Historiae Romanorum

Danae

The daughter of Acrisius and the mother of Perseus.

Because he had no heirs to his throne, only Danae, Acrisius consulted the Oracle at Delphi about the possibility of him having a male heir.  The oracle responded that Danae would give birth to a male son, but he would eventually kill Acrisius.

To try to prevent this, Acrisius had a large bronze tower created beneath the ground, and he placed his daughter Danae within.  Her only access was a small hole at the top, through which food would be lowered.  Despite his precautions, Zeus nevertheless impregnated Danae with a golden shower, which he rained down through he top of the tower.  Danae was impregnated, and she later gave birth to a son, whom she named Perseus.

When he found out, Acrisius refused to believe that Zeus was the father.  He placed Danae and Perseus in a chest and cast it out to sea, with the intention of killing them.  Instead, the were carried in the chest to the island of Seriphos.

On Seriphos, Perseus grew into manhood.  The king of the island, Polydectes, eventually took note of the still beautiful Danae.  He desired to marry Danae, but he feared that her son Perseus would interfere.  He therefore decided to send Perseus on a quest to kill Medusa, the lone mortal of the Gorgons.  Polydectes felt certain that his was a quest he surely would not survive.

Perseus, however, prevailed and returned to Seriphos.  There, he found that Polydectes' desire had forced his mother to take refuge in a temple.  Using the head of Medusa, Perseus turned Polydectes to stone and saved his mother.

Source(s):

1. Apollodorus.  Bibliotece.

This page was last updated on July 21, 2004.