| Perseus | |
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Real Name |
Perseus |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Perseus is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles' mother was descended from Perseus).
Before setting out on his quest to slay Medusa, Perseus prayed to the gods and Zeus answered by sending two of his other children – Hermes and Athena – to bless their half-brother with the weapons needed to defeat Medusa. Hermes gave Perseus his own pair of winged sandals to fly with and loaned him his harpe sword to slay Medusa with, and Hades' helm of darkness to become invisible with. Athena loaned Perseus her polished shield for him to view Medusa's reflection without becoming petrified, and gave him a kibisis, a knapsack to safely contain the Gorgon's head which the goddess warned could still petrify even in death.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
All published appearances of Perseus from before January 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
- The Story of Perseus and the Gorgon's Head (1898)
- Histories of Herodotus
- Ovid's Metamorphoses
- Megalai Ehoiai
- Suda
- Argonautica
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Thrilling Romances #12
- Forbidden Worlds #69
- Hit Comics #49
Notes[]
- The replacement of Bellerophon as the tamer and rider of Pegasus by the more familiar culture hero Perseus was not simply an error of painters and poets of the Renaissance. The transition was a development of Classical times which became the standard image during the Middle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of the Renaissance and later: Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum gentilium libri identifies Pegasus as the steed of Perseus, and Pierre Corneille places Perseus upon Pegasus in Andromède.