would come in and lap against her feet. There they left her, and the king and queen did not dare to come to her rescue.

Andromeda did not know what she had done to deserve such a cruel fate. As she stood there with her hands chained, she thought of all the fearful tales she had heard of the sea-monster, and her face grew almost as white as the foam that the little waves had already begun to toss to her feet. She bent her head, and closed her eyes, to shut out what she feared to see, and the tears rolled down her cheeks and fell into the water. Then she heard the sound of wings above her, and suddenly looked up, expecting some new danger, but could see nothing whatever. There was a rush of wings, again, close to her, and something tapped against the rocks. Then, all at once, she saw, standing before her, a golden-haired young man, with a plumed helmet in his hand, gold wings on his sandals, and a kind of hunting-bag, with something heavy in it, hung over his shoulder. This of course was Perseus, but Andromeda thought it must be some god straight from the sky. When Perseus asked her why she had been chained to the rock, she gladly told him everything.

In the midst of Andromeda's story, and while Perseus was trying the keen edge of his crooked sword, there was a hoarse roar, and a dashing up of spray, out at sea. Perseus hastily took the heavy Medusa's head from his pouch and laid it on the rocks, covering it carefully with seaweed. Then he spread the wings of his sandals and dashed up among the clouds.

There was another hoarse roar, much nearer now. Soon Andromeda saw the sea-monster coming, holding its great serpent-like head high and ploughing up the water like a war-galley. The next moment Perseus darted down from the sky and hovered over the monster, his sword and shield sparkling in the sun. The creature saw his shadow on the water, and snapped at it savagely. Then straight down Perseus dashed, and before the sea-monster could turn and tear him with its teeth, which were as sharp as knives, he had buried the crooked sword to the hilt in its shoulder. The sea-monster gave a most frightful roar, then turned over on its back, and floated quietly on the water. Andromeda was saved.

When Perseus went back to Andromeda on her rock, he easily cut her chains with his wonderful sword. Then taking up the Medusa's head to put it into the pouch again, he found that the seaweeds with which he had covered it were turned to hard stone, and were as red as the. drops of blood which had fallen on them from the Medusa's head. When the Nereids came to play on the shore, they found these strange seaweeds, and scattered the seeds far and wide. Fishermen still believe that the beautiful corals of those coasts came from these seeds.

Meanwhile, the king and queen and all the people had heard the sea-monster's roaring, and had gathered on the shore. When they saw that the monster of which they stood in such terror was really dead, what a cheer they sent up! King Cepheus said that Perseus should marry the Princess Andromeda, and should have the whole kingdom with her.

The people immediately set about making preparations for the wedding-feast. They hung wreaths of flowers on all the houses of the town; they threw perfumes into the open fires; they played on pipes and lyres, and sang and danced to the music. When all was ready, the doors of the royal palace were thrown open and the nobles were invited to the feast.

But there was one noble in King Cepheus's realms who did not rejoice with the rest; this was Phineus, to whom Andromeda had been promised in marriage. He had had nothing to say when Andromeda had been chained to the rock and left to serve as a breakfast for the sea-monster; but now he was ready to defend his rights. So he gathered together all the armed men he could command, that is, all his retainers, and while the wedding-feast was going on, broke into the courts of the palace and then into the great dining-hall itself. As he entered the hall, he shouted his war-cry and hurled a lance at Perseus, but missed his aim. Perseus would have flung back a heavy bronze bowl which he hastily caught up from the table, but Phineus ran to the altar for protection.

After this, a general fight began between the king's men and the followers of Phineus. Lances and javelins flew back and forth. Andromeda and her mother and their ladies ran screaming from the room. Phineus's men, although their cause was so unjust, were getting the best of the fight. They had Perseus hemmed in, in a corner, and had driven nearly all the king's men from the room, when Perseus suddenly shouted, "If any of my friends are here, let them turn away their faces." As he spoke, he held up the Medusa's head, at which Phineus and all his men stiffened into marble statues, and neither Perseus nor the king had anything more to fear from them.

King Cepheus would have been glad to have Perseus stay in Libya, and would willingly have given him half or even the whole of the kingdom with Andromeda, as he had said; but Perseus was anxious to go to Seriphus. So the king fitted out a ship for him, and sent men to row it. Then all the people gathered on the shore, and bade Perseus and Andromeda farewell.

W
HEN
the news that Perseus had returned with the head of the Medusa was spread abroad, what a rejoicing there was in the island of Seriphus! King Polydectes alone was not glad. Nevertheless, he pretended to be, and he made a great feast, at which the minstrels sang of the great deeds of Danaë's son. As all the enemies of his mother and himself were gathered together at the feast, Perseus held up the head of the Medusa before them, and so made an end of them, King Polydectes and all. During the absence of Perseus, Danaë had been treated with great cruelty by King Polydectes; but she had one true friend. This was Dictys, the fisherman, the brother of Polydectes. He had done all that he could to help her. Perseus, being now the strongest man in the kingdom, could do as he pleased, therefore he proclaimed Dictys king. Then he took his mother and Andromeda and set sail for Argos, which was his own rightful kingdom. He did not wish to supplant his grandfather, King Acrisius; but he hoped that Acrisius, if he were still living, would have forgotten his fear of the oracle, and would be glad to see the daughter and grandson whom he had sent away in the brass-bound chest so long ago.