Perseus

Perseus

Perseus is a hero of Greek mythology, the son of the god Zeus and the princess Danaë. In myth, his grandfather, King Acrisius of Argos, warned by an oracle, set mother and child adrift at sea in a chest, and they came ashore on the island of Seriphos. Sent by the island's king on a seemingly impossible quest against the Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turned people to stone, Perseus succeeded with the help of Athena and Hermes, using a polished shield to avoid looking at her directly. On his journey home he rescued the princess Andromeda from a sea monster and married her. Legend makes him the founder of Mycenae and an ancestor of Hercules. Retold by poets such as Ovid, his story stands for courage, resourcefulness and trust in divine help, and the constellation Perseus bears his name.

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Heroes of Greek Myth and Epic

In Greek mythology, Perseus overcame the Gorgon Medusa, and his descendant Hercules completed twelve legendary labors. Achilles, the foremost Greek warrior of the Trojan War, is the hero of Homer's Iliad, a founding work of Western literature. Centuries later, Alexander the Great, who traced his ancestry to both Hercules and Achilles, is said to have kept a copy of the Iliad with him on campaign.

  1. Hercules

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  2. Achilles

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  3. Homer

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  4. Alexander the Great

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