706Look, as a ship, driven on by its fitted beak, furrows the waters, propelled by the sweating arms of young men, so the beast, parting the waves with the thrust of its breast, was as far from the rocks as a Balearic sling can send its whirled lead through the middle air: when suddenly the youth, pushing off from the earth with his feet, soared high into the clouds. 712When the man's shadow was seen on the surface of the sea, the beast rages at the shadow it has seen. 714And as Jupiter's swift bird, when it has seen in an empty field a serpent offering its livid back to Phoebus, seizes it from behind, and, lest it twist back its savage mouth, fixes its greedy talons in the scaly neck, so, launched headlong through the void in swift flight, the descendant of Inachus pressed down on the back of the beast and, as it roared, buried his sword in its right shoulder up to the curved hook.
721Hurt by the grievous wound, now it raises itself high into the air, now plunges under the water, now turns like a fierce boar terrified by a pack of hounds baying round it. 724He escapes its greedy bites on swift wings and, wherever it lies open, he wounds with his curved sword now its back, encrusted with hollow shells, now the ribs of its flanks, now where the tail, at its thinnest, ends in a fish. 728The beast vomits from its mouth waves mixed with crimson blood: his wings grew wet and heavy with the spray. 730No longer daring to trust his soaked sandals, Perseus caught sight of a rock which with its topmost point stands out when the water is still, and is covered when the sea is stirred.
733Bracing himself on it and holding the top of the rock with his left hand, three, four times he drove his sword through the creature's flanks, again and again. 735Shouts and applause filled the shores and the high homes of the gods: Cassiope and Cepheus, the father, rejoice and hail him as son-in-law, and acknowledge him the help and saviour of their house. 738Freed from her chains, the maiden comes forward, both the reward and the cause of his labour. 740He himself washes his victorious hands with water drawn up, and, so that the hard sand may not harm the snake-bearing head, he softens the ground with leaves, strews twigs born under the sea, and lays upon them the face of Medusa, daughter of Phorcys.
744The fresh twig, still alive with absorbent pith, seized the monster's power, hardened at its touch, and took on a new stiffness in branch and leaf. 747But the sea nymphs try the wonderful deed on more twigs, and rejoice that the same thing happens, and from these they propagate seeds, scattering them through the waves. 750Even now the same nature has remained in coral, that it takes on hardness from contact with the air, and what was a pliant stem in the sea becomes stone above the sea. 753He sets up three altars of turf for three gods, the left for Mercury, the right for you, warrior maiden; the altar of Jupiter is in the middle.
755A cow is sacrificed to Minerva, a calf to the wing-footed god, a bull to you, greatest of the gods. 757Straightaway he carries off Andromeda, the reward of so great a deed, without a dowry: Hymenaeus and Love brandish the torches before them, the fires are sated with abundant fragrances, garlands hang from the roofs, and everywhere lyres and flute and songs, happy proofs of joyful hearts, ring out. 762The doors unbarred, the golden halls lie wholly open, and the nobles of King Cepheus enter the banquet, furnished with fine array. 765After they had finished the feast and relaxed their spirits with the gift of noble Bacchus, the descendant of Lynceus asks about the culture and nature of the country, and the customs and character of its men.
769As soon as one had informed him, he said: 'Now, O bravest Perseus, tell, I pray, with what great courage and by what arts you carried off the head with snakes for hair.' 772The descendant of Agenor tells that there is a place lying beneath cold Atlas, safe within the defence of a solid mass; 774that at its entrance there had lived twin sisters, daughters of Phorcys, sharing the use of a single eye. 776That he, by skilful cunning, stealthily slipping his hand under it while it was being passed, had taken it, and through remote and trackless rocks bristling with rugged woods had reached the home of the Gorgons, and everywhere through the fields and along the roads had seen the shapes of men and beasts changed from themselves into stone at the sight of Medusa.
782That he, however, had looked upon the form of dread Medusa reflected in the bronze of the shield that his left hand bore, and while deep sleep held both the snakes and herself, had torn her head from her neck; 785and he added Pegasus, swift on his wings, and his brother, born from their mother's blood, and the not false perils of his long journey, what seas, what lands he had seen beneath him from on high, and what stars he had touched with his beating wings. 790Yet he fell silent before they expected. 790One of the number of the nobles takes him up, asking why she alone of the sisters wore snakes mingled here and there among her hair.
793The stranger said: 'Since you ask about a thing worth telling, hear the cause of what you ask. 794She was of most famous beauty and the envied hope of many suitors: and in all of her there was no part more striking than her hair. 797I have met one who said that he had seen her. 798The ruler of the sea, it is said, violated her in the temple of Minerva. 799Jupiter's daughter turned away and covered her chaste face with her aegis; 800and so that this should not go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon's hair into foul snakes.