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Serifos

When once Danai's father King Acrisius of Argos questioned the oracle, it said that Danai would give birth to a son who would kill him. Fearing that, he built a brazen chamber under ground and there he guarded Danai. But Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of a stream of gold which poured through the roof into Danai's lap.

When her father afterwards learned that she had a child, he would not believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and putting her with the child in a chest, he cast it into the sea. This child was Perseus.

The chest was washed ashore on the island of Serifos, which is one of the islands of the Cyclades, where Polydectes was king. Polydectes, who colonized Serifos and became king of the island, fell in love with Danai but could not be with her because of Perseus. In order to get rid of him Polydectes gave him a dangerous assignment far away. He sent young Perseus to fetch and bring back the head of Medusa, and so Perseus departed under the guidance of Hermes and Athena.

Perseus got the head of Medusa, and gave it to Athena, who inserted it into her shield. It is also said that Medusa was beheaded for Athena's sake, because Medusa used to match herself with Athena in beauty.

The prophecy said that Perseus went with Danai and Andromeda first to Argos and later to Larissa, to compete in athletic games. During the competition Perseus killed King Acrisius of Argos by accident, the same man to whom the oracle had said that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. And in that way, during the games, the oracle was fulfilled. Some others say, however, that Acrisius was obsessed with the oracle and that when he discovered that Perseus and Danai were staying at Polydectes' court, he went to get them, but at his arrival Polydectes interceded for them, and Perseus was made to swear that he would never kill his grandfather. Acrisius, however, had to stay there because of a storm, and in the meanwhile Polydectes died. It was at his funeral games that the wind blew a discus from Perseus's hand at Acrisius's head killing him.

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