As Perseus was on his journey back to Seriphus, he came upon a beautiful girl named Andromeda, who was chained to a rock in Ethiopia. Her parents had angered Poseidon, who demanded Andromeda’s sacrifice to a horrible sea monster as punishment. Perseus insisted on her hand in marriage in exchange for killing the monster, and her parents agreed. Using his special weapons, he killed the beast, and took his beautiful bride.
When Perseus reached Seriphus, he used the Gorgon’s head on the miserable tyrant, who had tried to rape his mother, Danae. When this mission was accomplished, he returned the tools he had been lent to Hermes and the nymphs.
Perseus felt his destiny was to return home to Argos. Acrisius, still in fear of the oracle, left hastily, and went on to Larissa, the capital of the region of Thessaly in east central Greece. Some time later, when Acrisius was attending the local athletic games, he was struck on the foot by an errant discus. He died soon afterward. As it happens, Perseus was in Larissa, competing in the games, and had thrown the very discus that had killed his grandfather, thus fulfilling the damning oracle.
A distraught Perseus buried Acrisius, but could not bring himself to take his rightly place as king of Argos. Instead, he exchanged the city with his cousin, who ruled Tiryns, where he became king for the remainder of his days, with Andromeda at his side.
Sources consulted:
Graves, R. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994.
Bonnefoy, Y. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991.
