no longer a stripling who stood in the palace
hall, but a man in stature and bearing like one of the gods.
Polydectes alone knew him, and from his wine he looked up with mocking
gaze.

"So thou hast returned? oh nameless son of a deathless god," he said.
"Thou didst boast, but methinks thy boast was an empty one!"

But even as he spoke, the jeering smile froze on his face, and the
faces of those who sat with him stiffened in horror.

"O king," Perseus said, "I swore that, the gods helping me, thou
shouldst have the head of Medusa. The gods have helped me. Behold the
Gorgon's head."

Wild horror in their eyes, Polydectes and his friends gazed on the
unspeakable thing, and as they gazed they turned into stone--a ring of
grey stones that still sit on a hillside of Seriphos.

With his wife and his mother, Perseus then sailed away, for he had a
great longing to take Danae back to the land of her birth and to see
if her father, Acrisius, still lived and might not now repent of his
cruelty to her and to his grandson. But there he found that the sins
of Acrisius had been punished and that he had been driven from his
throne and his own land by a usurper. Not for long did the sword of
Perseus dwell in its scabbard, and speedily was the usurper cast
forth, and all the men of Argos acclaimed Perseus as their glorious
king. But Perseus would not be their king.

"I go to seek Acrisius," he said. "My mother's father is your king."

Again his galley sailed away, and at last, up the long Euboean Sea
they came to the town of Larissa, where the old king now dwelt.

A feast and sports were going on when they got there, and beside the
king of the land sat Acrisius, an aged man, yet a kingly one indeed.

And Perseus thought, "If I, a stranger, take part in the sports and
carry away prizes from the men of Larissa, surely the heart of
Acrisius must soften towards me."

Thus did he take off his helmet and cuirass, and stood unclothed
beside the youths of Larissa, and so godlike was he that they all
said, amazed, "Surely this stranger comes from Olympus and is one of
the Immortals."

In his hand he took a discus, and full five fathoms beyond those of
the others he cast it, and a great shout arose from those who watched,
and Acrisius cried out as loudly as all the rest.

"Further still!" they cried. "Further still canst thou hurl! thou art
a hero indeed!"

And Perseus, putting forth all his strength, hurled once again, and
the d