Heroes Every Child Should Know | Page 8

look at him before he
had laid aside his trident and leapt down the rocks, and thrown his
casting-net so surely over Danae and the chest, that he drew it, and her,
and the baby, safe upon a ledge of rock.
Then the fisherman took Danae by the hand, and lifted her out of the
chest, and said:
"O beautiful damsel, what strange chance has brought you to this island
in so frail a ship? Who are you, and whence? Surely you are some
King's daughter and this boy has somewhat more than mortal."
And as he spoke he pointed to the babe; for its face shone like the

morning star.
But Danae only held down her head, and sobbed out:
"Tell me to what land I have come, unhappy that I am; and among what
men I have fallen!"
And he said, "This isle is called Seriphos, and I am a Hellen, and dwell
in it. I am the brother of Polydectes the King; and men call me Dictys
the netter, because I catch the fish of the shore."
Then Danae fell down at his feet, and embraced his knees and cried:
"Oh, sir, have pity upon a stranger, whom a cruel doom has driven to
your land; and let me live in your house as a servant; but treat me
honourably, for I was once a king's daughter, and this my boy (as you
have truly said) is of no common race. I will not be a charge to you, or
eat the bread of idleness; for I am more skilful in weaving and
embroidery than all the maidens of my land."
And she was going on; but Dictys stopped her, and raised her up, and
said:
"My daughter, I am old, and my hairs are growing grey; while I have
no children to make my home cheerful. Come with me then, and you
shall be a daughter to me and to my wife, and this babe shall be our
grandchild. For I fear the gods, and show hospitality to all strangers;
knowing that good deeds, like evil ones, always return to those who do
them."
So Danae was comforted, and went home with Dictys the good
fisherman, and was a daughter to him and to his wife.
Fifteen years were passed and gone and the babe was now grown to a
tall lad and a sailor, and went many voyages after merchandise to the
islands round. His mother called him Perseus; but all the people in
Seriphos said that he was not the son of mortal man, and called him
Zeus, the son of the king of the Immortals. For though he was but

fifteen, he was taller by a head than any man in the island; and he was
the most skilful of all in running and wrestling and boxing, and in
throwing the quoit and the javelin, and in rowing with the oar, and in
playing on the harp, and in all which befits a man. And he was brave
and truthful, gentle and courteous, for good old Dictys had trained him
well; and well it was for Perseus that he had done so.
Now one day at Samos, while the ship was lading, Perseus wandered
into a pleasant wood to get out of the sun, and sat down on the turf and
fell asleep. And as he slept a strange dream came to him--the strangest
dream which he had ever had in his life.
There came a lady to him through the wood, taller than he, or any
mortal man; but beautiful exceedingly, with grey eyes, clear and
piercing, but strangely soft and mild. On her head was a helmet, and in
her hand a spear. And over her shoulder, above her long blue robes,
hung a goat-skin, which bore up a mighty shield of brass, polished like
a mirror. She stood and looked at him with her clear grey eyes; and
Perseus saw that her eyelids never moved, nor her eyeballs, but looked
straight through and through him, and into his very heart, as if she
could see all the secrets of his soul, and knew all that he had ever
thought or longed for since the day that he was born. And Perseus
dropped his eyes, trembling and blushing, as the wonderful lady spoke.
"Perseus, you must do an errand for me."
"Who are you, lady? And how do you know my name?"
"I am Pallas Athene; and I know the thoughts of all men's hearts, and
discern their manhood or their baseness. And from the souls of clay I
turn away, and they are blest, but not by me. They fatten at ease, like
sheep in the pasture, and eat what they did not sow, like oxen in the
stall. They grow and