Original subtitles

(intense music)

(calm music)

- [Narrator] Once upon a time in the magnificent town

of Argos lived a rich and powerful king

who had all that a man could wish for.

Power, glory, gold, a fine reputation.

He wanted for nothing.

Nothing except a child, a son.

King Acrisius decided to go to the Temple of Delphi

where the Pythia predicted the future.

Perhaps he'd forgotten that one should be wary of oracles.

What must I do to have a son, asked Acrisius.

As usual, the oracle does not make a direct reply

to the question which is asked.

You will have a daughter, replies the Pythia.

And this daughter will give birth to a son.

That settles it.

This grandson will be my successor on the throne of Argos.

Relived, Acrisius is on the point of leaving

when suddenly, the Pythia continues,

and this boy will kill you as soon as he reaches adulthood.

Acrisius is distraught.

A few months later, his wife, the queen,

brings into the world a daughter.

She is named Danae, in honor of the founder of the dynasty

Danaus, and his 50 daughters the Danaides.

Zeus had thrown the Danaides into Tartarus

as punishment for the murder of their husbands.

There in the scorching steam of the underworld,

the Danaides are doomed to pour water

into a bottomless basin until the end of time.

King Acrisius could assassinate Danae with his own hands,

but the curse of the gods would be terrible.

He does nothing.

Danae grows up.

At 15 she has become the prettiest girl

in the kingdom of Argos.

Naturally, prospective suitors hasten to the court.

Each would like to win her hand.

Acrisius, haunted by the thought of the prophecy

from Delphi, will not hear a word about marriage.

He even goes so far as to regularly pray

that his daughter might die of natural causes.

One day, he moves into action.

He orders the construction of a tower,

a huge tower, within which he builds a prison

with walls and ceilings of bronze.

Once the tower is finished, he invites Danae

and her nurse to follow him.

Neither of them imagines the terrible fate

which awaits them.

The two women go inside.

The heavy door closes behind them.

Danae lets out a cry of horror which nobody hears.

Acrisius breathes a sigh of relief.

He thinks the matter is settled.

He is mistaken.

Things hidden from sight of man

do not escape the gods' attention,

and particularly, that of Zeus.

For a very long time now, the King of Olympus

has been aware of Danae's beauty.

He is in love with her.

Zeus is always in love.

He smiles when he sees Danae shut up

in her bronze prison.

It is the ideal moment to make his conquest.

However, Zeus needs to take on another appearance

because he knows that mortals may not contemplate a god

in his divine form, under penalty of death.

Bull, swan, eagle, snake,

Zeus is no stranger to metamorphosis.

On this occasion, he decides to change himself into rain.

Golden rain which slides through the joins in the tower,

through the walls, and falls like a gentle caress

upon Danae's slumbering body.

The young girl immediately awakens.

The whole room is illuminated.

Drops of gold are falling from the ceiling.

She dares not believe it.

What if it was?

Nine months pass.

A boy is born.

Danae names him Perseus.

Fearing her father's fury,

she hides the child as best she can,

but it is impossible to stifle his cries.

Intrigued, King Acrisius goes to the tower.

That is undoubtedly a baby crying.

Acrisius has the door opened.

Yes indeed, he is not mistaken,

there really is a child in there.

Perseus smiles at him, takes a couple of hesitant steps,

and falls at his grandfather's feet.

The terrified Danae hastens to explain

that she is completely innocent,

that it is Zeus transformed into rain

who is the father of this child.

Zeus.

Acrisius doesn't believe a word of it.

He turns upon the nurse.

It must have been her who let a man into the prison.

Mad with rage, Acrisius has the poor woman beheaded,

along with the guards who were meant to watch the prisoners.

But that in no way resolves the problem.

What to do with Danae and the baby?

Acrisius decides that it's best to put their destiny

into the hands of the gods.

Let them sort it out.

He summons a carpenter, the best in the kingdom,

and tells him to make a great wooden casket.

