Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/112

 98 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Nor dost thou heed the scudding brine Of waves that wash above thy curls so deep, Nor the shrill winds that sweep, Lapped in thy purple robe's embrace, Fair little face ! But if this dread were dreadful too to thee, Then wouldst thou lend thy listening ear to me ; Therefore I cry, Sleep, babe, and sea be still, And slumber our unmeasured ill ! Oh, may some change of fate, sire Zeus, from thee Descend, our woes to end ! But if this prayer, too overbold, offend Thy justice, yet be merciful to me ! (Translated by J. A. Symonds.) Finally they reached the island of Seriphus, where they were brought to land by the fisherman Dictys. When Perseus had grown up, Polydectes, the ruler of the island, who was a suitor of Danae, and found the son in his way, inveigled the young man into a prom- ise to go and bring the head of the Gorgon Medusa. By the assistance of Hermes and Athena, Perseus sue* ceeded in cutting off the head of the monster while she was asleep, that head the very sight of which petrified every one who gazed upon it ; but he escaped from the pursuing sisters of Medusa only by borrow- ing the helmet of Hades, which rendered him invisible. In Ethiopia (Rhodes?) he rescued the daughter of Ce- pheus, Andromeda, who had been bound fast to a rock on the shore as a propitiatory offering to a sea monster which had been sent by Poseidon. Then after chang- ing all his enemies into stone by showing them the Gorgon head, and after fulfilling the oracle by killing his grandfather inadvertently by a throw of the discus,