Argos and the Argolid (the territory around Argos)

Chapter 21 (Perseus and the Legends of Argos): key names and terms

Note the shift in literary sources (away from Homer, Greek tragedy) to, e.g., Apollodorus (see MLS p. 53), Pindar

Argos (see map in MLS on inside back cover)

Argolid=the territory around Argos in the Peloponnese
Hera (Argos was the largest center of worship of Hera)

Story of Perseus and related characters (Danaë, Graiai, Cepheus, Cassiepea, Andromeda)
concept of the ‘quest’: see MLS pp. 13-14 (on Propp) and p. 403
• note also the ‘folktale motifs’ in story of Perseus: MLS p. 547

Story of Io and Argus

Ancestors of Perseus (Danaus, Aegyptus, the Danaids=daughters of Danaus, Hypermnestra)
 Figure 21.1
The Ancestry of Perseus
 The Legend of Perseus: Birth
• Perseus: most important hero of Argos
• Proteus and Acrisius
• Oracle: son of daughter Danaë will kill Proteus
• Danaë and the brazen chamber
• Zeus visits Danaë as a shower of gold; Perseus is born
• Perseus and Danaë float in chest to Seriphos, rescued by Dictys

Danae and the shower of gold

Scarab-shaped ‘intaglio’ (engraving)
5th cent. BC
Perseus on Seriphos and beyond:
• Polydectes, brother of Dictys, king of Seriphos, falls in love with Danaë
• Perseus’ fateful boast at the banquet to acquire the ‘head of a Gorgon’
• with assistance of Hermes and Athena, Perseus travels to the land of the
Graeae who are:
• Three women old from birth who…
• Know the way to nymphs who have magic objects
• Have one eye and one tooth among them
• From the nymphs, Perseus receives:
• Cap of Invisibility
• Winged sandals
• Kibisis
• From Hermes: scimitar
 The Gorgons
• Perseus flies to the three Gorgons
• Turn those who look at them to stone
• Medusa the only mortal one
• Perseus beheads Medusa using shield’s
reflection
• From Medusa’s body: Chrysaor and
Pegasus
• Hippocrene fountain
• Athena’s invention of flute music
‘Medusa’, by Caravaggio (1571–1610)
Perseus and Andromeda
• Daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiepea
in Ethiopia
• Cassiepea’s boast and Poseidon’s wrath
• Appeased only by offering of Andromeda
• Perseus kills sea-monster, marries Andromeda
• Son: Perses
• Uses Gorgon’s head to deal with Phineus

• Perseus eventually returns to Argos, then to

Thessaly, where he accidentally kills Acrisius

Perseus, Andromeda, and the sea-monster

Wall painting, Boscotrecase (near Pompeii), late 1st cent. BC
 Figure 21.1
The Ancestry of Perseus
Other Legends of Argos
• The Family of Inachus
• Io and son Epaphus (by Zeus)
• how she became pregnant by Zeus (this involves, Hera, a cow,
and a many-eyed creature called Argus!)
• Io comes to be worshiped in Egypt as Isis
• Note descendants of Io, especially:
• Danaüs and his 50 daughters (Danaïds) come to Argos
• 50 sons of Aegyptus married to the Danaïds
• All but Hypermnestra murder husbands
• The 49 Danaïds condemned in Underworld
• Filling water in leaky jars
The House of Livia (Palatine, Rome) (late 1st cent. BC)
The ‘Io and Argus room’ (above)
Io, Argus and Hermes (right)
 Figure 21.1
The Ancestry of Perseus
Other Legends of Argos
• The Family of Inachus
• Io and son Epaphus (by Zeus)
• how she became pregnant by Zeus (this involves, Hera, a cow,
and a many-eyed creature called Argus!)
• Io comes to be worshiped in Egypt as Isis
• Note descendants of Io, especially:
• Danaüs and his 50 daughters (Danaïds) come to Argos
• 50 sons of Aegyptus married to the Danaïds
• All but Hypermnestra murder husbands
• The 49 Danaïds condemned in Underworld
• Filling water in leaky jars