Perseus and Medusa

●Perseus and medusa is a

heroic tale of a man named
Perseus and how he killed
the Gorgon medusa.
●The original myth of Perseus
and Medusa was recorded
around 490 BC in Greece.
 Background of Perseus
●Perseus was the child of the god Jupiter
and his mother was Danae a mortal
princes was locked away by her farther
because if she was to have a son he was
prophesied to kill the king. The god Jupiter
came to her in her cell and she gave birth
to a child named Perseus.
 Background of Perseus
●The king was shocked at how she
could possibly have given birth to a
son so he put her and the baby in a
chest and sent them out to sea.
●They where picked up by a fisherman
and was sent to King Polydectes
where he lived for many years.
●The King wanted to get rid of Perseus
so that he can marry his mom. So he
sent perseus on a mission to kill the
 Background of medusa
● She is one of three gorgon sisters: Medusa, Stheno, and
Euryale.
● They were children of Phorcys and ceto, or sometimes,
Typhon and Echidna, in each case chthonic monsters
from an archaic world.
● She was extremely Beautiful and her hair was her best
feature.
● Medusa claimed she was more beautiful then the
Goddess Minerva. Minerva heard this and cursed
Medusa.
● Medusa’s Hair Turned to Snakes and she became pitful
and so ugly that if anyone looked upon her they turned to
stone.
 The Story
●Perseus set out to find Medusa and on his
way he came across Mercury who was the
herald of Jupiter Pereus’ father.
●Mercury had been sent to help Perseus
defeat medusa.
●They came across three gray sisters and
Perseus was able to trick them into telling
him where he could find winged sandals,
magic pouch and the cap of darkness.
 The Story
●After they received these items the flew to the
place where Medusa lived. She was lying asleep
on the sand.
●Mercury told Perseus to use the reflection off his
shield to look at Medusa for if he look straight at
her he would turn to stone.
●He did exactly what Mercury had said and easily
snuck up on Medusa and cut her head off.
●The two other gorgon sisters saw him kill
Medusa and quickly came after him.
●He swiftly put the head in the magic pouch and
the coat of darkness over his body, this made
 The Story
●Perseus returned home and was told that King
Polydectes had treated his mother very badly
since he had been gone.
●He became angry and realized that the king had
tried to trick Perseus into trying to kill medusa so
he would die.
●Perseus became angry and went to the king, as
soon as the king saw him he ordered him to be
arrested.
●Right then Perseus pulled the head out of the
magic pouch and the king and all his men turned
 Themes
●Perseus is the idea of the traditional Greek
hero.
●The main themes in the story are heroism,
bravery, and family.