Perseus accomplished his quest with the help of Hermes and Athena. He went first to the Gorgons‘ sisters, the Graeae, who had only one eye and one tooth which they shared among themselves. Perseus took the eye and the tooth, and agreed to give them back only if the Graeae helped him in his quest. They helped him acquire a pair of winged sandals, a wallet or satchel, and the cap of Hades; the sandals enabled him to fly, the satchel was to carry the Gorgon’s head, and the cap conferred invisibility on its wearer. Wearing the cap, he approached Medusa, looking only at her reflection in his shield, and cut off her head.
As he flew back over Africa on his way home, he encountered Atlas; in the course of a struggle, he used the Gorgon’s head to turn Atlas to stone (thereby forming the Atlas Mountains). He also dripped blood from the head onto the sands of the African desert, giving birth to the deadly vipers of that region. Later in the journey he saw the maiden Andromeda chained naked to a rock by the sea as a sacrifice to a sea monster. He fell in love with her and bargained with her father, Cepheus, for her hand in marriage if he killed the monster. He succeeded in slaying the beast, but at the wedding feast Phineus, a jilted suitor of Andromeda, angrily demanded the bride. In the battle which followed, Perseus used Medusa’s head to turn Phineus and his followers into stone.
When he returned to Seriphus, he found that Polydectes was still persecuting Danae. He used the Gorgon’s head once again, and turned Polydectes to stone. He then gave the sandals, satchel and cap to Hermes; he gave the Gorgon’s head to Athene, who emblazoned it upon the aegis which protected her in battle. Finally he returned to Acrisius’ kingdom, where he fulfilled the prophecy by accidentally killed the king while throwing the discus.
Thank you Encyclopedia Mythica
So, at some point for some reason I decided this was a good thing to rewrite as a short story. This is the most convoluted story I’ve ever read and it’s turning into the most convoluted fantasy piece I’ve ever designed. Tomorrow I’ll probably post my framework, the kind of short blow by blow I’ve developed, so you can see it. Today it’s just the opening.
The name of the story, though, is something I’m kind of proud of. I’m going for a kind of Conan vibe, before the advent of history when the world was still young, still shrouded in myth, and still full of things that were yet to be forgotten.
This is the story of The First, and Forgotten, Hero. The story of Farla, the last princess of Atlantis, and her adventures with the poets Homer and Taliesin.
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