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Danaë.
Danaë was the mother of Perseus and indirectly the reason that her son cut off Medusa’s head because King Polydectes wanted to marry her. She was saved by her son when he turned King Polydectes and the rest of the nobles who supported him when he tried to marry Danaë. She was also the mother in law of Andromeda and was friendly with Dictys.
She spent the rest of her life on the island of Seriphos and lived peacefully from after that, with her friend Dictys ruling the island.
Overview[]
Danaë was a princess of Argos in the Greek Peloponnese, the only child of King Akrisios (Acrisius). When her father learned a prophecy that he was destined to be killed by a son of his daughter, he locked Danae away in a subterranean, bronze chamber. Her prison, however, was infiltrated by the god Zeus who impregnated her in the guise of a golden shower. She conceived and bore a son named Perseus. As soon as her father learned of this, he placed Danae and the infant in a chest and set them adrift at sea. By the providence of the gods they made it safely to the island of Seriphos where the fisherman Diktys (Dictys) offered them refuge in his home.
Later when Perseus was fully grown, King Polydektes (Polydectes) of Seriphos sought Danae for his wife and, wishing to rid himself of her son, commanded Perseus fetch the Gorgon's head. The hero returned victorious only to learn that his mother had fled to the temple of Athena seeking refuge from the king. In anger Perseus turned Polydektes and his allies to stone with Gorgon's head. He then travelled with mother to Argos to claim his grandfather's throne.
Danae was the eponymous "queen" of the Danaans. Danaan was synonymous with Argive but was sometimes used to describe Greeks in general (e.g. in Homer's Iliad).