Reader

DORIS Why are you crying, Thetis? THETIS Oh, Doris, I’ve just seen a lovely girl Danae, daughter of Acrisius. put into a box by her father along with her newborn baby. Perseus. He told his sailors to take the box and, when well away from land, to drop it into the sea, so that the mother should be killed, poor thing, herself and her baby. DORIS Why, sister? Please tell me, if you have any definite information. THETIS I have the whole story. Because she was ever so beautiful, her father Acrisius locked her up in a brazen room to keep her away from lovers. Then—I can’t say whether it’s true but it’s what they say—Zeus turned himself into gold and came pouring through the roof at her, and she received the god in her bosom as he came showering down, and became pregnant. When her father found out, the cruel, jealous old creature flew into a temper and, thinking she’d had a lover, threw her into the box just after her baby was born.

DORIS And what did she do, Thetis, when they were putting her there? THETIS She kept quiet about herself, submitting to her sentence, but she kept pleading for her child’s life, weeping and showing it to its grandad, for it was a lovely baby. And it, unaware of its troubles, was looking at the sea with a smile on its face. Remembering them brings tears again to my eyes. DORIS You’ve made me weep, too. But are they dead now? THETIS Oh, no! The box is still floating round Seriphos, and keeping them alive and safe. DORIS Well, why don’t we save them by bringing them into the nets of these fishermen here from Seriphos? They’ll be sure to pull them up and save them. THETIS A good idea, let’s do that. I wouldn’t like the mother to die, or the baby either. It’s so pretty.