126 
NATURE STUDY. 
about fifteen or twenty minutes when, in another four hours, it 
again attains its maximum brightness, going through these chang¬ 
es in a little less than three days. Algol and the few lesser stars 
clustering near it form the Caput Medusae, the Head of Medusa. 
Medusa was one of the three frightful Gorgons, represented with 
serpents writhing and twisting around their heads intead of hair, 
having yellow wings and brazen hands, their bodies covered with 
impnetrable scales, and having the power of turning into stone 
all those on whom they fixed their eyes. Perseus was the son of 
Jupiter and Danae. He was no sooner born than he was cast 
into the sea with his mother ; but being driven on the coast of 
one of the islands of the Cyclades, they were rescued by a fish¬ 
erman and carried to Polydectes, the king of the place, who 
treated them with groat humanity, and intrusted them to the 
care of the priests of the temple of Minerva. His evident gen¬ 
ius and manly courage soon made him a favorite with the gods. 
At the feast of Polydectes all the nobles were expected to pre. 
sent the king with a superb and beautiful horse. But Perseus, 
who was deeply grateful to his benefactor, wishing not to be 
thought less munificent than the rest, engaged to bring the head 
of Medusa, the only one of the three that was mortal. For this 
perilous enterprise Pluto lent him his helmet, which rendered 
him invisible. Minerva furnished him with her buckler, while 
Mercury gave him wings for his feet and a danger made of dia¬ 
monds. Thus equipped he mounted into the air, conducted by 
Minerva, and came upon the monsters asleep. With a courage 
which amazed and delighted Minerva he severed, at one blow, 
the head of Medusa. The noise awoke the oth~r two, but Per¬ 
seus, rendered invisible by the helmet of Pluto, easily escaped. 
He made his way through the air with Medusa’s head yet reek¬ 
ing in his hand, and from the blood which dropped from it as 
he flew, sprang those innumerable serpents that have ever since 
infested the sandy deserts of Libya. The destruction of Medu¬ 
sa rendered the name of Perseus immortal, and he was changed 
into a constellation at his death, and placed among the stars 
with the Head of Medusa by his side. 
