the Fourth Week of Advent
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Perseus
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
In the Greek mythology the son of Zeus and Danaë, and the grandson of Acrisius, king of Argos, of whom it was predicted before his birth that he would kill his grandfather, who at his birth enclosed both his mother and him in a chest and cast it into the sea, which bore them to an island where they became slaves of the king, Polydectes, who sought to marry Danaë; failing in his suit, and to compel her to submission, he ordered Perseus off to fetch him the head of the Medusa; who, aided by Hermes and Athena, was successful in his mission, cut off the head of the Medusa with the help of a mirror and sickle, brought it away with him in a pouch, and after delivering and marrying Andromeda in his return journey, exposed the head before Polydectes and court at a banquet, which turned them all into stone, whereupon he gave the Gorgon's head to Athena to place on her shield, and set out for Argos; Acrisius hearing of his approach fled, but was afterwards killed accidentally by his grandson, who in throwing a discus had crushed his foot.
Public Domain.
Wood, James, ed. Entry for 'Perseus'. The Nuttall Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​nut/​p/perseus.html. Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. London. 1900.