Perseus

What can we acquire in our present age from ancient myth & legend? Every year we have the Perseid meteor shower to awaken us from our Summer slumber. Perseus is the oldest of the Greek heroes, 3 generations before Hercules, long before the Trojan War.

~Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze statue in Florence

The Perseus legend was a favorite subject in painting & sculpture – the earliest scenes from mythology appearing in art.

His tale in a nutshell: Acrisius, the king of Argos, had a beautiful daughter named Danae. The king was told by the Oracle of the Sun god Apollo that Danae’s son would take over his fertile land. To thwart the prophecy, Acrisius imprisoned his daughter in a bronze, underground chamber.

~The amorous adventures of Zeus. Danae Gubaidullin Raushan

But Zeus came to the entombed Danae in the form of a shower of golden light entering thru a crack in the roof of her chamber. And Perseus was the demigod offspring of this unusual union between Zeus, the King of the gods, taking advantage of the Sun god’s omen, to appear as a shower of golden light, & Danae, a human being from the fertile plain – Princess of the golden agricultural Argos of ancient Greece.

~Walter Crane

Perseus had a calling. Aided by Hermes & the Goddess Athena, he pressed the Graiae, the prophetic witch sisters of the Gorgons, into helping him by seizing the one eye & one tooth that the sisters shared between them – not returning it until they provided him with winged sandals (which enabled him to fly), the cap of Hades (which conferred invisibility), a curved adamant sickle-sword, to decapitate Medusa, & a bag in which to conceal her serpent head. Since the gaze of Medusa turned all who looked at her to stone, Perseus guided himself by the reflection in a shield given to him by the wise Athena. He beheaded Medusa, the only Gorgon who was mortal, when she was asleep. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Chrysaor & Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon. He then returned to Seriphus, where his mothe Danae had taken refuge, to rescue her by turning the wicked ruler Polydectes & his supporters to stone at the sight of Medusa’s head.

A further deed attributed to Perseus was his rescue of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda when he was on his way home with Medusa’s head. Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, had claimed to be more beautiful than the sea nymphs, so Poseidon punished Ethiopia by flooding & plaguing it with a sea monster. An oracle informed Andromeda’s father, King Cepheus, that the ills would cease if he exposed Andromeda to the monster, which he did. Perseus, passing by, saw the princess, & fell in love with her. He turned the sea monster to stone by showing it Medusa’s head, & went on to marry Andromeda.

Later Perseus gave the Gorgon’s head to Athena, who placed it on her shield. He gave his other accoutrements, including most notably the winged sandals, to Hermes. He then accompanied his mother back to her native Argos, where, as fate would have it, he accidentally struck her father, Acrisius dead when throwing the discus, thus fulfilling the prophecy that he would kill his grandfather.

The chief characters in the Perseus legend, Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus, & the sea monster (Cetus), all figure in the night sky as constellations.

This is the peak weekend to receive, like Danae, the shooting stars which can turn wishes into the birthing of deeds. Perseus, a reflection of the mighty Archai Michael, must be reborn in us. We must cut off the head of the old way of thinking where the fates bind us, so we can consciously ‘Speak with the Stars’, thru the heart – in freedom – upholding Wisdom, with healing wings. Then we can reveal the underworld, & forge the golden light into an iron will for good.

~hag

10 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Perseid meteors have been streaking through Earth’s atmosphere since mid-July. But the moon is now waning, just in time for the shower’s peak on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. ~earthsky