The Founder of Myceanae The Hero Perseus by Eugenia Berdali Some thousands of years ago, in the city of Argos there were two twin brothers, Akrisios and Proetos the sons of king Avas (Ἄβας = unyielding) and Aglaia (=splendid, brilliant) - and grandsons of the Danaid Hypermnestra and the son of Egyptus, Lyrkeus. Akrisios and Proetos were bitter enemies even from within their mothers womb. Hardly grown to manhood they got into an long and deadly war over the throne - also accredited with the invention of the first wooden round shield and the erection of a commemorative pyramidal monument on the road between Argos and Epidaurus. Various mythological threads flow into a common conclusion which says that at the end of this war, the country was split between Akrisios (who kept the city of Argos) and Proetos who ruled over Tiryns - the neighboring citadel with the thickest walls made by the Kyklopes Gasterocheires. The story is reminiscent of the double kingship tradition and of course the fight of the sons of Oedipus, Eteokles and Polynikes. Akrisios, now the king of Argos, married Eurydice the daughter of Lacedaemon or Aganipe and was blessed with a magnificent daughter: Danae. The name Danae (the Danaid or Danaan girl) singles out this particular girl among all Danaides or Hellene/Greek girls and elevates her to the chosen one, the most perfect representative among Danaan women, that further on would be the earthly bride of Zeus and the mother of the hero founder of Mycenae. Nevertheless, as it is commonly done, Akrisios felt that this divine allotment was not enough for him and to be really happy he definitely needed a son and heir. Thus, as it was the custom, he followed up sending envoys to the Delphic Oracle seeking to find when and how he could expect to have a son. Apollo in such cases bore no patience, so he granted Akrisios no hope. The news back were that not only would Akrisios never have a son, but instead his daughter would bear a son that one day will kill him. Myth and tragedy always seem to pose the same dilemma. What should one do before such predicament? Attempt to manipulate the inevitable or let things be, do ones best and basically preserve ones compassion and humanity. Akrisios, an angry, common man just opted for the first - seemingly possible - choice. So, upon receiving the news, he built a subterranean tomblike structure made of bronze in his palace court and there he buried alive his poor innocent daughter to live alone for ever save the presence of her nurse. Danae had no choice but to bid farewell to the bright light of the skies and descend into darkness forever. Like all devises aiming to control change, Akrisios miserable reactions must have made the gods laugh. These things are just like Chinese finger traps; the more you struggle, the more you get caught. For in this case, the king of the gods, Zeus (=sky/bright light) himself noticed and loved the girl. Thus once she was tacked underground, he changed himself into a stream of golden drops that soaked the dark earth and softened the joints of the bronze prison; and thus he dripped through the roof of the subterranean chamber. The golden drops fell on the maidens garment, and upon touching her bosom - closest to the heart - Zeus came forth - the King of Heaven lighting up the room. The tomb now changed into a brilliant marriage chamber and later into a delivery room where Perseus (= the conqueror/annihilator), the son of Zeus was born. Danae bore her child secretly and fed it with the help of her nurse - who had access to the palace. Things though were about to get worse. Perseus was still an infant (or according to others about 3-4 years old) when king Akrisios sitting in the great royal hall overhead the voice of a child rising from the depths of the earth. The baby was crying (or the toddler playing with a ball, cried out when the ball rolled away). Akrisios did not falter. He dragged Danae out of the tomb and after he accused and killed her nurse, he dragged his daughter to the altar of Zeus and ordered her to tell him who was the father of the child. Refusing to believe that the father was Zeus, Akrisios had mother and child shut up in a chest that he cast into the sea. Soon, they, were afloat the waves. Thus, Perseus born in the darkness of the bronze tomb, was once again confined into darkness of the floating chest. The wind and the stir of the water made Danaes heart sink for fear. Around them nature roared and she tear soaked held her baby tight in her arms and spoke to him My baby, she said that all this pain were simply mine! And you my love sleep tight for in this