and in literature.

We should not fail to mention the mortal loves who became through Zeus
the mothers of heroes,--Europa, whom he wooed in the form of a white
bull, and carried away to Crete, where she became the mother of Minos,
Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon; Semele, who was overcome with terror when
Zeus appeared in all his godlike array, and who gave birth to Dionysus,
god of the vine; Leda, wooed by Zeus in the guise of a snow-white swan,
the mother of Helen, and of Castor and Pollux; Alcmene, mother of
Heracles; Callisto, changed, with her little son Arcas, because of the
jealousy of Hera, into the constellations known as the Great and the
Little Bear; and, finally, Danae, daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos,
locked up by her tyrannical father in a brazen tower, but visited by
Zeus as a golden shower. The offspring of this union was the hero
Perseus. King Acrisius, in dread of a prophecy that he was destined to
be slain by his grandson, had the mother and helpless infant enclosed in
an empty cask, which was consigned to the fury of the sea. Terrified at
the sound of the great waves beating over their heads, Danae prayed to
the gods to watch over them and bring them to some friendly shore. Her
piteous prayers were answered, and mother and child were rescued and
found a hospitable haven on the island of Seriphos,

"When rude around the high-wrought ark
The tempests raged, the waters dark
Around the mother tossed and swelled;
With not unmoistened cheek she held
Her Perseus in her arms and said:
'What sorrows bow this hapless head!
Thou sleepst the while, thy gentle breast
Is heaving in unbroken rest,
In this our dark, unjoyous home,
Clamped with the rugged brass, the gloom
Scarce broken by the doubtful light
That gleams from yon dim fires of night.
But thou, unwet thy clustering hair,
Heedst not the billows raging wild,
The moanings of the bitter air,
Wrapt in thy purple robe, my beauteous child!
Oh! seemed this peril perilous to thee,
How sadly to my words of fear
Wouldst thou bend down thy listening ear!
But now sleep on, my child! sleep thou, wide sea!
Sleep, my unutterable agony!
Oh! change thy counsels, Jove, our sorrows end!
And if my rash, intemperate zeal offend,
For my child's sake, his father, pardon me!'"

The god Apollo, t