Source Verification: Perseus
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
How did Perseus kill Medusa without being turned to stone?
He never looked at her directly. Athena and Hermes equipped him with a polished bronze shield, and Perseus approached the sleeping Gorgon watching her reflection in it, guiding the killing blow by sight of the mirror image rather than the creature itself. He also had a cap of invisibility and winged sandals from the nymphs to escape her two immortal Gorgon sisters afterward.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2-2.4.3
Why could Medusa be killed if the other Gorgons were immortal?
Apollodorus specifies that of the three Gorgon sisters, only Medusa was mortal; Stheno and Euryale could not be killed at all. This is why Perseus's mission specifically targeted Medusa rather than any Gorgon, and why her sisters could pursue him afterward but never stop him.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2
What came out of Medusa's body when she was beheaded?
Ovid and Apollodorus both record that the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor sprang from her neck at the moment of decapitation, born from her union with Poseidon before her death. Perseus later gave Pegasus no further role in his own story; the horse passes into other myths, most famously Bellerophon's.
Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.604-5.249
How did Perseus rescue Andromeda?
On his way back from Medusa, Perseus found Andromeda chained to a rock on the coast of Aethiopia, offered as a sacrifice to a sea monster sent to punish her mother Cassiopeia's boast of being more beautiful than the Nereids. Perseus killed the monster, in some versions with his sword and in others by turning it to stone with Medusa's head, and claimed Andromeda as his wife.
Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.604-5.249
Did Perseus really kill his grandfather Acrisius?
Yes, though by accident and without recognizing him. Years after settling on Seriphos, Perseus competed at funeral games in a foreign city where Acrisius happened to be a spectator; a discus Perseus threw went astray and struck the old man, killing him. This fulfilled the original oracle without either man intending it.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.4.4
What is Perseus's connection to the invention of the aulos?
Pindar's twelfth Pythian ode credits Athena with inventing the aulos, a double reed pipe, specifically to imitate the mourning wail of Medusa's Gorgon sisters after Perseus killed her, then gave the instrument to mortals. The ode treats Perseus's feat as the indirect origin of a real musical tradition rather than only a monster-slaying story.
Source: Pindar, Pythian Ode 12
Sources
- Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2-2.4.4
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.604-5.249
- Pindar, Pythian Ode 12
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)