sorrowful vessel and its darkness held together by fastenings of bronze you will shine like a beam of light in the dark gloom. Dont fear the salt depth of the wave that passes over your locks, nor the noise of the wind, as your sweet body lies on this purple cloak. Sleep on, babe, and let the sea sleep, let our measureless misfortune sleep. And, may some change come by your hand , father Zeus. If I pray in too bold words and beyond justice, forgive me (Simonides). Aeschylus (satyr play The Net Drawers) picks up the clew to tell us what happened next and how mother and child were rescued in the island of Seriphos. A fisherman called Diktys (= Net man) saw the floating object from the shore. Whats this? he wondered. Poseidon! Zeus of the sea! what unexpected gift you sent us from the water! Yet the object was not coming ashore so he had to call for help to fish it out. In the satyr play, when Diktys appeals for aid, instead of country people, shepherds and fishermen, it was Sileinoi who appeared and they are there when the chest opened—a crowd of the half divine and half-bestial creatures - bald/headed, flat/nosed, with faces painted red. Little Perseus laughed at them from inside the chest. This dispelling laugh was in itself a proof of his divine origin. Danae still horrified from her plight, amid lamentations revealed the secret of her own and her childs identity. Diktys, a peaceful, reverent man took them both in and passed them off as his kinsfolk, which in fact they were. For Diktys was a descendant of Nauplios, the son of Poseidon and the beautiful Amymone (=immaculate) daughter of Danaos. The king of Seriphos, Polydektes (=the receiver of many) was Diktys brother. Again, (just like Akrisios and Proetos) we have the motif of two brothers quite unlike - fisherman and king - and while not twins (by one account they had the same mother only), still a pair. Polydektes is clearly connected to the Net man. What one caught became the prey of the other. Interestingly, the receiver of many Polydektes, is one of the many names of the king of the underworld. He will become obsessed with Danae whom he will seek to subdue. Thus Danae rescued from the wrath of her father and the wrath of the seas is about to face yet another danger threatening to contain her once again in darkness. Time went by and as Perseus was approaching manhood, it started becoming evident to the king that he might one day free his mother. So, he developed a plan. He arranged an eranos or symposium to which every invited guest had to bring a specific gift. He claimed that this was to be Seriphos wedding-present for Hippodameia, daughter of Oinomaos, who was marrying Pelops. The specific gift contribution was named to be a horse - that is a gift only nobility could offer. A poor fisherman kid like Perseus assuredly had no such ability. The aim then was to humiliate and provoke Perseus to either get himself in trouble or simply get out of Seriphos in shame abandoning his mother. During the banquet - eating and drinking - the king confessed to the boy that Sheriphos was a small poor island and that he needed Perseus commitment in helping him raise a decent gift for the Royal wedding of Hippodameia & Pelops. The young man was pure; he was the son of Zeus, beautiful, honest, contained and thus certainly unsuspecting! He was willing to contribute any gift Polydektes would name. So, Polydektes named the head of the Medusa. The word uttered was yet another lock imprisoning Perseus once again into the box of his own promise to the king and the near impossibility of surviving/saving his mother. Certainly not taking off towards a Medusa analysis, the Gorgon Medusa, originally a beautiful woman, in a very old representation appears to have the body of a horse; according the oldest narratives she was a mare, bride of Poseidon who joined with her in the form of a stallion( Picture 1y), This mare, however, had the Gorgon face, the look of which petrified everyone. This element surely brings to mind the word nightmare. It didnt take long for Perseus to realize his predicament. If he did not keep his word, his mother would fall prey to the receiver of many. So he went to the furthest point of the island and let his feelings flow. He cried and cried for hours over the injustice, the hard world, and the evil in people. He cried bitterly but he was also heard. for although seemingly deadlocked, the true hero commands the means to get out. His motivation is clear, - an attitude that catches light, and attracts gods who come to enable. It appears that Athena overheard the conversation at Seriphos and decided to help Perseus