Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa
Perseus was the grandson of a king of Argos, and had bright eyes and golden hair like the morning. A cruel king named Polydectes wanted to marry his mother, Danae, but she refused. The king thought he had a better chance of convincing her to marry him if Perseus wasn't around. Because of this, the king started to taunt Perseus, saying that he preferred his mother's company rather than winning victories in battle.
Perseus rose to the bait, and asked what he should do to prove his courage. The king, knowing it was impossible, challenged Perseus to bring him the head of Medusa the Gorgon. The Gorgons were three terrible sisters who lived in the far west, beyond the setting sun. Two of them were immortal, and had scaled bodies, deadly claws and serpent hair. But their sister Medusa was mortal, and so beautiful that she had boasted of being even more lovely fairer than Athena. To punish her presumption, Athena turned Medusa's hair into serpents, and made it so that whoever looked on her face, sad and lovely as it was, would instantly be turned into stone.
As it was Athena who created Medusa, she decided to help Perseus kill her. She was the goddess of wisdom, so she revealed to Perseus the secret to killing the Gorgon: she gave him a brightly polished shield of brass, and told him to look at Medusa's reflection in it. Without this trick, he would be turned to stone if he looked directly at her face.
Then Hermes came and gave Perseus a sword of light that could cut anything it touched, and also lent him his own winged sandals so he could travel fast. The two gods guided the young man to the Graiae, who were old women that knew where Medusa lived.
So Perseus traveled westwards, to the very borders of the world. Beyond lay the dreary land of twilight, on the shores of the great ocean that goes around the world, and on the rocks on the shores sat the three old women. To say they were old is an understatement - they were so old that they were born with grey hair! They had only one tooth and one eye and among them, which they passed to one another in turn so they could see.
The first sister peered at him, then asked, "what do you want?"
"I want to find Medusa - I have a present for her," replied Perseus.
"I don't believe you," said the second sister, snatching the eye away from the first.
"No, it's true," said Perseus, "I just want to deliver a gift to her, and I'll be on my way."
"I think he's lying," said the third sister, "here, pass me the eye and let me see him for myself!"
But as the eye was being passed to the third sister, Perseus was too quick - he snatched their only eye out of her hand, and stepped back.
"You dropped it - you dropped our eye!" said the third sister.
"I'm sure I didn't," replied the second, starting to fumble around on the dusty floor.
"I have it," said Perseus, "and I'll give it back to you as soon as you tell me where Medusa is."
The three old women were distraught because their only eye had been taken away from them, so they had little choice but to help Perseus. First they told him how to find Medusa, then they gave him a bag. "In this bag is a helmet that belongs to Hades," they said. "When you wear it you'll become invisible, so make sure you look after it!"
Armed with this information, Perseus took the helmet and the bag, as well as the sword and shield he had been given by Hermes and Athena, and flew to Medusa's cave. There, using his shield as a mirror, he saw Medusa's sisters: their necks were covered with scales like those of snakes, their teeth were like boar's tusks, their hands like brass, and their wings of gold. Medusa was there too, beautiful, but just as deadly as her sisters.
All three Gorgons were asleep, so Perseus snuck as close as he could. Then, looking into his shield, he swung his sword and cut off Medusa's head with a single blow. He put her head into his bag, being careful not to look upon her face, but as he was doing so her sisters awoke and screeched loudly when they discovered Medusa was dead. When they saw the intruder they darted after him, but Perseus put on Hades's helmet and so became invisible and flew away on Hermes's flying sandals.
While all this was happening, Polydectes, the cruel king who wanted to marry Perseus's mother, had decided Perseus must have been turned into stone at the sight of Medusa, and so had tried to make Danae his wife by force. Because of this, she had run away into a temple, where no one dared touch her because they believed that the gods punished anyone who dragged people away from their temples.
When Perseus arrived home and found out about all this, he went straight to Polydectes, who was in the midst of a feast. He announced to everyone that the king's bidding was done, but Polydectes laughed because he thought he was lying. And so, to prove his deed, Perseus held up the head of Medusa, and of course the king and his whole court turned at once into stone.
