‘A horse as such? I’m not sure I know what “a horse as such” might be.’
‘I don’t really own anything much more than the clothes I wear. Oh, I do have a collection of sea shells that I’ve been told might be quite valuable one day.’
‘Oh dear. Oh dear. I quite understand. Of course I do.’ Polydectes’s sympathetic smile cut Perseus deeper than any sneer. ‘It was too much to expect you to help me.’
‘But I want to help you!’ Perseus said, a little too loudly. ‘Anything I can do for you I will. Name it.’
‘Really? Well, there is one thing but …’
‘What?’
‘No, no, it’s too much to ask.’
‘Tell me what it is …’
‘I’ve always hoped that one day someone would bring me … but I can’t ask you, you’re just a boy.’
Perseus banged the table. ‘Bring you what? Say the word. I’m strong. I’m brave. I’m resourceful, I’m …’
‘… just a little bit drunk.’
‘I know what I’m saying …’ Perseus rose unsteadily to his feet and said in a voice everyone in the hall could hear. ‘Tell me what you want brought to you, my king, and I will bring it. Name it.’
‘Well,’ said Polydectes with a rueful shrug of defeat, as one forced into a corner. ‘Since our young hero insists, there is one thing I’ve always wanted. Could you bring me the head of MEDUSA, I wonder?’
‘No problem,’ said Perseus. ‘The head of Medusa? It’s yours.’
‘Really? You mean that?’
‘I swear it by the beard of Zeus.’
A little while later Perseus stumbled home across the sands to find his mother waiting up for him.
‘You’re late, darling.’
‘Mum, what’s a “Medusa”?’
‘Perseus, have you been drinking?’
‘Maybe. Just a cup or two.’
‘A hiccup or two, by the sound of it.’
‘No, but seriously, what’s a Medusa?’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘I heard the name and wondered, that’s all.’
‘If you’ll stop pacing around like a caged lion and sit down, I’ll tell you,’ said Danaë. ‘Medusa, so they say, was a beautiful young woman who was taken and ravished by the sea god Poseidon.’fn7
‘Ravished?’
‘Unfortunately for her this took place on the floor of a temple sacred to the goddess Athena. She was so angry at the sacrilege that she punished Medusa.’
‘She didn’t punish Poseidon?’
‘The gods don’t punish each other, at least not very often. They punish us.’
‘And how did Athena punish Medusa?’
‘She transformed her into a Gorgon.’
‘Blimey,’ said Perseus, ‘and what’s a “Gorgon”?’
‘A Gorgon is … Well, a Gorgon is a dreadful creature with boar’s tusks instead of teeth, razor-sharp claws of brass and venomous snakes for hair.’
‘Get away!’
‘That’s the story.’
‘And what does “ravished” mean, exactly?’
‘Behave yourself,’ said Danaë, slapping his arm. ‘There are only two others like her in the world, Stheno and Euryale, but they were born as Gorgons. They are immortal daughters of the ancient divinities of the sea, Phorcys and Ceto.’
‘Is this Medusa immortal as well?’
‘I don’t think so. She was once human, you see …’
‘Right … and if … say, for example … someone was to go hunting for her?’
Danaë laughed. ‘They’d be a fool. The three of them live together on an island somewhere. Medusa has one special weapon worse even than her serpent hair, her tusks and her talons.’
‘What would that be?’
‘One glance from her will turn you to stone.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that if you were to meet her eyes for just one second you would be petrified.’
‘Scared?’
‘No, petrified means turned into stone. You’d be frozen for all eternity. Like a statue.’
Perseus scratched his chin. ‘Oh. So that’s Medusa? I’d rather hoped she might turn out to be some sort of giant chicken, or a pig, maybe.’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Well, I sort of promised Polydectes that I’d bring him her head.’
‘You what?’
‘He wanted a horse, you see, and somehow this Medusa came up and I found myself saying I’d bring him her head …’
‘You will go round to the palace first thing tomorrow morning and tell him that you will do no such thing.’
‘But …’
‘No buts. I absolutely forbid it. What was he thinking of? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Now, you go and sleep off that wine. In future you’ll have no more than two cups in an evening, is that understood?’
‘Yes, mum.’
Perseus sloped off to bed as commanded, but he awoke in a mutinous mood.
‘I will leave the island and I will search for this Medusa,’ he declared over breakfast and nothing Danaë said to him would make him change his mind. ‘I made a promise in front of others. It’s a matter of honour. I am of an age to travel. To have adventures. You know how swift and strong I am. How cunning and resourceful. There’s nothing to be afraid of.’
‘You speak to him, Dictys,’ said Danaë, despairing.
Dictys and Perseus walked along the beach for most of the morning. Danaë was not pleased when they returned.
‘It’s like he says, Danaë. He’s old enough to make his own decisions. He’ll never find Medusa, of course. If she even exists. Let him go to the mainland and try out life for a while. He’ll be back before long. He’s well able to look after himself.’
The farewell between mother and son was all tears and distress on the one side and hand-patting and reassurance on the other.
‘I’ll be fine, mother. Ever seen anyone who can run faster? What harm can come to me?’
‘I’ll never forgive Polydectes, never.’
That at least, thought Dictys, was something.
He took Perseus by boat to the mainland. ‘Don’t trust anyone who offers you anything for free,’ he warned. ‘There’ll be plenty who’ll want to befriend you. They might be trustworthy, they might not. Don’t gaze around you as if it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a busy port or a city. Look bored and confident. As if you know your way around. And don’t be afraid to seek guidance from the oracles.’
How much of this excellent advice Perseus was likely to heed, Dictys could not tell. He was fond of the boy, and even fonder of his mother, and it grieved him to be complicit in so foolhardy an adventure. But, as he had told Danaë, Perseus was set on it and if they parted with hot words his absence would be all the harder to bear.
When they arrived on the mainland Perseus thought that Dictys’ fishing boat looked very small and shabby beside the great ships moored at the harbour. The man he had called father since he had been able to speak suddenly looked very small and shabby, too. Perseus embraced him with fierce affection and accepted the silver coins slipped into his palm. He promised to try and send word to the island as soon as he had any news worth imparting and was patient enough to stand on the quayside and wave Dictys and his little boat goodbye, even though he was desperate to get going and explore the strange new world of mainland Greece.