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EDITH HAMILTON Students who enjoy reading Greek and Roman mythology as part of their English classes have Edith Hamilton to thank. At the age of sixty-three, Hamilton began a second career retelling the ancient myths of Greece and Rome. Hamilton’s scholarly work single-handedly renewed an interesting the classical world in American schools. Edith Hamilton was born in 1867 in Dresden, Germany. Her father, Montgomery Hamilton, was the son of a prominent Fort Wayne, Indiana, family, and her mother, Gertrude Pond Hamilton, was the daughter of a Confederate sympathizer who moved to Europe during the Civil War. Montgomery and Gertrude eventually moved their family back to Fort Wayne, where Edith and her three sisters grew up. Hamilton studied Greek and Latin languages and literature when she entered Bryn Mawr College in 1891. In 1896, she became head of the first private school, Bryn Mawr School for young women, to focus on college preparation. Hamilton’s theories of education were based on the Greek ideals of individualism, academic freedom, and intellectual exploration. She encouraged students to develop their own individual talents. She served as headmistress at Bryn Mawr School for twenty-six years. After her retirement, Hamilton turned to writing about her favorite subject: the Greek and Roman classics. In 1930 she published her first book, The Greek Way. Several other book followed including her most famous work, Mythology (1942). In her books, Hamilton made ancient cultures accessible to a wide range of readers. She also idealized Greek culture over all others. In Mythology she wrote, “In Greece man first realized what mankind was.” She believed that the Greeks maintained a balance of mind, body, and spirit superior to other cultures. LITERARY ELEMENTS As you read, write down the name of stories you are familiar with that share similarities with the story of Perseus. Be sure to list the similarities. Archetype: an image or symbol used repeatedly in art or literature. Plot Pattern Archetype: a sequence of events that is familiar because it appears repeatedly in stories told across cultures, all over the world. One plot pattern archetype,
for example, involves a hero guided by magical beings or gods. As you read, see how many different plot pattern archetypes you can identify in this story. Stock Character: a character in literature, theater, or film of a type quickly recognized and accepted by the reader or viewer and requiring no development by the writer. Stock characters do not have the same universal quality as archetypes and are usually limited to a specific culture or time period. i.e. tough-guy detective, faithful friend to the hero, damsel in distress whom the hero rescues. Symbol: an object, person, place, or event that is literal but also represents something other than itself. Writers often use symbols to make abstracts ideas or concepts concrete. Myth: the word myth comes from the Greek word mythos, meaning “word” or “story.” A myth is a traditional story that deals with goddesses, gods, heroes, and supernatural forces. A myth may explain a belief, a custom, or a force of nature. Characteristics of most myths:
- Sought to explain things people could not otherwise understand.
- Served to bind a group of people together.
- Were used to set examples for both virtuous behavior and flawed behavior.
- Contain supernatural elements. BIG IDEA Courage and Cleverness. As you read this myth, look for examples of Perseus’s bravery and intelligence. Make note of these instances. MAKING CONNECTIONS Think about what you already know, personal experiences, and experiences of others and try to connect them to the story. Include beliefs, traditions, practices, and customs of your culture and others both past and present. IDENTIFYING GENRE GENRE refers to a category of literature. Each genre has its own conventions, or standards, that give readers certain expectations. When reading a story categorized as a mystery, for example, the reader expects a mysterious event to occur. The reader also expects a suspenseful tone, twists and turns in the plot, and a final resolution in which the mystery is solved. “Perseus” is a myth. As you read, try to identify the characteristics of the myth genre. Perseus by Edith Hamilton King Acrisius of Argos 1 had only one child, a daughter, Danaë. She was beautiful above all the other women of the land, but this was small comfort to
finally one day the little boy—his name was Perseus—was discovered by his grandfather. “Your child!” Acrisius cried in great anger. “Who is his father?” But when Danaë answered proudly, “Zeus,” he would not believe her. One thing only he was sure of, that the boy’s life was a terrible danger to his own. He was afraid to kill him for the same reason that had kept him from killing her, fear of Zeus and the Furies 4 who pursue such murderers. But if he could not kill them outright, he could put them in the way of tolerably certain death. 5 He had a great chest made, and the two placed in it. Then it was taken out to sea and cast into the water. In that strange boat Danaë sat with her little son. The daylight faded and she was alone on the sea. When in the carven chest the winds and waves Struck fear into her heart she put her arms, Not without tears, round Perseus tenderly She said, “O son, what grief is mine. But you sleep softly, little child, Sunk deep in rest within your cheerless home, Only a box, brass-bound. The night, this darkness visible The scudding 6 waves so ear to your soft curls, The shrill voice of the wind, you do not heed, Nestled in your red cloak, fair little face.” Through the night in the tossing chest she listened to the waters that seemed always about to wash over them. The dawn came, but with no comfort to her for she could not see it. Neither could she see that around them there
