Tell me now, Perseus, which of
these two sorts of men seem to you more blest?'
Then Perseus answered boldly: 'Better to die in the flower of
youth, on the chance of winning a noble name, than to live at ease
like the sheep, and die unloved and unrenowned.'
Then that strange lady 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 as death, and her brows
were knit with everlasting pain, and her lips were thin and bitter
like a snake's; and instead of hair, vipers wreathed about her
temples, and shot out their forked tongues; while round her head
were folded wings like an eagle's, and upon her bosom claws of
brass.
And Perseus looked awhile, and then said: 'If there is anything so
fierce and foul on earth, it were a noble deed to kill it. Where
can I find the monster?'
Then the strange lady smiled again, and said: 'Not yet; you are
too young, and too unskilled; for this is Medusa the Gorgon, the
mother of a monstrous brood. Return to your home, and do the work
which waits there for you. You must play the man in that before I
can think you worthy to go in search of the Gorgon.
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