Perseus
Chapter I
Seagulls
soared and wheeled through the salty air, crying harshly to one
another as they spied the strange item below. Curious, they flew down
and landed on the rocks. At first only a few came to inspect the
thing, but gradually they flocked about and approached cautiously,
hopping towards it. There was a strange smell about it, and faint,
smothered noises issued from it. It was a large chest, the wood
warped and rotted and the iron lock and trimming rusted by the
seawater. Suddenly, a cry rang from it, harsh and loud. Startled, the
seagulls hopped back.
Further down the
rocky coast, an old, gray man was spearing fish with a trident. Two
buckets full of dead fish stood beside him. He worked slowly,
straightening up every now and then to groan about his aching back.
His grizzled, bearded face, lined with wrinkles, was kind and honest,
soaked by spraying seawater and sweat. A new tunic, made of white
linen, was his only garment, held close to his waist by an old,
sharkskin belt. There was a muffled clunk of iron against rocks
underwater as he missed. The trident head slipped and the old man
almost fell into the water. He caught himself, though, on his trident
and straightened up with a long sigh, arching his back.
Attracted by the old
fisherman’s catch and frightened by the strange box, the
seagulls had gathered about him. Grinning, the old man began talking
away to the birds as if they understood him. “Aha! There ye
rascals are, comin’ to steal Dictys’s fish away. Did ye
decide it amongst yourselves, or was it that box? Ay, I saw ye; an’
no seagull who’s afraid of a box gets any o’ my
fish. D’ ye know why? ‘Cause I says so. Ha! Now shoo, an’
find yer own fish.” Chuckling to himself as if he had secretly
bested the blank-faced birds, Dictys slipped the sharkskin straps for
carrying the buckets over his trident, one on each end, and,
clutching the haft of the trident in the middle with both hands, he
lifted it onto the small of his back and started towards the area the
birds had fled from.
“Hm, now what
have we here?” Dictys mused upon reaching the chest. Setting
down the buckets and trident slowly, he drew his scaling knife and
after a few moments of fiddling with it he had removed the rusted
lock and lifted the lid. Dictys’s gray eyes widened and his jaw
dropped when he saw what was inside; curled up in the chest was a
beautiful lady with long, golden hair, soaking wet and clad in rags.
She held a crying baby close to her breast. The infant’s crying
had awakened her and she looked up at Dictys calmly with bright blue
eyes. They stayed there like that for a long moment, Dictys kneeling
on the wet sand before her and she staring up at him while her baby
bawled away.
At last Dictys rose,
offering a frail hand. The lady took it and he helped her out of the
chest, somewhat hesitantly taking the screaming baby which she boldly
placed in his wiry arms. Now that she was out of the chest, the lady
bowed with royal dignity and wiped sand off her gray himation.
“I am Andromeda, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Queen
Eurydice. This is my son Perseus,” she said in a young voice,
hoarse from seawater. “Thank you,” she added, “You
have saved our lives.”
Dictys rose, his
long, gray hair and beard swaying as he bowed and said, “I only
meant to fulfill my curiosity. But now it is added to: how did you
survive the sea, and why were you and your son locked in such a cruel
prison, if you are indeed a princess? I doubt not your word, but I
would know your story if you would tell it.”
Suddenly Andromeda
had a fit of coughing, spewing seawater on the sand. Dictys
apologized hastily. “How foolish of me – you’re
cold, and wet. Come, come, follow me.” Handing Andromeda’s
son back to her, he lifted his trident and buckets of fish again and
led her across the sand to a hut built of uncut stones.
Inside, Dictys laid
Andromeda down on a bed of rushes and began scaling his fish with his
knife. In as short a time as possible, he had made a stew of fish and
herbs and was spooning it down Andromeda’s sore throat. After
she had eaten and rested, Andromeda told Dictys that she was ready to
tell her tale. The old fisherman sat down on a wooden stool to
listen.
“As I have
told you, my father is Acrisius, king of Argos. I do not hesitate to
tell you that he was a greedy man, and a cowardly one. But despite
his cowardice, he had a hunger for power; Acrisius usurped the throne
from his elder brother, Proëtus. Proëtus’s armies
besieged Acrisius in Mycenae, the capital city of Argos. Acrisius
defeated Proëtus but was left with a great fear of his power
being lost. One day, he began building a huge, impregnable tower, but
he would not tell me what it was for. I was very young at the time,
only a girl, but I remember watching the slaves work on it. They
looked sad, and they would not tell me what it was either. I was
resolved to find out what it was for;”
