Perseus Archetypes

The myth of Perseus is one of the most famous story in the Greek Mythology. Perseus is a hero who kills Medusa, who happens to be a gorgon in the myth from the book Mythology wrote by Edith Hamilton. There are many archetypes in this myth, but there are a few that stand out really well to me.

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The first archetype is the tower which Danaë is imprisoned by her father, King Argos. He has been warned that he would be kill by his grandson. He has been thinking of killing her but he could not. Instead, he sends her away to a bronze tower with no door so that she would never marry and have children. The tower is the symbol which represents the lack of freedom and imprisoned. This reminds me of the character Princess Aurora from the movie Maleficent released not long ago. Aurora was imprisoned, was locked in a dark place without any people. She was alone all by herself.

While Danaë is imprisoned in the bronze tower, she happens to have a baby with a god named Zeus and she names him Perseus. King Argos is extremely furious and with no word, he shut them in a box and send them out to sea. Danaë and Perseus then floats to an island where Polydectes is king. King Polydectes deicides to get rid of Perseus so that he can marry Danaë by force; he sends Perseus out to get him Medusa' head. 

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Perseus and Medusa both are archetypes in this story for being hero and monster. Perseus brings home Medusa's head and stones Polydectes and all his followers and too the sea monster to safe Andromeda, who he falls in love with. Similarly, there are many cartoons and movies with the idea of heros saving innocent people and beat the bad ones, such as in Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc. 

In the end, Perseus end up killing his grandfather, King Argos by accident. This proves that the oracle, an archetypal character, was right.