r, above her long blue robes,
hung a goat-skin, which bore up a mighty shield of brass, polished
like a mirror.

She stood and looked at him with her clear gray eyes. And Perseus
dropped his eyes, trembling and blushing, as the wonderful lady spoke.
"Perseus, you must do an errand for me."

"Who are you, lady? And how do you know my name?"

Then the strange lady, whose name was Athene, laughed, and held up
her brazen shield, and cried, "See here, Perseus, dare you face such
a monster as this and slay it, that I may place its head upon this
shield?"

And in the mirror of the shield there appeared a face, and as Perseus
looked on it his blood ran cold. It was the face of a beautiful woman,
but her cheeks were pale, and her lips were thin. Instead of hair,
vipers wreathed about her temples and shot out their forked tongues,
and she had claws of brass.

Perseus looked awhile and then said, "If there is anything so fierce
and ugly on earth, it were a noble deed to kill it. Where can I find
the monster?"

Then the strange lady smiled again and said, "You are too young, for
this is Medusa the Gorgon. Return to your home, and when you have done
the work that awaits you there, you may be worthy to go in search of
the monster."

Perseus would have spoken, but the strange lady vanished, and he
awoke, and behold it was a dream.

So he returned home, and the first thing he heard was that his mother
was a slave in the house of Polydectes.

Grinding his teeth with rage, he went out, and away to the King's
palace, and through the men's rooms and the women's rooms, and so
through all the house, till he found his mother sitting on the floor
turning the stone hand-mill, and weeping as she turned it.

And he lifted her up and kissed her, and bade her follow him forth.
But before they could pass out of the room Polydectes came in.

When Perseus saw the King, he flew upon him and cried, "Tyrant! is
this thy mercy to strangers and widows? Thou shalt die." And because
he had no sword he caught up the stone hand-mill, and lifted it to
dash out Polydectes's brains.

But his mother clung to him, shrieking, and good Dictys too entreated
him to remember that the cruel King was his brother.

Then Perseus lowered his hand, and Polydectes, who had been trembling
all this while like a coward, let Perseus and his mother pass.

So Perseus took his mother to the temple of Athene, and there the
priestess made her one of the temple sweepe