ABSTRACT
Daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos, and of Eurydice 2. As it had been prophesied that Danae’s son would cause the death of Acrisius, the king imprisoned his daughter in a bronze tower (or a tower with bronze doors). Here Zeus descended on her in the form of a shower of golden rain; and the son she bore him was Perseus. Acrisius tried to dispose of this menace to his life by casting mother and baby adrift in a chest, but they landed on the isle of Seriphos. There the local king’s brother, a fisherman named Dictys, saved the pair and gave them food and shelter. Perseus grew into a young man; but meanwhile the king of the island, Polydectes, was plotting how he might make Danae his wife in spite of her persistent refusal. He had to rid himself of Perseus, who stood between him and Danae. Therefore, since the nobles of the island had to pay him tax, he sent Perseus off to fetch the head of the Gorgon Medusa as his contribution. While he was gone, Polydectes walled Danae up in a shrine and refused her food unless she would accept his offer of marriage. Perseus, returning after a year with his bride Andromeda, rescued Danae in the nick of time by turning the king and his court to stone by means of the Gorgon’s head. Perseus made Dictys the new king, and took his wife and mother to Argos where he accidentally killed Acrisius. According to Virgil, Danae later went to Italy, where she was driven on to the shore of Latium by a storm and founded the city of Ardea for Argive settlers. One of her grandchildren was Turnus, Aeneas’ rival for the hand of Lavinia.
