With
Medusa’s head in tow, Perseus is nigh-invincible. He has some side adventures
including accidentally killing his own father—Damn you Oracle of Delphi! But
the big thing is when he’s flying around and he stumbles on a naked woman
chained to a rock. Perseus, being male, is intrigued by this. But he does not
fly down to rescue her. Instead, he tracks down the girl’s parents King Cepheus
and queen Cassiopeia to get the story.
Turns out
that Cassiopeia did a no-no. A major no-no. She bragged about her daughter
Andromeda’s beauty, claiming she was more beautiful than the Nereids,
Poseidon’s attending nymphs.
As
punishment, Cassiopeia is stripped and sacrificed by being chained to a rock to
be devoured by the Kraken. Wait, no, sorry. Got that wrong. That would be if
there was justice instead of a desire for vengeance and suffering in the Greek
myths. Let me fix it. All that stuff happened to Andromeda.
So this
young woman is about to be sacrificed through no crime of her own—not unlike
Medusa. But while Athena’s only real option is to punish Medusa, Poseidon could
easily make Cassiopeia, who is guilty of the crime, pay the penalty. Instead he
wants people to suffer, and strikes out against the object of comparison
(perhaps because Andromeda really is
more beautiful, and she can’t be allowed to live, not unlike Arachne being
better than Athena at weaving).
But, never
fear, Perseus is here!
Once they
settle on a good price. Even knowing the story, Perseus doesn’t go back to
rescue Andromeda. Instead, he settles in at the negotiation table. His asking
price, Andromeda’s hand in marriage.
So what do
we make of Perseus for this? Is he a shmuck? Is he treating women as property?
What about him being a stand-up guy defending his mom? How do we reconcile
these two behaviors? This is kind of a major stumbling point. He can’t be a
good buy if this is how he treats women. His mom might be an exception. She his
mom, after all, but he isn’t even getting Andromeda’s permission. You’d think
that he could rescue her and at least take her on a date. Maybe he could at
least talk to her and give her a cheesy pick-up line “Hey, baby, you get
chained to this rock often?”
No, she’s
not even part of the conversation. She is negotiated for like property, which
was often the case in the ancient world. Stay tuned next week as we dig into
Perseus and Andromeda.