)- Polydectes convinces Perseus to kill the Medusa, a horrifying beast with snakes for hair. But this feat seems impossible because whoever looks at the snakes will turn instantly to stone. 2. Athena, Hermes and Graeae- Athena and Hermes guide Perseus to the home of the Graeae and give the guy some advice. Perseus really commits to his adventure when he blackmails the Graeae into telling him how to find the Nymphai.
Hercules wrestled the mad beast to the ground and brought it back to King Eurystheus. Unfortunately, the king set it free, and it roamed Greece, causing terror wherever it went. Eight: Capture the Horses of Diomedes King Diomedes, leader of the Bistones, fed his bloodthirsty horses on human flesh. Hercules and his men fought and killed King Diomedes and fed the king to his horses. This made the horses tame, so that Hercules was able to lead them to King Eurystheus.
In both stories, Gilgamesh and Beowulf set out to conquer threatening gods outside their city. Beowulf defeats Grendal, a monster who was constantly killing members of Heorot. Gilgamesh kills Humbaba, an evil spirit of nature far in the cedar woods. Another similarity was the revenge from the gods. In Beowulf, Grendal’s mother seeks to destroy Beowulf for killing her son Grendal.
I know grendel is a monstrous creature because he kills without remorse throughout the entire book. …I saw myself killing them, on and on and on… ” (Gardner 81). This quote is when Grendel enters the mead hall in the night and all the Danes keep running at him trying to kill him. The next quote is right after the dragon puts his charm on Grendel who decides to test it out. “I held up the guard to taunt them, then held him still higher and leered into his face… As if casually… I bit his head off, crunched through the helmet and skull with my teeth and, sucked the blood that sprayed like a hot, thick geyser from his neck,” (Gardner 79).
Monsters prevent Odysseus and his men from reaching home. Odysseus meets a Cyclops but with his metis he is able to blind it and escape. Then he meets a three-headed monster and it kills a lot of his men. Circe told him about this. The sirens are also a problem.
Zeus is the King of all gods. He married his own sister. Zeus’ grandma, Gaia, gave Zeus a special sickle to help kill the dragons. Then Zeus set off for the underworld, the dreadful land beneath the earth where the dead lived. The dragon Gaia told him about was terrible.
Gilgamesh sends prostitutes to have sex with Enkidu to make him more civilized. Gilgamesh and Enkidu eventually have a fight; however they become friends in the end after slaying a giant together. Enkidu becomes ill after a long journey with Gilgamesh and while dying he tells Gilgamesh about a dream he had. Gilgamesh learns of his inevitable fate and learns that Utnapishtim is the only being to have immortality so he seeks to learn how he can achieve the same. Utnapishtim had been warned that a great flood would be dealt to destroy all of mankind.
After promising the creature he’d make him a female companion, Frankenstein has second thoughts and changes his mind. The monster watches in despair as the scientist destroys his happy future: “The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended of happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew” (Shelley 145). As Victor tears apart the female with “trembling passion”, the being loses everything he had to look forward to in life and he sets out a quest to ruin the happiness of his creator, as Frankenstein had done to him. After warning the scientist that he would be with him on his wedding night, the monster stays true to his promise. While the groom is looking for the creature, he gets to Elizabeth, the bride, leaving her “lifeless and inanimate”.
Angered by this offense, Athena, unable to punish Poseidon, turned her vengeance on Medusa and transformed her into a horrible monster with serpents for hair and a face so gruesome that the sight of it turned any living creature to stone. She was sent to the isle of the Gorgons to isolate her from the rest of the world. The Greek Hero Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, was sent to decapitate Medusa. He accomplished this by reflecting her image in his mirrored shield, thus never looking directly at her, and with one stroke of his sword, cut off Medusa's head. Out of Medusa's severed neck Pegasus was born.
By wearing the cap of Hades, and looking at Medusa only at her reflection in his shield, Perseus was able to slay the snake-haired maiden. On his journey back home, Perseus used Medusa’s head to turn the Greek Titan Atlas to stone (forming the Atlas Mountains) and to kill the beasts and demanders of a maiden named Andromeda that he desired. Having killed the beast that was to kill Andromeda and the rejected suitor of Andromeda, Perseus returned home and turned Polydectes (who was still harassing Danae) into stone as well. After giving the sandals and satchel to Hermes, and Medusa’s head to Athena to protect her in battles; Perseus, Danae, and Andromeda returned to Acrisius’s