Page:Metamorphoses.djvu/275

METAMORPHOSES BOOK V fears; what I can give (and 'tis a great boon for your coward soul), I will grant: you shall not suffer by the sword. Nay, but I will make of you a monument that shal endure for ages; and in the house of my father-in-law you shall always stand on view, that so my wife may find solace in the statue of her promised lord." So saving, he bore the Gorgon-head where Phineus had turned his fear-struck face. Then, even as he strove to avert his eyes, his neck grew hard and the very tears upon his cheeks were changed to stone. And now in marble was fixed the cowardly face, the suppliant look, the pleading hands, the whole cringing attitude. Victorious Perseus, together with his bride, no« returns to his ancestral city; and there, to avenge his grandsire, who little deserved this championship, he wars on Proetus. For Proetus had driven his brother out by force of arms, and seized the strong- hold of Acrisius. But neither by the force of arms, nor by the stronghold he had basely seized, could he resist the baleful gaze of that dread snake-wreathed monster. But you, O Polydectes, ruler of Little Seriphus, were not softened by the young man's valour, tried in so many feats, nor by his troubles; but you were hard and unrelenting in hate, and your unjust anger knew no end. You even refused him his honour, and declared that the death of Medusa was all a lie. " We give you proof of that," then Perseus said; " protect your eyes!" (this to his friends). And with the Medusa-face he changed the features of the king to bloodless stone. Durin all this time Tritonia1 had been the couurade of her brother born of the golden shower. 1 Athena. 255