must hasten
away from the Libyan land." So, at the banquet, by the side of Perseus
sate the beautiful Andromeda; but there arose a fierce strife, for
Phineus had come to the feast, and it angered him that another should
have for his wife the maiden whom he had sought to make his bride.
Deeper and fiercer grew his rage, as he looked on the face of Perseus,
till at last he spake evil words of the stranger who had taken away
the prize which should have been his own. But Perseus said, calmly,
"Why, then, didst thou not slay the monster thyself and set the maiden
free?" When Phineus heard these words his rage almost choked him, and
he charged his people to draw their swords and slay Perseus. Wildly
rose the din in the banquet hall, but Perseus unveiled the Gorgon's
face, and Phineus and all his people were frozen into stone.

Then, in the still silence, Perseus bare away Andromeda from her
father's home, and when they had wandered through many lands they came
at length to Seriphos. Once more Danae looked on the face of her son,
and said, "My child, the months have rolled wearily since I bade thee
farewell; but sure I am that my prayer has been heard, for thy face is
as the face of one who comes back a conqueror from battle." Then
Perseus said, "Yes, my mother, the help of Zeus has never failed me.
When the eastern breeze carried me hence to the Argive land, my heart
was full of sorrow, because I saw the city which thou didst yearn to
see, and the home which thou couldst not enter, and I vowed a vow to
bring thee back in triumph when I came to claim my birthright.

That evening, as I slept, the lady Athene came to me from the home of
Zeus, and gave me a mirror so that I might take the Gorgon's head
without looking on the face which turns everything into stone, and yet
another night, Hermes stood before me, and gave me the sword whose
stroke never fails, and the Graiai told me where I should find the
nymphs who gave me the helmet of Hades, and the bag which has borne
hither the Gorgon's head, and the golden sandals which have carried me
like a dream over land and sea. O, my mother, I have done wondrous
things by the aid of Zeus. By me the doom of Medusa has been
accomplished, and I think that the words which thou didst speak were
true, for the image of the Gorgon's face, which I saw in Athene's
mirror, was as the countenance of one whose beauty has been marred by
a woeful agony, and whenever I have looked since on that image