Perseus and Medusa
Classical Stories · No. 21 — How do you fight what you cannot look at?.
- Classical Stories
- 54 min
- Ages 8–13
- 7 chapters
About this audiobook
Perseus and his mother Danaë wash ashore in a wooden chest — a king's daughter and grandson, thrown to the sea by a prophecy. Years later another king wants Danaë for himself, and rids himself of her protective son with the oldest trick in the book: extracting a rash promise at a feast. Bring me the head of Medusa, whose gaze turns the living to stone. It is meant to be a death sentence. But the gods lend gifts, three grey sisters share one eye that can be borrowed, and a polished bronze shield can show a monster to a hero without the monster ever meeting his eyes.
Why it's worth a listen
A young hero is sent to fetch the one thing guaranteed to kill him, by a king who simply wants him gone. The answer is the cleverest toolkit in Greek myth — winged sandals, a cap of darkness, a satchel, and a polished shield used as a mirror. And behind the monster waits one of mythology's saddest secrets: Medusa was not always a monster.
A question to keep
When a problem cannot be faced head-on, how do you face it?
Chapters
- The Box in the Dark
- The Feast and the Foolish Vow
- Gifts of the Silent Gods
- One Eye in the Grey
- The Garden of Silent Stone
- The Girl on the Edge of the Sea
- A Question to Keep