#saw someone say that Perseus killed Medusa bc he was “dared by another rapist’’ to do it

[sarafangirlart]

Thinking about how Perseus thought that Polydectes was his friend in this source:

This is so interesting to me bc ppl tend to portray Perseus as “over protective” (Demeter knows the feeling lol) but here he seems to be on somewhat friendly terms with Polydectes (which makes sense bc he’s Dictys’s brother), but it goes to show that Perseus wasn’t the one to reject Polydectes out of over protectiveness or hatred, but bc Danaë rejected Polydectes and he knew that Perseus would defend her choice.

Daniel Ogden touched on this in his book Perseus. It would actually make perfect sense that Polydectes was friendly with Perseus (and likely also Dictys) to the point Perseus didn’t find it suspicious when he was invited to the feast. It makes sense that he’d manipulate Perseus’s very human and somewhat childish desire to be included with other men, to be viewed as a man instead of a boy and used it against him. Ppl usually have Perseus hating and distrusting Polydectes from the get go but I like this more bc it’s a more upsetting betrayal of trust. Especially considering he’s technically his foster uncle.

In a silent film called “The Gorgon’s Head” takes this approach with Polydectes, where he manipulates Perseus into seeing him as a father figure in order to get him killed. Which I feel is my favorite adaptation of their relationship.