_Triton. Iphianassa. Doris. Nereids_
_Tri_. Well, ladies: so the monster you sent against the daughter of
Cepheus has got killed himself, and never done Andromeda any harm at
all!
_Nereid_. Who did it? I suppose Cepheus was just using his daughter as
a bait, and had a whole army waiting in ambush to kill him?
_Tri_. No, no.—Iphianassa, you remember Perseus, Danae's boy?—they were
both thrown into the sea by the boy's grandfather, in that chest, you
know, and you took pity on them.
_Iph_. I know; why, I suppose he is a fine handsome young fellow by
now?
_Tri_. It was he who killed your monster.
_Iph_. But why? This was not the way to show his gratitude.
_Tri_. I'll tell you all about it. The king had sent him on this
expedition against the Gorgons, and when he got to Libya—
_Iph_. How did he get there? all by himself? he must have had some one
to help him?—it is a dangerous journey otherwise.
_Tri_. He flew,—Athene gave him wings.—Well, so when he got to where
the Gorgons were living, he caught them napping, I suppose, cut off
Medusa's head, and flew away.
_Iph_. How could he see them? The Gorgons are a forbidden sight.
Whoever looks at them will never look at any one else again.
_Tri_. Athene held up her shield—I heard him telling Andromeda and
Cepheus about it afterwards—Athene showed him the reflection of the
Gorgon in her shield, which is as bright as any mirror; so he took hold
of her hair in his left hand, grasped his scimetar with the right,
still looking at the reflection, cut off her head, and was off before
her sisters woke up. Lowering his flight as he reached the Ethiopian
coast yonder, he caught sight of Andromeda, fettered to a jutting rock,
her hair hanging loose about her shoulders; ye Gods, what loveliness
was there exposed to view! And first pity of her hard fate prompted him
to ask the cause of her doom: but Fate had decreed the maiden's
deliverance, and presently Love stole upon him, and he resolved to save
her. The hideous monster now drew near, and would have swallowed her:
but the youth, hovering above, smote him with the drawn scimetar in his
right hand, and with his left uncovered the petrifying Gorgon's head:
in one moment the monster was lifeless; all of him that had met that
gaze was turned to stone. Then Perseus released the maiden from her
fetters, and supported her, as with timid steps she descended from the
slippery rock.—And now he is to marry her in Cepheus's palace, and take
her home to Argos; so that where she looked for death, she has found an
uncommonly good match.
_Iph_. I am not sorry to hear it. It is no fault of hers, if her mother
has the vanity to set up for our rival.
_Dor_. Still, she _is_ Andromeda's mother; and we should have had our
revenge on her through the daughter.
_Iph_. My dear, let bygones be bygones. What matter if a barbarian
queen's tongue runs away with her? She is sufficiently punished by the
fright. So let us take this marriage in good part.