654 
PER 
Perfeus, finding himfelf inferior to his powerful enemy, 
Ihowed him Medufa’s head, and inllantly Atlas was 
ciianged into a large mountain which bore the fame name 
in the deferts of Africa. 
On the morrow Perfeus continued his flight; and, as 
he pafied acrofs the territories of Libya, he difcovered, on 
the coafts of ./Ethiopia, the naked Andromeda, expofed to 
a fea-monfter. He was ftruck at the fight, and offered 
her father Cephetis to deliver her from inftant death if he 
might obtain her in marriage as a reward of his labours. 
Cepheus confented ; and immediately Perfeus, railing 
himfelf in the air, flew towards the monfter, which was 
advancing to devour Andromeda, and plunged his dag¬ 
ger in his right fhoulder, and deftroyed him. This happy 
event was attended with the greatefl: rejoicings. Perfeus 
raifed three altars, to Mercury, Jupiter, and Pallas ; and, 
after he had offered the facrifice of a calf, a bullock, and 
a heifer, the nuptials were celebrated with the greatefl 
feflivity. The univerfal joy, however, was foon difturbed. 
Phineas, Andromeda’s uncle, entered the palace with a 
number of armed men, and attempted to carry away the 
bride, whom he had courted and admired long before the 
arrival of Perfeus. The father and mother of Androme¬ 
da interfered, but in vain; a bloody battle enfued, and 
Perfeus mud have fallen a vi£lim to the rage of Phineus, 
had not he defended himfelf at laft with the fame arms 
which proved fatal to Atlas. He fliowed the Gorgon’s 
head to his adverfaries, and they were inllantly turned to 
ftone, each in the pollute and attitude in which he then 
flood. The friends of Cepheus, and fuch as fupported 
Perfeus, fhared not the fate of Phineus, as the hero 
had previoufiy w'arned them of the power of Medufa’s 
head, and of the fervices which he received from it. 
Soon after this memorable adventure, Perfeus retired to 
Seriphos, at the very moment that his mother, Dana£, 
fled to the altar of Minerva, to avoid the purfuit of Poly- 
dedles, who attempted to offer her violence. Di£lys, who 
had laved her from the fea, and who, as fome fay, was the 
brother of Polydeftes, defended her againll the attempts 
of her enemies; and therefore Perfeus, fenfible of his me¬ 
rit and of his humanity, placed him on the throne of Se¬ 
riphos, after he had with Medufa’s head turned into 
ftones the wicked Polydefles, and the officers who were 
the affociates of his guilt. Pie afterwards reflored to 
Mercury his talaria and his wings, to Pluto his helmet, 
to Vulcan his fword, and to Minerva her fhield ; but, as 
he was more particularly indebted to the goddefs of wif- 
dom for her affiflance and protection, he placed the Gor¬ 
gon’s head on her fhield, or rather, according to the more 
received opinion, on her aegis. 
After he had finifhed thefe celebrated exploits, Perfeus 
exprefled a willi to return to his native country, and ac¬ 
cordingly he embarked forthe Peloponnefus, with his mo¬ 
ther and Andromeda. When he reached the Pelopon- 
nefian coafts, he was informed that Teutamias, king of 
Larifla, was then celebrating funeral games in honour of 
his father. This intelligence drew him to Larifla to fig- 
nalize himfelf in throwing the quoit, of which, according 
to fome, he was the inventor. But here he was attended 
by an evil fate, and had the misfortune to kill a man 
with a quoit which he had thrown in the air. This was 
no other than his grandfather Acrifius, who, on the firft 
intelligence that his grandl’on had reached the Peloponne¬ 
fus, fled from his kingdom of Argos to the court of his 
friend and ally Teutamias, to prevent the fulfilling of 
the oracle which had obliged him to treat his daughter 
with fo much barbarity. Some fuppofe with Paufanias, 
that Acrifius had gone to Larifla to be reconciled to his 
grandfon, whofe fame had been fpread in every city in 
Greece; and Ovid maintains that the grandfather was 
under the ftrongeft obligations to his fon-in-law, and 
through him he had been reftored to his kingdom, from 
which he had been forcibly driven by the foils of his bro¬ 
ther Prcetus. 
