604But still their grandson had given both of them great consolation for their changed form, he whom conquered India worshipped, whom Achaea honoured with temples raised. 607Only Acrisius, son of Abas, sprung from the same stock, remains to keep him from the walls of the Argive city and to bear arms against the god and to think him not of Jupiter's race; 610for neither did he think Perseus was Jupiter's, whom Danae had conceived from a shower of gold. 612Soon, however (so great is the power of truth), Acrisius regrets both having outraged the god and not having acknowledged his grandson: the one has now been set in heaven, while the other, bearing the memorable spoil of the snaky monster, was cleaving the yielding air on whirring wings.
617And when, victorious, he hung over the Libyan sands, bloody drops fell from the Gorgon's head. 619The earth received them and brought them to life as snakes of various kinds: hence that land is thick with serpents and infested by them. 621From there, driven through immensity by warring winds, he is borne now here, now there, like a rainy cloud, and from the lofty sky he looks down on the lands far removed below and flies over the whole world. 625Three times he saw the cold Bears, three times the Crab's claws: often he was carried towards the west, often towards the east. 627And now, as day was falling, fearing to trust himself to the night, he halted in the western world, the realm of Atlas, and seeks a little rest, until Lucifer should call forth the fires of Aurora, and Aurora the chariot of day.
631Here was Atlas, son of Iapetus, surpassing all men in his huge body. 632The furthest land was under this king, and the sea which lays its waters under the Sun's panting horses and receives his weary chariot. 635A thousand flocks and as many herds roamed over his grassland, and no neighbours pressed upon his ground. 637Leaves on trees, gleaming with radiant gold, covered golden branches and golden fruit. 639'Stranger,' Perseus says to him, 'if the glory of a great lineage touches you, Jupiter is the author of my lineage; 641or if you are an admirer of deeds, you will admire mine. 642I ask for hospitality and rest.' 642He remembered an ancient oracle: Parnassian Themis had given this oracle: 'A time will come, Atlas, when your tree will be stripped of its gold, and a son of Jupiter will have the glory of this plunder.' 646Fearing this, Atlas had enclosed his orchards with solid walls and given them to a huge dragon to guard, and kept all strangers from his borders.
649To him too he said: 'Go far away, lest the glory of the deeds you falsely claim be far from you, and far from you Jupiter!' 651and he adds force to his threats and tries to drive him out with his hands, as he lingered and mixed bold words with calm ones. 653Inferior in strength (for who could be a match for the strength of Atlas?), 'Well then, since my goodwill means little to you, take this gift!' 655he says, and, himself turned away, he held out on his left side the foul face of Medusa. 657As huge as he was, Atlas became a mountain: for his beard and hair pass into forests, his shoulders and hands are ridges, what was his head before is the summit at the mountain's top, his bones become stone: then, enlarged in every part, he grew to immensity (so, gods, you ordained) and the whole sky with all its stars rested upon him.
663The son of Hippotes had shut the winds in their everlasting prison, and Lucifer, brightest in high heaven, reminder of work, had risen. 665He takes up his wings again and binds them on both his feet, girds himself with his hooked weapon, and cleaves the clear air with beating sandals. 668Leaving countless peoples around and below, he catches sight of the peoples of the Ethiopians and the fields of Cepheus. 670There unjust Ammon had ordered the innocent Andromeda to pay the penalty for her mother's tongue. 672As soon as the descendant of Abas saw her, her arms bound to the hard crags (had not a light breeze stirred her hair and warm tears been flowing from her eyes, he would have thought her a marble statue), he unknowingly catches fire, and is stunned, and, seized by the sight of the beauty he has seen, almost forgot to beat his wings in the air.
678When he alighted, he said: 'O you who are worthy not of these chains, but of those by which eager lovers are joined to one another, reveal to one who asks the name of your land and your own, and why you wear chains.' 681At first she is silent, and does not dare, a maiden, to address a man; 682and she would have hidden her modest face with her hands, had she not been bound: her eyes, as much as she could, she filled with welling tears. 685As he pressed her again and again, so as not to seem unwilling to confess some wrongdoing of her own, she tells him the name of her land and her own, and how great her mother's confidence in her beauty had been.
688And before she had told it all, the water roared, and a monster, coming from the boundless sea, looms up and covers the broad surface beneath its breast. 691The maiden shrieks: her grieving father and with him her mother are there, both wretched, but she more justly. 693They bring no help with them, but only weeping and beating of breasts fitting the occasion, and they cling to the bound body, when the stranger speaks thus: 'Long times for tears will be able to remain for you: for bringing help the hour is short. 697If I were to ask for her, I, Perseus, son of Jupiter and of her whom Jupiter filled with fertile gold while she was shut away, Perseus, conqueror of the snake-haired Gorgon, who dared to go through the airy breezes on beating wings, I would surely be preferred to all as a son-in-law.
701To such great endowments I try to add merit too, if only the gods favour me: I make this bargain, that she be mine if saved by my courage.' 704The parents accept the terms (for who would hesitate?) and beg him, and promise a kingdom as dowry besides.