Mythology, Greek; Trojan War -- Literature and the war; Troy (Extinct city) -- Legends
Being weak from the heat of the sun that had beaten on her for two days,
and tired out with hopes and fears, Danae fainted, and knew nothing till
she felt cold water on her face. Then she opened her eyes, and saw kind
eyes looking at her own, and the brown face of a bearded man, in the
light of the blaze that fishermen carry in their boats at night, for the
fish come to wonder at it, and the fishermen spear them. There were many
dead fish in the boat, into which Danae and the child had been lifted,
and a man with a fish spear in his hand was stooping over her.
Then Danae knew that she and her boy were saved, and she lay, unable to
speak, till the oarsmen had pulled their boat to a little pier of stone.
There the man with the fish spear lifted her up lightly and softly set
her on her feet on land, and a boatman handed to him the boy, who was
awake, and was crying for food.
'You are safe, lady!' said the man with the spear, 'and I have taken
fairer fish than ever swam the sea. I am called Dictys; my brother,
Polydectes, is king of this island, and my wife is waiting for me at
home, where she will make you welcome, and the boy thrice welcome, for
the gods have taken our only son.'
He asked no questions of Danae; it was reckoned ill manners to put
questions to strangers and guests, but he lighted two torches at the
fire in the boat, and bade his two men walk in front, to show the way,
while he supported Danae, and carried the child on his shoulder. They
had not far to go, for Dictys, who loved fishing of all things, had his
house near the shore. Soon they saw the light shining up from the
opening in the roof of the hall; and the wife of Dictys came running
out, crying: 'Good sport?' when she heard their voices and footsteps.
'Rare sport,' shouted Dictys cheerily, and he led in Danae, and gave the
child into the arms of his wife. Then they were taken to the warm baths,
and dressed in fresh raiment. Food was set before them, and presently
Danae and Perseus slept on soft beds, with coverlets of scarlet wool.
Dictys and his wife never asked Danae any questions about how and why
she came floating on the sea through the night. News was carried quickly
enough from the mainland to the islands by fishers in their boats and
merchant men, and pedlars. Dictys heard how the king of Argos had
launched his daughter and her son on the sea, hoping that both would be
drowned. All the people knew in the island, which was called Seriphos,
and they hated the cruelty of Acrisius, and many believed that Perseus
was the son of Zeus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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