on this adventure. First she led him to the city of Deicterion in Samos, where images of all the three Gorgons are displayed, enabling him to distinguish Medusa from her immortal sisters Stheno and Euryale; then she warned him never to look at Medusa directly, but only at her reflection, and presented him with a brightly-polished shield. Then Hermes gave Perseus, an adamantine sickle - a harpe, (ἅρπη) - with which to cut off Medusas head. But Perseus still needed a pair of winged sandals, a magic sack to contain the decapitated head, and the dark helmet of invisibility which belonged to Hades (κυνή). All these things were in the care of the Stygian Nymphs and on top of that, their whereabouts were known only to the Gorgons sisters, the three swan-like Graeae, who shared a single eye and tooth among the three of them. Aeschylus, in the tragedy entitled The Daughters of Phorkys simplified the journey of Perseus through the realms of thrice-three goddesses and probably left out the first three, the spring nymphs. These, the Naiads, were, however, probably the first who helped the hero in his desperate situation. They lived in a cave on the island of Seriphos, same as their other dwelling elsewhere in the stalactite-filled caves of the Greek mountains and were in possession of the magical objects that could enable Perseus to fulfill his undertaking. Whether they approached the hero or he visited them in Athenas company, they were his deliverers. So, Perseus accordingly sought out the Graeae (=old women - same root as Greece= the ancient one) sitting on their thrones at the foot of Mount Atlas. The Graiai kept watch in turns for they had but one eye and also but one tooth between them. Perseus waited at the entrance to their cave for the daughters of Phorkys to change watch. As they relieved guard, one Graia passed the single eye to the other, and for so long they were both blind. He wore the cap of Hades so he approached undetected and suddenly, as if by thin air the eye and the tooth disappeared in his hand , as they were being passed from one sister to another. Then, making his presence known - he told them that he would not return the precious objects to them until they told him where the Stygian Nymphs lived. The Stygian Nymphs welcomed the young son of Zeus. Perseus thus collected the sandals, sack, and helmet from the nymphs, and flew westwards to the Land of the Hyperboreans. He hastened away like a swift walker through the air, over the sea and Okeanos, like the sun. Tradition tells us that the Sun himself bore the name of Perseus. On the other side of Okeanos, near the Garden of the Hesperides , where the realm of Night begins, was the dwelling-place of the Gorgons (= the abhorrent ones). Three, or perhaps only two, grey-haired goddesses, daughters of the old man of the sea, Phorkys, the Graiai, kept watch over the domains before them. Neither sun nor moon ever shone upon them. A landscape of pathless forests and rocks had its beginning there. It was also called Kisthene (Κισθήνη) , the Land of Rock-roses, and could be reached equally well from the east. It was the land of darkness, in which all the lights of heaven vanish and from which they all appear again, for it borders on east and west alike. It is conceivable that even Pallas Athena did not know the way through that district to the Gorgons, for the younger deities did not know all things where the older ones, such as the Moirai and the Graiai, did. Perseus had to approach the grey goddesses to find the way to the terrible Gorgons. The names of the three Gorgones are Stheino (Stheno or Stenusa = the omnipotent), Euryale (=the broad, unending one) and Medusa. They lived in the Western Ocean, in the neighborhood of Night and the Hesperides(Hesiod). They were girded with serpents, raising their heads, vibrating their tongues, and gnashing their teeth; Aeschylus adds that they had golden wings, brazen claws, and enormous teeth. Medusa( =ruler/mistress/protector), who alone of her sisters was mortal, was, according to some legends, at first a beautiful maiden, who was punished by Athena for hubris. Now, her head was so terrific, it turned any onlooker into stone. In their cave the three Gorgons were sleeping among rain-worn shapes of men and wild beasts petrified by Medusas stare. His ingenuity or Athena guided Perseus hand; The goddess showed him the reflection of the Gorgons head in the bright shield he was carrying. He fixed his eyes on the reflection and felt the weight of the harpe, (ἅρπη) in his hand. Athena guided his arm and thus he cut off Medusas head with one stroke of the sickle whereupon, to