Perseus and Medusa

            Perseus and Medusa is a story about a prince who goes out into the world to prove himself and to win his kingdom back from his jealous grandfather. He decided to go find and defeat the only mortal gorgon. We will see how this turns out in this essay.

           Perseus was a prince whose kingdom had been taken away from him by his grandfather. The new king had Perseus and his mother thrown into the sea to die, so that when Perseus came of age, he could not take over the throne, nor could his mother. A fisherman, who happened to be fishing in the area, found the chest, opened it, and found Perseus and his beautiful mother inside.

           By the time Perseus was old enough to take over the throne, a king had been wanting to marry his mother, but he could not stand Perseus. Perseus finally adventured out to find and kill the only mortal gorgon, Medusa. You see, there were once three beautiful sisters with gorgeous hair and faces. However, the gods were tired of their pride and vanity, so they cursed them and turned them into creatures so ugly that if you looked at their face, you would turn to stone.

            Perseus didn’t only manage to find the gorgons, but to kill Medusa. “How did he do it?” you may ask. Well, he used his shield to turn around and look at only the reflection of Medusa and fought backwards, instead of looking at the gorgon itself. After he killed Medusa, he chopped of the head, put it in a bag, and returned to his kingdom. When he came back, he found that the king had still been trying to persuade his mother to marry him without him being there, however, his mother still refused. He went to the king’s court and held up the head of Medusa. Of course, many looked up at the head turned to stone, including the king. This left Perseus almost the only one in the room, so he took his rightful place as king. Since his mother, then didn’t have to marry the old king now, she married the fisherman who saved them, and lived happily ever after.

            I love learning about and reading Greek stories. I like how the writing and the style of the story is different from today. I think this makes it better. I especially love the story of Perseus and Medusa, and I hope you do too.