PERFORMER | Jeremy Gilley Adult Perseus |
Oscar Webb Young Perseus | |
DEBUT | 1990 |
Perseus was the son of Danae and the god Zeus (who impregnated Danae in the form of a shower of gold). Perseus was the main character in The StoryTeller: Greek Myths story of "Perseus and the Gorgon".
Acrisius had locked Danae away fearing a prophesy that her offspring would kill him. Perseus was raised by his mother, Danae, locked away with his existance unknown to Acrisius. But when Acrisius found out about Perseus, he cast the two into the sea in a wooden chest. But the chest floated and the mother and child washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by the fisherman Diktys, who raised the boy to manhood.
One day Polydektes, the king of the island, came and desired to marry Danae. He taunted Perseus that he would have to bring a chest full of gold to the wedding. Perseus remembered the stories of his youth and promised to bring the head of Medusa, one of the gorgons, whose very expression turns people to stone.
Perseus met The Graeae whom he persuaded to give him help. He soon received a pair of winged sandals, a high-polished shield, a sack to carry the head and a dog-skinned cap of invisibility. (The latter detail disturbs the listening Dog). Flying past Atlas, he soon reached the end of the world and the gorgon.
He beheaded the beast, using the cap of invisibilty to stay hidden and only looking at the reflection on the shield (and never at the gorgon). Perseus then returned with the head and upon showing it to Polydectes turned him to stone.