invisible whenever he put it on, and
also a bag, which he slung on his back; and, thus armed, he went further
to the very bounds of the world, and he took his mirror in his hand, and
looked into it. There he saw the three Gorgon sisters, their necks
covered with scales like those of snakes (at least those of two), their
teeth like boar's tusks, their hands like brass, and their wings of gold;
but they were all fast asleep, and Perseus, still looking into his
mirror, cleft Medusa's neck with his all-cutting sword, and put her head
into the bag on his back without ever seeing her face. Her sisters awoke
and darted after him; but he put on his helmet of mist, and they lost
him, while he fled away on Mercury's swift-winged sandals. As he sped
eastward, he heard a voice asking whether he had really killed the
Gorgon. It was Atlas, the old heaven-supporting giant; and when Perseus
answered that he had, Atlas declared that he must see the head to
convince him. So Perseus put a hand over his shoulder, and drew it up by
its snaky hair; but no sooner had Atlas cast his eyes on it than he
turned into a mountain, his white beard and hair becoming the snowy peak,
and his garments the woods and forests. And there he still stands on the
west coast of Africa, and all our modern map-books are named after him.

[Picture: Perseus and Andromeda]

But Perseus' adventures were not over. As he flew on by the Lybian coast
he heard a sound of wailing, and beheld a beautiful maiden chained by her
hands and feet to a rock. He asked what had led her to this sad plight,
and she answered that she was Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and
Cassiopeia, king and queen of Ethiopia, and that her mother had foolishly
boasted that she was fairer than the Nereids, the fifty nymphs who are
the spirits of the waves. Neptune was so much displeased that he sent a
flood to overflow the land, and a sea-monster to devour the people and
cattle. In an oasis or isle of fertility in the middle of the Lybian
desert was a temple of Jupiter, there called Ammon, and the Ethiopians
had sent there to ask what to do. The oracle replied that the evil
should cease if Andromeda were given up to the monster. Cepheus had been
obliged to yield her up because of the outcries of the people, and here
she was waiting to be devoured. Perseus, of course, was ready. He heard
the monster coming, bade Andromeda close her eyes, and then held up the
Gorgon