his surprise, the winged horse Pegasus(=the gushing, spouting one), and the warrior Chrysaor( =the golden sword bearer) grasping a golden falchion, sprang fully-grown from her dead body - as she was pregnant by Poseidon in one of Athenas temples. Hurriedly thrusting the head into his magic sack kibisis, Perseus took flight; Stheno and Euryale, awakened by the noise rose to pursue him The air was the scene of the struggle between Perseus and the Gorgons; It was impossible to catch him, for on his feet he had the winged shoes and his sword hung from his shoulder; He flew with the speed of thought, his back protected by the terrible head of the Medusa. With the cap of Hades the darkness of night enfolded him like a cloak spreading about the hero. So Perseus invisible, escaped safely southward. It is also said that Athena gathered the blood running off the veins of the Medusa and gave it to Aesculapius - god of Medicine. The blood that came from the left vein was lethal killing instantly any living creature. The blood from the right vein healed every single malady. At sunset, Perseus alighted near the palace of the Titan Atlas to whom, as a punishment for a previous inhospitality, he showed the Gorgons head and thus transformed him into a mountain. He also dropped the Graeaes eye and tooth into Lake Triton, while some drops of Gorgon blood fell on the desert sand, where they bred a swarm of venomous serpents, one of which later killed Mopsus the Argonaut. He soon was beyond the region in which the Gorgons lived, which bordered on the lands of all peoples who dwelt beyond the countries of ordinary mortals. Perseus paused for refreshment at Chemmis in Egypt, where he is still worshipped, and then flew on to feast with the Hyperboreans in the north, and then moved south over the land of the Ethiopians. It was there, on a rocky coast that he caught sight of a fair maid chained and exposed on a huge a sea-cliff and instantly fell in love with her. This sight is a peak not only of the story of Perseus but also of Euripides tragedy Andromeda (=ruler/protector of men). Andromeda was daughter of Kepheus, the Ethiopian king and the proud queen Kassiopeia. Kassiopeia had boasted that both she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Nereids, who complained of this insult to their protector Poseidon. Poseidon sent a flood and a female sea-monster to devastate the land; and when Kepheus consulted the Oracle of Ammon, he was told that his only hope of deliverance lay in sacrificing Andromeda to the monster. His subjects had therefore obliged him to chain her to a rock, naked except for certain jewels, and leave her to be devoured. As Perseus flew towards Andromeda, he saw Kepheus and Kas¬siopeia watching anxiously from the shore near by, and alighted beside them to find out what was going on. On condition that, if he rescued the girl , she should be his wife and return to Greece with him, Perseus took to the air again, grasped his sickle and, diving murderously from above, beheaded the approaching monster deceived by his shadow on the sea. He had drawn the Gorgons head from the kibisis in case the monster looked up, and now laid it face down on a bed of leaves and sea-weed (which instantly turned to coral). He cleansed his hands of blood, raised three altars and sacrificed a calf, a cow, and a bull to Hermes, Athena, and Zeus respectively. An ancient vase painting shows us Perseus fighting the boar-headed horror, which is rising from the sea, by flinging stones with both hands; Andromeda hands him the stones, the hero having freed her from her bonds (Picture 2x). Nevertheless, Kepheus and Kassiopeia grudgingly welcomed him as their son-in-law however, on Andromedas insistence, the wedding took place at once; but the festivities were rudely interrupted when Agenor or Phineus, a brother of Kepheus, who wished to marry his niece (another royal pair) entered with an armed party claiming Andromeda for himself. He was doubtless summoned by Kassiopeia, since she and Kepheus at once broke faith with Perseus, pleading that the promise of Andromedas hand had been forced from them by circumstances, and that Agenors claim was the prior one. Perseus must die! cried Kassiopeia fiercely. In the fight, Perseus struck down many but, being greatly outnumbered, was forced to present the Gorgons head and turn the remaining 200 of them to stone. Poseidon set the images of Kepheus and Kassiopeia among the stars - the latter, as a punishment for her treachery, at some seasons of the year, turns upside-down, so that she looks ridiculous. Athena placed Andromedas image in the skies