A prophet once told King Acrisius that his grandson would kill him. Terrified that the prophet's advice might come true, he locked his daughter, Danae, in the deep dungeons of his castle not allowing her to have any male contact. Danae spent a long time in that dreary dungeon before Zeus, from his place in Olympus, noticed the beautiful creature. Immediately, she enchanted Zeus, and he entered the chamber in a shower of gold. Soon, Danae was pregnant.

When the guards reported that they heard a baby crying in the dungeon, King Acrisius was appalled. He immediately set out to getting rid of the mother and child. He did so by putting the two of them into a chest and floating it out into sea, hoping that they would die from hunger or thirst in the sea. When Zeus learnt of this, he was furious at the way his son was treated. He asked Poseidon to guide the chest safely to the town of Seriphus, where a fisherman found the chest.

Mother and child were taken to the king Polydectes, and Polydectes, learning of their plight, took the two in. Apart from that, Polydectes was also enchanted by Danae's beauty, and wanted to take her as his wife, but was refused by Danae repeatedly.

Danae's child was named Perseus, and he soon grew up to be a fine young man. The king's requests for marriage were getting impatient and more violent, but Perseus now defended his mother from the overbearing king. Finally, the king decided that once and for all he should get rid of Perseus so he could force Danae to marry him, and so he sent Perseus on a quest to kill the gorgon Medusa.

Medusa had once been a beautiful woman. However, when Poseidon seduced her and lay with her in Athene's temple, Athene was furious and turned her into a gorgon, to be with two other gorgons who lived at the world's end. Her beautiful locks of hair were turned into snakes, and her stare alone, would turn people into stone.

Perseus knew not how to get to the gorgon's lair. Thankfully, his father, Zeus, who sent the gods Athene and Hermes to help him, aided him. Perseus was led to the cave of three old witches where he would find directions to Medusa. The three old witches were blind and shared one eye between them. At first, the three witches refused to tell Perseus of the location of the gorgon, wishing more to devour Perseus by tricking him to approach them. Perseus was faster than them though, and he snatched the eye that they shared between them. Without the eye, the witches were completely blind, and Perseus managed to blackmail the witches to divulging the location of the gorgon.

Medusa dwelt near the River Styx, at the boundary of the underworld. The gods helped him again, by lending him a pair of winged sandals from Hermes, which would help him get to the lair. Athene lent him a shield that was smoother than any other, and that would allow him to slay the gorgon without looking at it, using the shield as a mirror. Hades lent him the cap of darkness, which would render him invisible. Perseus set out across the sea with his immortal gifts.

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