ove." Then a look of anger came over the fair face of Athene, and she
said, "Trouble me not. Thy prayer is vain, and the sons of men would
shrink from thee, if thou couldst go among them, for hardly could they
look on the woeful sorrow of thy countenance." But Medusa answered,
gently, "Lady, hope has a wondrous power to kill the deepest grief,
and in the pure light of Helios my face may be as fair as thine."

[Illustration: GRECIAN ALTAR. (_3000 years old._)]

Then the anger of Athene became fiercer still, and she said, "Dost
thou dare to vie with me? I stand by the side of Zeus, to do his
will, and the splendor of his glory rests upon me, and what art thou,
that thou shouldst speak to me such words as these? Therefore, hear
thy doom. Henceforth, if mortal man ever look upon thee, one glance of
thy face shall turn him to stone. Thy beauty shall still remain, but
it shall be to thee the blackness of death. The hair which streams in
golden tresses over thy fair shoulders shall be changed into hissing
snakes, which shall curl and cluster round thy neck. On thy
countenance shall be seen only fear and dread, that so all mortal
things which look on thee may die." So Athene departed from her, and
the blackness of the great horror rested on the face of Medusa, and
the hiss of the snakes was heard as they twined around her head and
their coils were wreathed about her neck. Yet the will of Athene was
not wholly accomplished, for the heart of Medusa was not changed by
the doom which gave to her face its deadly power, and she said,
"Daughter of Zeus, there is hope yet, for thou hast left me mortal
still, and, one day, I shall die."

DANAE.

From the home of Phoebus Apollo, at Delphi, came words of warning to
Akrisios, the King of Argos, when he sent to ask what should befall
him in the after days, and the warning was that he should be slain by
the son of his daughter, Danae. So the love of Akrisios was changed
towards his child, who was growing up fair as the flowers of spring,
in her father's house, and he shut her up in a dungeon, caring nothing
for her wretchedness. But the power of Zeus was greater than the power
of Akrisios, and Danae became the mother of Perseus, and they called
her child the Son of the Bright Morning, because Zeus had scattered
the darkness of her prison-house. Then Akrisios feared exceedingly,
and he spake the word that Danae and her child should die.

The first streak of day was spreading its fa