because she had insisted on marry¬ing Perseus, despite her parents ill faith. The marks left by her chains were forever pointed out on a cliff near Joppa (Ἰόππη) and the monsters petrified bones were exhibited in the city itself until the Roman times. Perseus returned hurriedly to Seriphos, taking Andromeda with him. In the tragedy by Euripides Diktys we find out that the hero found his mother and her protector, Diktys the fisherman, as suppliants at a temple fleeing Polydectes wrath. He therefore went straight to the palace where Polydectes was banqueting with his companions, and announced that he had brought the promised love-gift. Greeted by a storm of insults, he displayed the Gorgons head and turned them all to stone; Since then Seriphos has been one of the rockiest islands in the Archipelago while the circle of boulders is still present they say. He then gave the head to Athena, who fixed it on her aegis, while Hermes returned the sandals and sack to the guardianship of the Stygian nymphs and the helmet to Hades. After raising Dictys to the throne of Seriphos, Perseus set sail for Argos, accompanied by his mother, his wife, and a party of Cyclopes. He had found space in his heart to make amends with his grandfather Akrisios no matter what he had done. Akrisios, however, still fearful hearing of their approach, fled to the Pelasgian Larissa. Perseus went after his grandfather, found him and asked for a reconciliation. In Sophokles tragedy, The Larissaians the reconciliation festival included games. Honoring his grandfather, Perseus took part. When it came to the discus-throw, his discus, carried out of its path by the wind and the will of the Gods, struck Akrisios on the foot - a minor wound that nevertheless killed him. Greatly grieved, Perseus buried his grandfather in the temple of Athena which crowns the local acropolis and then, ridden by remorse he exchanged the throne of Argos with the throne of Tiryns run by Proetos son, cousin Megapenthes. Pausanias asserts that Perseus founded Mycenae. He mentions the shrine to Perseus that stood on the left-hand side of the road from Mycenae to Argos, and also a sacred fountain at Mycenae called Persea. Located outside the walls, this was perhaps the spring that filled the citadels underground cistern. He also states also that Atreus stored his treasures in an underground chamber an image reminiscent of Danaes prison. Apart from these more historical references, mythology says that Perseus dropped his sword pommel or found a mushroom (both named mykes) that upon cutting he released a fresh water fountain. Perceiving this event as a sign or divine revelation, he built his city there and called it Mykines. He was also supposed to be the founder of a great family, all kings. Andromeda allegedly had already borne him a son named Perses, the ancestor of the Persian kings, who later, when they laid claim to the land of the Hellenes, invoked Perseus as their ancestor. In Mycenae he had several sons of whom Alkaios and Elektryon were the grandfathers of Herakles. His daughter Gorgophone (=gorgonslayer) was the grandmother of the Spartan Dioskuroi. Pictures 1. Akrisios sitting on the steps of a tomb identified by an inscription as Perseus. Danaes name is also present. It probably is the structure he created to imprison his daughter, 1b. Danae & Golden Rain. In her sealed underground prison, Danae is sitting on her bed while her feet rest on a stool. She is tying a ribbon on her hair when she is surprised by the golden drops coming down. 490-480BC. 1c. Danae & the Golden Rain. 450 - 425 BC. 1d. The wooden chest A carpenter is finishing up his work. Akrisios on the left is giving his last instructions. Danae with the baby and he r nurse are trying to fight off the decision Red figured Hydria 490 BC. 1e. King Akrisios places his daughter Danae and her infant son Perseus in a chest, to be set adrift at sea.480-470BC, 1f. Danae adrift with baby Perseus 450bc, 1m. Box lid with Perseus with the Graeae. On looking are Phorkys, father of the Graeae, Hermes, Poseidon (protector of Medusa), and Athena 425 BC, 1n. Perseus, 1p. The Gorgons, 1q. . Medusa marble antefix from Acropolis 530 BC, 1r. The Gorgon Medusa from the pediment of Artemis Medusa in Corfu. 585 BC, 1s,t. The Medusa, 1u,v,w. Death of the Medusa, 1.x. Birth of Pegasos, 1y. The Medusa as a mare, 2 a,b,c,e. Getting away, 2g,, h,i. Andromeda at the sea cliff, 2x. Fighting the monster, 3a,b,d. Perseus frees Andromeda, 4. Perseus presents the Medusa head.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:58:52 +0000
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