The Heroes | Page 7

seem to you more
blest?'
Then Perseus answered boldly: 'Better to die in the flower of youth, on
the chance of winning a noble name, than to live at ease like the sheep,
and die unloved and unrenowned.'
Then that strange lady laughed, and held up her brazen shield, and cried:
'See here, Perseus; dare you face such a monster as this, and slay it, that
I may place its head upon this shield?'
And in the mirror of the shield there appeared a face, and as Perseus
looked on it his blood ran cold. It was the face of a beautiful woman;

but her cheeks were pale as death, and her brows were knit with
everlasting pain, and her lips were thin and bitter like a snake's; and
instead of hair, vipers wreathed about her temples, and shot out their
forked tongues; while round her head were folded wings like an eagle's,
and upon her bosom claws of brass.
And Perseus looked awhile, and then said: 'If there is anything so fierce
and foul on earth, it were a noble deed to kill it. Where can I find the
monster?'
Then the strange lady smiled again, and said: 'Not yet; you are too
young, and too unskilled; for this is Medusa the Gorgon, the mother of
a monstrous brood. Return to your home, and do the work which waits
there for you. You must play the man in that before I can think you
worthy to go in search of the Gorgon.'
Then Perseus would have spoken, but the strange lady vanished, and he
awoke; and behold, it was a dream. But day and night Perseus saw
before him the face of that dreadful woman, with the vipers writhing
round her head.
So he returned home; and when he came to Seriphos, the first thing
which he heard was that his mother was a slave in the house of
Polydectes.
Grinding his teeth with rage, he went out, and away to the king's palace,
and through the men's rooms, and the women's rooms, and so through
all the house (for no one dared stop him, so terrible and fair was he), till
he found his mother sitting on the floor, turning the stone hand-mill,
and weeping as she turned it. And he lifted her up, and kissed her, and
bade her follow him forth. But before they could pass out of the room
Polydectes came in, raging. And when Perseus saw him, he flew upon
him as the mastiff flies on the boar. 'Villain and tyrant!' he cried; 'is this
your respect for the Gods, and thy mercy to strangers and widows? You
shall die!' And because he had no sword he caught up the stone hand-
mill, and lifted it to dash out Polydectes' brains.
But his mother clung to him, shrieking, 'Oh, my son, we are strangers
and helpless in the land; and if you kill the king, all the people will fall
on us, and we shall both die.'
Good Dictys, too, who had come in, entreated him. 'Remember that he
is my brother. Remember how I have brought you up, and trained you
as my own son, and spare him for my sake.'

Then Perseus lowered his hand; and Polydectes, who had been
trembling all this while like a coward, because he knew that he was in
the wrong, let Perseus and his mother pass.
Perseus took his mother to the temple of Athene, and there the priestess
made her one of the temple-sweepers; for there they knew she would be
safe, and not even Polydectes would dare to drag her away from the
altar. And there Perseus, and the good Dictys, and his wife, came to
visit her every day; while Polydectes, not being able to get what he
wanted by force, cast about in his wicked heart how he might get it by
cunning.
Now he was sure that he could never get back Danae as long as Perseus
was in the island; so he made a plot to rid himself of him. And first he
pretended to have forgiven Perseus, and to have forgotten Danae; so
that, for a while, all went as smoothly as ever.
Next he proclaimed a great feast, and invited to it all the chiefs, and
landowners, and the young men of the island, and among them Perseus,
that they might all do him homage as their king, and eat of his banquet
in his hall.
On the appointed day they all came; and as the custom was then, each
guest brought his present with him to the king: one a horse, another a
shawl, or a ring, or a sword; and those who had nothing better brought
a basket of grapes, or of game; but Perseus brought nothing, for