This unfortunate murder greatly deprefled the fpirits of 
PER 
Perfeus: by the death of Acrifius he was entitled to the 
throne of Argos; but he refufed to reign there ; and, to 
remove himfelf from a place which reminded him of the 
parricide he had unfortunately committed, he exchanged 
his kingdom for that of Tirynthus, and the maritime 
coaftof Argolis, where Megapenthes, the fon of Prcetus, 
then reigned. When he had finally fettled in this part of 
the Peloponnefus, he determined to lay the foundations 
of a new city, which he made the capital of his domi¬ 
nions, and which he called Mycence, becaufe the pommel 
of his fword, called by the Greeks myces, had fallen there. 
Perfeus had by Andromeda, Alceus, Sthenelus, Neftor, 
Eleflryon, and Gorgophone. 
As our hero in his lifetime had been a patron of learn¬ 
ing, and built an academy on mount Helicon ; and as he 
was farther diftinguiftied by his glorious exploits ; he was 
advanced to heaven in the panegyrics made to his honour, 
and after his death became a demigod. Of this prince 
and all his wife’s family, were alfo formed the conftella- 
tions called Cafliopeia, Perfeus, and Andromeda: and 
the very monfter, which he was faid to have killed, was 
placed in the heavens, where it formed the fign of the 
Whale. Paufanias fays, this prince was worftiipped as a 
hero at Argos, and Hill more in the ifle of Seriphus and 
at Athens, where he had a temple, in which was an altar 
confecrated toDiflys and Clymene, who were reckoned his 
prefervers. This Didlys was the brother of Polyde6tes; 
and he, together with his wife Clymene, had the care of 
his education by the king’s order, when he was driven by 
the waves into the ifland of Seriphus. If we may place 
any dependance on the hilloryof the fabulous ages, Per¬ 
feus lived about ioo or 120 years before the Trojan war ; 
he therefore preceded Bellerophon feveral years, fince the 
latter lived only 40 or 45 years atmoft before the dellruc- 
tion of Troy. 
PER'SEUS, in aftronomy, a conftellation of the north¬ 
ern hemifphere; whofe ftars, in Ptolemy’s and Tycho’s 
Catalogue, are 29 ; in Hevelius’s, 46 ; and in the Britan¬ 
nic Catalogue, 59. 
PER'SHORE, or Pearshore, an ancient market-town 
in Worcefterlhire, nine miles from Worcefter, thirty-five 
from Birmingham, and 102 from London. It is a neat 
old town, on the north fide of the Avon, near its junc¬ 
tion with the river Bow, being a confiderable thorough¬ 
fare in the lower road from Worcefter to London. It 
confifts of two parochial divifions; viz. the Vicarage of 
St. Andrew, and the Chapelry of Holy Crofs. The road 
from London to Worcefter palling through it, has occa- 
fioned a confiderable increale in its fize and population. 
Perlhoreis a town of great antiquity, and is laid to have 
derived its name from the number of pear-trees which 
grew in its vicinity, and from its pofition on the Jhore, or 
bank, of a river. According to bilhop Tanner, Ofwald, 
one of the nephews of Ethelred king of Mercia, founded 
a monaftery here in 686; but William of Malmlbury af- 
ferts that Egelward, duke of Dorfet, in the reign of Ed¬ 
gar, was the firft founder. Gough, in his additions to 
Camden’s Britannia, accounts for the difcrepancy, by 
Hating, that it was fo confiderably enlarged and increafed 
in its endowments by Egrdward, that he was confidered 
a new founder. It confided at firft of fecular clerks, 
then monks, who were difmifled by king Edgar in 984, 
from which time it became an abbey of Benedifline 
monks, dedicated at firft to the Virgin and the apoftles 
Peter and Paul, but afterwards to St. Edburga. Belong¬ 
ing to the abbey was a large church, called the Holy 
Crofs, 280 feet in length, and 120 broad. Of the abbey 
itfelf there are but few veftiges ; but the church has been 
modernized, repaired, and ufed for parochial purpofes. 
It has a lofty fquare tower, and contains feveral antique 
monuments. The church and convent, being originally 
built of wood, were feveral times deftroyed by fire: on 
St. Urban’s day, in the year 1223, and again in 1287, 
when an accidental conflagration reduced not only the 
abbey to allies, but alfo confumed the greatefl; part of the 
3 town. 
