anything to help me, so just and so due to me did the words of
the king seem. There was no help for it, and I had to go from the
country of Seriphus, leaving my mother at the mercy of Polydectes.

"I bade good-by to my sorrowful mother and I went from Seriphus--from
that land that I might not return to without the Gorgon's head. I
traveled far from that country. One day I sat down in a lonely place
and prayed to the gods that my strength might be equal to the will that
now moved in me--the will to take the Gorgon's head, and take from my
name the shame of a broken promise, and win back to Seriphus to save my
mother from the harshness of the king.

"When I looked up I saw one standing before me. He was a youth, too,
but I knew by the way he moved, and I knew by the brightness of his
face and eyes, that he was of the immortals. I raised my hands in
homage to him, and he came near me. 'Perseus,' he said, 'if you have
the courage to strive, the way to win the Gorgon's head will be shown
you.' I said that I had the courage to strive, and he knew that I was
making no boast.

"He gave me this bright sickle-sword that I carry. He told me by what
ways I might come near enough to the Gorgons without being turned into
stone by their gaze. He told me how I might slay the one of the three
Gorgons who was not immortal, and how, having slain her, I might take
her head and flee without being torn to pieces by her sister Gorgons.

"Then I knew that I should have to come on the Gorgons from the air. I
knew that having slain the one that could be slain I should have to fly
with the speed of the wind. And I knew that that speed even would not
save me--I should have to be hidden in my flight. To win the head and
save myself I would need three magic things--the shoes of flight and
the magic pouch, and the dogskin cap of Hades that makes its wearer
invisible.

"The youth said: 'The magic pouch and the shoes of flight and the
dogskin cap of Hades are in the keeping of the nymphs whose dwelling
place no mortal knows. I may not tell you where their dwelling place
is. But from the Gray Ones, from the ancient daughters of Phorcys who
live in a cave near where Atlas stands, you may learn where their
dwelling place is.'

"Thereupon he told me how I might come to the Graiai, and how I might
get them to tell me where you, the nymphs, had your dwelling. The one
who spoke to me was Hermes, whose dwelling is on Olympus. By this
sickle-sword that h