Ovid’s Metamorphoses #030/111: “Perseus”

What this project is about.  

This one is from Book 4.

How long it took to read this (aloud): 14 mins

What it’s “about”: Perseus saves a captive (chained) young woman, battles a dragon etc.  Not sure how the informed and free consent works out here, but that was never high on the agenda for either the gods or Ovid…

Nice summary here – https://www.litcharts.com/lit/metamorphoses/book-4-perseus-1

In Greek mythology, Perseus (/ˈpɜːr.si.əs/ ^ⓘ PUR-see-əs, UK also /-ʃəs, -sjuːs/ -⁠shəs, -⁠sews; Ancient Greek: Περσεύς, romanized: Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles.^[1] He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He was a demigod, being the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë,^[2] as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles’s mother was Perseus’s granddaughter).

Words I didn’t know: none

Quotable quotes: xx 

How it lands to my eco-sensibility: xx

Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx

What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx

To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): I wonder if it was in Tolkein’s mind when he wrote the Hobbit (the stuff with Smaug).

Further research questions: xx

Anything else: xx