Perseus and Medusa

In Book 2 of his Bibliotheca, a compendium of Greek myths compiled in either the first or second century A.D., the Athenian writer Apollodorus tells the story of the hero Perseus. In this passage, translated by J.G. Frazer (Loeb Classical Library, 1960), Polydectes, the king of the island of Seriphus, orders Perseus to slay the gorgon Medusa and return with her head—a daunting task only a son of Zeus could accomplish. But first, he must contend with the Phorcides, the gorgons’ three sisters:

“So under the guidance of Hermes and Athena [Perseus] made his way to … Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino … sisters of the Gorgons, and old women from their birth. The three had but one eye and one tooth, and these they passed to each other in turn. Perseus got possession of the eye and the tooth, and when they asked them back, he said he would give them up if they would show him the way to the nymphs. Now these nymphs had winged sandals and the kibisis, which they say was a wallet.