were islands rising high above the sea, many islands. All she knew was that presently a wave seemed to lift them and carry them swiftly on and then, retreating, leave them on something solid and motionless. They had made land; they were safe from the sea, but they were still in the chest with no way to get out. Fate willed it – or perhaps Zeus, who up to now had done little for his love and his child – that they should be discovered by a good man, a fisherman named Dictys. He came upon the great box and broke it open and took the pitiful cargo home to his wife who was as kind as he. They had no children and they cared for Danaë and Perseus as if they were their own. They tow lived there many years, Danaë content to let her son follow the fisherman’s humble trade, out of harm’s way. But in the end more trouble came. Polydectes, the ruler of the little island, was the brother of Dictys, but he was a cruel and ruthless man. He seems to have taken no notice of the mother and son for a long time, but at last Danaë attracted his attention. She was still radiantly beautiful even though Perseus by now was full grown, and Polydectes fell in love with her. He wanted her, but he did not want her son, and he set himself to think out a way of getting rid of him. There were some fearsome monsters called Gorgons who lived on an island and were known far and wide because of their deadly power. Polydectes evidently talked to Perseus about them; he probably told him that he would rather have the head of one of them than anything else in the world. This seems practically certain from the plan he devised for killing Perseus. He announced that he was about to be married and he called his friends together for a celebration, including Perseus in the invitation. Each guest, as was customary, brought a gift for the bride-to-be, except Perseus alone. He had
When and how Hermes and Athena came to his help is not told in any story but he must have known despair before they did so. At last, however, as he wandered on, he met a strange and beautiful person. We know what he looked like from many a poem, a young man with the fir down upon his cheek when youth is loveliest, carrying, as no other young man ever did, a wand of gold with wings at one end, wearing a winged hat, too, and winged sandals, At sight of him hope must have entered Perseus’ heart, for he would know that this could be none other than Hermes, the guide and the giver of good. This radiant personage 12 told him that before he attacked Medusa he must first be properly equipped, 13 and that what he needed was in the possession of the nymphs 14 of the North. To find the nymphs’ abode 15 , they must go to the Gray Women who alone could tell them the way. These women dwelt in a land where all was dim and shrouded in twilight. No ray of sun looked ever on that country, nor the moon by night. In that gray place the three women lived, all gray themselves and withered as in extreme old age. They were strange creatures, indeed, most of all because they had but one eye for the three, which it was their custom to take turns with, each removing it from her forehead when she had had it for a time and handing it to another. All this Hermes told Perseus and then he unfolded his plan. He would himself guide Perseus to them. Once there Perseus must keep hidden until he saw one of them take the eye out of her forehead to pass it on. At that moment, when none of the three could see, he must rush forward and seize the eye and refuse to give it back until they told him how to reach the nymphs of the North. He himself, Hermes said, would give him a sword to attack Medusa with
- which could not be bent or broken by the Gorgon’s scales, 16 no matter how
hard they were. This was a wonderful gift, no doubt, and yet of what use was a sword when the creature to be struck by it could turn the swordsman into stone before he was within striking distance? But another great deity 17 was at hand to help. Pallas 18 Athena stood beside Perseus. She took off the shield of polished bronze which covered her breast and held it out to him. “Look into this when you attack the Gorgon,” she said. “You will be able to see her in it as in a mirror, and so avoid her deadly power.” Now, indeed, Perseus had good reason to hope The journey to the twilight land was long, over the stream of Ocean and on to the very border of the black country where the Cimmerians 19 dwell, but Hermes as his guide and he could not go astray They found the Gray Women at last, looking in the wavering light like gray birds, for they had the shape of swans. But their heads were human and beneath their wings they had arms and hands. Perseus did just as Hermes had said, he held back until he saw one of them take the eye out of her forehead. Then before she could give it to her sister, he snatched it out of her hand. It was a moment or two before the three realized they had lost it. Each thought one of the others had it. But Perseus spoke out and told them he had taken it and that it would be theirs again only when they showed him how to find the nymphs of the North. They gave him full directions at once; they would have done anything to get their eye back. He returned it to them and went on the way they had pointed out to him. He was bound, although he did not know it, to the blessed country of the Hyperboreans 20 , at the back of the North Wind, of which is said: “Neither by ship nor yet by land shall one find the wondrous road to the gathering place of the Hyperboreans.” But Perseus had Hermes with him, so the road lay open to him, and he reached that host of happy people who are always banqueting and
