Perseus
From Cassiopedia
The following synopsis is from Wikipedia:
Perseus was the son of Danae, the only child of Acrisius king of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, he asked an oracle if this would change. The oracle told him that one day he would be killed by his daughter's child. She was childless and, meaning to keep her so, he shut her up in a brazen chamber. But Zeus came to her in the form of rain, and impregnated her. Soon after, their child Perseus was born.
None too happy, but unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods by killing his offspring, Acrisius cast the two into the sea in a wooden chest. They washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by Dictys, the brother of king Polydectes, who raised the boy to manhood. Now after a time Polydectes fell in love with Danae, and so wanted to get Perseus out of the picture. He thereby hatched a plot to send him on a suicide mission.
Polydectes placed some strong hints that he would love to have the head of Medusa, one of the gorgons whose very expression turns people to stone. He then announced that he would woo Hippodamia and so needed the others to provide him with horses (a different myth). Shamed at having nothing to give, Perseus left to get him Medusa's head. This was of course not easy, and for a long time he wandered aimlessly, without hope of ever finding her or being able to accomplish his mission when he did.
The gods Hermes and Athena came to his rescue. They led him to the Graeae, three perpetually old women with one eye and tooth between them and sisters of the gorgons. Perseus took the eye and would not return it until they had given him directions. He also received winged sandals, a magic wallet, the cap of Hades that made one invisible, an adamantine sickle, and a mirrored shield. With all this he came upon the sleeping gorgons. By viewing Medusa's reflection in his shield he could safely approach and cut off her head. The other two gorgons pursued him, but he became invisible and escaped. From the blood of the beheaded Gorgon arose the winged horse Pegasus, which Perseus rode to safety.
On the way back to Seriphos, Perseus stopped in Ethiopia, ruled by King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, having boasted herself equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea-monster which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon having announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, she was fastened to a rock on the shore. Here Perseus, returning from having slain the gorgon, found her, slew the monster, set her free, and married her in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head.
Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and became the ancestress of the family of the Perseidae through Perseus' and Andromeda's son, Perses. After her death she was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia.
On returning to Seriphos and discovering his mother had had to take refuge from the violent ways of Polydectes, Perseus killed him, and made Dictys king.
Perseus then returned his tools and gave Medusa's head as a gift to Athena.[End quote]
The story of Perseus is of special interest in deciphering the clues of mythology. We will here look at it from the viewpoint of the heroic archetype and its esoteric elements.
In Ancient Science, Laura Knight-Jadczyk notes this about Perseus:
“Perseus Pen Dragon - the dragon slayer par-excellence! The beheader of the Gorgon; the slayer of the sea monster, the rescuer of Andromeda the "Ruler of Men; the child of a widow, impregnated by a god; brought up in isolation, hidden away from his birthright, gauche and simple, sent to do an impossible task in hopes that it would kill him; Perseus, the babe fished out of the ocean with his mother, by a fisherman, brother to a king - a "fisher king;" Perseus, gifted with the initiations of the "witches," of the Hyperboreans, who obtains the "eye of Horus," of the Graea; Perseus, aided by Athena, to whom he presents the head of the Gorgon, from whose blood sprang the winged horse Pegasus, with all the elements of the Scythian story, right down to the Scythian mirror, and like the Urim and Thummim of the Levites, Athena places the head of the Gorgon, the prophesying Head of Bran or John the Baptist, on her breastplate. Perseus uses the head of the Gorgon like the Ark of the Covenant to achieve victory over his enemies, turning them to stone.”
The myth of Perseus is the only classical myth of which all the key characters are represented in the constellations. Also Perseus is the only truly successful hero of Greek mythology. Many others started well and obtained success to a degree but fell to hubris, deception or temptation.
In conformance with the heroic archetype, Perseus leaves the familiar world in order to perform an impossible task, receives assistance and can use the tools at his disposal to obtain victory.
Perseus must consult the Graeae, the old women with one eye between them, in order to know where the Gorgons reside. In one version, Perseus snatches the eye from them as they are passing it from one to another. As internal archetypes, we might liken these to the three lower centers, which indeed have only one eye and tooth ) between them, in the sense that man in his normal state sees and reacts from only one center, whether thinking, feeling or moving. Snatching the eye represents self-remembering at the moment of shock, when the focus is in the process of shifting. This may point the way to the higher potentials of man, guarded by the Gorgons. Alternately, we may think of the eye simply as a representation of knowledge of the world.
The symbol of the Gorgon is complex. This may be an internal archetype, akin to the “predator’s mind,” which must be seen through a mirror, not directly confronted. The beheading of the Gorgon is akin to the symbolic beheading of the knight, touched on both shoulders with the sword. From the blood arises Pegasus, the winged horse, symbol of creative imagination. In terms of allegory we could say that once the internal predator is vanquished, the emotions (horse) gain freedom and may find creative expression. The predator on the other hand uses this same power for turning others to stone, symbolically depriving them of their life force. The Gorgons themselves were women of formerly surpassing beauty but now exiled and transformed into monsters with snakes as hair due to their past transgressions. We may hear an echo of the Fall here, if we see the Gorgons as representing lost potential or higher centers severed from the lower centers in man’s regular state.
Now Perseus approaches the Gorgon when she sleeps, walking backwards, guiding himself by the reflection in the polished shield. The slash of the sickle is the shock, the infusion of energy which splits the two natures, the creative and the deadly and connects Perseus to the higher. Again, well in the spirit of the 4th Way, it is Perseus, the man, who by his works approaches the pre-existing higher, putting his life on the line and then receives victory and a new state of being. The higher is up until then exiled and dormant and guarded by the hideous head, a sort of “dweller on the threshold.”
The idea of the beheading of the Gorgon being an internal victory is strengthened by the second dragon slaying, where the knight actually frees the maiden, Andromeda. The horse Pegasus was however what brought Perseus to this second battle. The knight is guided by a higher form of emotion which reveals the value and beauty in things. The knight is moved by ideals more than by consideration of necessity or purely intellectual interest.
The head of the Gorgon stays with the hero for the requisite time, allowing him to use it as needed. We may see this as internal mastery, making use of the “predator” where appropriate or as the usage of an external device. Either way, the return of the hero is here successful and brings new vigor to the land.
Cassiopeia gets herself and her family in trouble by claiming that her daughters are more beautiful than those of Poseidon. To compensate for this, she must sacrifice her daughter to the sea serpent. Esoterically, we may see this as the danger of openly confronting the STS control system which is here symbolized by the dragon. Still, this act was necessary in order to draw out the serpent so that Perseus might vanquish it. Cassiopeia thus was vindicated in the end.
The Cassiopaea transcripts discuss Perseus in many places but the clues are rather cryptic.