Perseus

The son of Zeus, Perseus belongs in the first rank of Greek heroes. Indeed to some he was a greater hero even than Heracles. With the help of Hermes and Athena he slew the Gorgon Medusa, conquered a mighty sea monster and won the hand of the beautiful princess Andromeda. This volume tells of his enduring myth, it's rendering in art and literature, and its reception through the Roman period and up to the modern day. This is the first scholarly book in English devoted to Perseus' myth in its entirety for over a century. With information drawn from a diverse range of sources as well as varied illustrations, the volume illuminates the importance of the Perseus myth throughout the ages.

In this second of McCaughrean's four-book Heroes series, readers follow Perseus as he lives the fate the oracles have declared, an impossible quest to kill the hideous, snake-haired Medusa to save his mother from marriage to an evil king.

This book, in graphic novel format, is the retelling of King Polydectes hatching a plan to send Perseus, son of Zeus, after the head of the gorgon, Medusa.

The poet and part-time philosopher Johan Ludvig Heiberg published the first issue of his review Perseus, Journal for the Speculative Idea in June of 1837 as a part of his long-standing campaign to convert his Golden Age contemporaries to G.W.F. Hegel's philosophical system. The journal was created in large part as a result of a dispute that Heiberg had with the editorial board of the prestigious Maanedsskrift for Litteratur about an article that he had submitted. Feeling unfairly persecuted, Heiberg retracted his submission and resolved to found a new philosophical journal of his own, in which his controversial piece could be published. Thus Perseus was born. In his prefatory address to the journal's readers, Heiberg calls upon the Greek hero Perseus to be the champion for the cause of Hegelian idealism and to do battle with the pernicious Medusa of realism and empiricism. Although Heiberg's Hegelian review only appeared in two issues in 1837 and 1838, it was widely read and discussed among Danish students and intellectuals of the time. It was reviewed at length by the philosopher Frederik Christian Sibbern and satirized by Søren Kierkegaard in Prefaces. There can be no doubt that Heiberg's Perseus represents a landmark in Golden Age culture.

In the story of Perseus, the hero, rejected and feared by his grandfather, is cast into the sea with his mother to die. Fortunately for Perseus, fate has other plans for them. Perseus kills a gorgon, a giant, and an angry sea monster; marries a beautiful princess; turns a crowd to stone; and saves his mother from a vengeful king. His destiny takes him back to his birthplace in search of his grandfather. Only then does he finally fulfill his fate and live happily ever after.

Could a monster whose very look turns men to stone be a challenge too perilous even for the son of Zeus? King Polydectes has designs on Perseus' mother, Danaë. But first the king must get rid of young Perseus once and for all. So Polydectes hatches a plan to trick the young hero into performing an impossible task—slay the snake-haired Gorgon monster Medusa, whose very look turns men to stone. Yet, as the son of Zeus, king of the gods, Perseus has many powerful allies. Will Perseus' strength and courage—and the favor of the gods—allow him to do the impossible?

This 1937 book was written to introduce young readers to the central importance of mythology and religion in Ancient Greece.

You're the main character. You make the choices. Can you survive against Medusa, a monster with snakes for hair, in this adapted classic for ages 9 to 13?