Perseus, on his winged sandals sped, Flying swift as thought. In a wallet of silver, A wonder to behold, He bore the head of the monster, While Hermes, the son of Mais, The messenger of Zeus, Kept ever at his side. On his way back he came to Ethiopia 26 and alighted there. By this time Hermes had left him. Perseus found, as Hercules was later to find, that a lovely maiden had been given up to be devoured by a horrible sea serpent. Her name was Andromeda and she was the daughter of a silly vain woman, That starred Ethiop queen who strove To set her beauty’s praise above The sea-nymphs, and their power offended. She had boasted that she was more beautiful than the daughters of Nereus, the Sea-god. An absolutely certain way in those days to draw down on one a wretched fate was to claim superiority in anything over any deity; nevertheless people were perpetually doing so. In this case the punishment for the arrogance the gods detested fell not on Queen Cassiopeia, Andromeda’s mother, but on her daughter. The Ethiopians were being devoured in numbers by the serpent; and, learning from the oracle that they could be freed from the pest only if Andromeda were offered up to it, they forced Cepheus, her father,
to consent. When Perseus arrived the maiden was on a rocky ledge by the sea, chained there to wait for the coming of the monster. Perseus saw her and on the instant loved her. He waited beside her until the great snake came for its prey; then he cut its head off just as he had the Gorgon’s. The headless body dropped back into the water; Perseus took Andromeda to her parents and asked for her hand, which they gladly gave him. With her he sailed back to the island and his mother, but in the house where he had lived so long he found no one. The fisherman Dictys’ wife was long since dead, and the two others, Danaë and the man who had been like a father to Perseus, had had to fly and hide themselves from Polydectes, who was furious at Danaë’s refusal to marry him. They had taken refuge in a temple, Perseus was told. He learned also that the King was holding a banquet in the palace and all the men who favored him were gathered there. Perseus instantly saw his opportunity. He went straight to the palace and entered the hall. As he stood at the entrance, Athena’s shining buckler 27 on his breast, the silver wallet at his side, he drew the eyes of every man there. Then before any could look away he held up the Gorgon’s head; and at the sight one and all, the cruel King and his servile courtiers 28 , were turned into stone. There they sat, a row of statues, each, as it were, frozen stiff in the attitude he had struck when he first saw Perseus. When the islanders knew themselves freed from the tyrant it was easy for Perseus to find Danaë and Dictys. He made Dictys king of the island, but he and his mother decided that they would go back with Andromeda to Greece and try to be reconciled to Acrisius, to see if the many years that had passed since he had put them in the chest had not softened him so that he would be glad to receive his daughter and grandson. When they reached Argos,
(^13) Identifying Genre: Why do you think the Greeks created this and other stories about humans aided by gods? (^14) Nymphs are female nature spirits in Greek mythology. (^15) An abode is a home or a place of residence. (^16) Identifying Genre: How does the description of this sword fit the characteristics of a myth? (^17) A deity is a god or goddess. (^18) Pallas is another name for Athena and is sometimes used as part of her regular name. One myth claims Pallas was a friend of Athena’s whom she killed accidentally. She added his name to her own so that he would not be forgotten. (^19) Cimmerians were a race of people living in what is now Russia and Ukraine. (^20) Hyperboreans were a mythical group of people living in the northern parts of Asia and Europe. Their land was supposed to be perfect. (^21) Revelry means “loud, boisterous celebrating.” (^22) A lyre is a stringed instrument similar to a harp. (^23) Here, wallet is used in its Middle English sense and means “knapsack.” (^24) Identifying Genre: Would these three items be found in a realistic story sent in the present? Explain. (^25) Big Idea: Courage & Cleverness: What is clever about Perseus’s method of killing Medusa? (^26) Ethiopia is a coastal country in northeastern Africa. (^27) A buckler is a type of shield. (^28) The term servile courtiers refers to the submissive people who advised the king. (^29) Larissa is a city in eastern Greece. (^30) A discus is a heavy round disk that is thrown in track and field competitions. (^31) Plot Pattern Archetype: How does this event complete one archetypal pattern in the story? (^32) Apollo is a Greek god known for healing, prophesy, and music. (^33) Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus and a human woman named Alcemene. Hercules successfully completed twelve tasks in order to become a god.
