Greek Heroic Age of the founding narratives of various city-states. They also became the ancestors of later heroes. The Phoenician prince Cadmus, was the first Greek hero. The grandson of Poseidon (through his father Agenor), he founded Thebes Perseus, famous for his exploits well before the days of his great-grandson, Heracles, was the son of Zeus. Perseus beheaded the Medusa, saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus, and was the legendary founder of Mycenae. Aeacus was also a son of Zeus. Bellerophon was descended from the nymph, Orseis. Oenomaus, king of Pisa, in the Peloponnese, was the son of Ares. The excellence of
Sea monster "Carta marina". This practice died away with the advent of modern cartography. Nevertheless, stories of sea monsters and eyewitness accounts which claim to have seen these beasts persist to this day. Sea monster accounts are found in virtually all cultures that have contact with the sea. For example, Avienus relates of Carthaginian explorer Himilco's voyage "...there monsters of the deep, and beasts swim amid the slow and sluggishly crawling ships." (lines 117-29 of "Ora Maritima"). Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed to have encountered a lion-like monster with "glaring eyes" on his return voyage after formally claiming St. John's, Newfoundland (1583) for