Perseus: Integrated Hero

Question 1

Describe Perseus’ family tree

Why is he ‘integrated’?

Answer 1

Perseus is unusual because he is well integrated in social order, gets along well with women, gets married, lives happily ever after

Question 2

Describe Perseus’ prophecy

Answer 2

Acrisius receives a prophecy that he would be destroyed if his daughter were to bear a son (wow haven’t heard this one before)

• He locks Danae in a tower but Zeus impregnates her in the form of rain
• Acrisius discovers the baby and puts Perseus and Danae out to sea in a ches

Question 3

How is Perseus rescued and how is he threatened?

Answer 3

• Rescue: the chest lands on the island of Seriphos
  
  • They are rescued by fisherman Dictys
  • Perseus grows up here
• Threat: his mom is pursued by evil king Polydectes
  
  • Perseus offers him anything else except his mum, Polydectes wants the medusa head (gorgon)
    
    • Medusa: a divine female associated with Gaia and reptiles who makes direct eye contact (seen as immodest)

Question 4

What wisdom does Athena offer Perseus?

Describe how he obtains the Medusa head

Answer 4

• He must seek advice of Graiae (3 hags who share a tooth and an eye, passing it around, because they are soooo old)
  
  • He tricks Graiae into directing him to nymphs who gift him a cap of invisibility, winged sandals, and a pouch for the head
• Perseus uses an adamantine/unbreakable sword borrowed from Hermes, beheads Medusa
  
  • He does this by looking at only her reflection in his shield
  • Pegasus (child of Poseidon) emerges from Medusa’s body
    
    • Medusa was turned into a monster before her labour, so Pegasus was trapped

Question 5

Describe Perseus’ wife’s backstory

Answer 5

• Cassiopeia and Cepheus (queen and king) have daughter Andromeda
• Cassiopeia says Andromeda is more beautiful than sea nymphs (hubris; angers Poseidon)
  
  • Poseidon floods the land and demands Andromeda as sacrifice
  • He sends a sea monster to seize her
  • Perseus kills the monster by turning it to stone (and creating the coral reefs) and claims her hand in marriage
    
    • Andromeda is already married so Perseus battles her previous husband

Question 6

Describe Perseus’ nostos

Answer 6

• He returns with his wife to Seriphos and transforms Polydectes and his count into stone
• He gifts the head of Medusa to Athena

Question 7

How does Perseus fulfill his prophecy?

Answer 7

He visits Argos and kills Acrisius with a discus accidentally

He becomes king of Tiryns and Mycenae, lives happily ever after with Andromeda, and is catasterized

Question 8

Describe the 5 elements of ‘the girl’s tragedy’ story pattern using Danae as an example

What do they say about society?

Answer 8

1. Prohibition: forbidden to marry
2. Seclusion: locked in a tower
3. Violation of prohibition: conception of Perseus
4. Threat of punishment: set to sea in a chest
5. Liberation: rescue by Dictys and later Perseus

Confirms the norm that a girl should leave her father’s control, become a mother, continue life-cycle

Reflects paternal anxiety about being replaced by son/grandson