Perseus Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (; ) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty, who, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, was the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles. Because of the obscurity of the name Perseus and the legendary character of its bearer, most etymologists presume that it might be pre-Greek; however, the name of Perseus’ native
Andromeda (play) Classicist Gilbert Murray commented that "Only a few fragments of the "Andromeda" remain, but they are curiously beautiful; and the play as a whole seems to have been the one unclouded love-romance that Euripides ever wrote. Murray also related a story told by Lucian (in "The Way to Write History") writing 500 years after "Andromeda" was first produced, that people in Abdera, Thrace, were stricken by the play and walked around "as though in a dream" while mumbling to themselves a speech from the play which began "O love, high monarch over gods and men..." Andromeda (play) Andromeda (, "Androméda")