When it's finished, he shuts Danae and Perseus inside

and has it lowered into the ocean.

This time their prison will not just be four walls,

but the whole maritime world.

The casket drifts away, tossed around by the waves.

This fragile shell should have sunk a thousand times,

but Zeus is watching over his son.

The casket ends up in the vicinity of a little rocky island,

the island of Serifos.

A fisherman sees it, but this is not just any fisherman.

His name is Dictys, and he is of royal lineage.

Dictys brings the casket ashore and discovers

Danae and Perseus.

Troubled by the beauty of the young woman,

the fisherman decides to take in both mother and child,

and treat them as if they were of his own family.

The years pass.

Perseus becomes a strong and courageous young man.

One morning, the king of the island, Polydectes,

an infamous tyrant, bumps into Danae

at a bend in the road.

He immediately falls in love with her.

An all-consuming passion for Danae

quickly grows within Polydectes.

He becomes obsessed by her, but well aware that

for one thing, his feelings are not returned,

and for another, that Perseus would make mincemeat of him

if he tried to take Danae by force,

he comes up with a strategy to separate

the mother and son.

A banquet.

Polydectes organizes a banquet

and he as a good pretext.

His marriage with a foreign princess

by the name of Hippodamia.

He tells everyone the news and demands

that each young nobleman demonstrates his friendship

by giving a luxurious present

to his future wife, preferably a horse,

and why not a whole stable?

For the young woman is very keen on riding.

And you, he sneers at Perseus,

you who don't even have a shirt to call his own,

what will you give me?

You can't come to my banquet empty-handed.

Cut to the quick, Perseus replies that he is willing

to bring anything the king wishes.

Anything, perfect.

I want the gorgon's head.

The gorgon's head?

There is not one living being in the whole universe

capable of such an exploit.

Perseus will refuse, that's for sure.

No, he accepts.

An icy murmur spreads throughout the great throne room.

Perseus is mad.

He doesn't know what a terrifying monster this is.

The gorgon!

In reality, there is not just one, but three gorgons.

Three sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.

The first two are immortal.

Only the third one, Medusa, can be beaten.

A long time ago, the Gorgons were three young girls

of legendary beauty.

It was the goddess Athena who changed them into monsters

because they dared to defy her.

The Gorgons are terrifying creatures.

They have golden wings attached to their shoulders.

Snakes coil out of their hair.

And they can kill with a single look.

Instantly turning to stone anyone who dares look them

in the eye.

Polydectes is delighted.

This pretentious little Perseus has stepped into the trap.

But what Polydectes is unaware

of is the young man's descendants.

He is the son of Zeus.

What's more, he is admired by numerous divinities

and, in particular, Hermes and Athena.

And today, Athena sees in Perseus

a way of finishing off her vengeance on the Gorgons.

Perseus walks straight ahead.

He hasn't the slightest idea

where Medusa might be hiding.

He doesn't know how to fight her, either.

At this very moment, Hermes appears before him.

Hermes, god of messengers, son of Zeus.

Hermes gives Perseus a silver shield.

This is the goddess Athena's gift to him.

Hermes also lends him his winged sandals,

then he hands him a special sack

in which hunters put the game they have killed.

And he adds one last present, a Harpe sword,

a steel sickle capable of cutting through any material.

Hermes advices Perseus to fly to a cave

where three witches live.

These three witches are known as the Graeae.

The Graeae are the Gorgons' sisters,

and they are equally monstrous.

They are the only ones who know where Medusa can be found,

but no one has ever dared venture

inside their repulsive cavern,

for the Graeae are fearful to look at.

People say they were born old.

Their faces are no more than wrinkles and folds.

Their yellowing skin is crumpled like old parchment.

The most astonishing thing is that they have

only one eye between them, which they pass around

and use in turns, as they do with their one solitary tooth,

which they used to devour their visitors.

Hermes points a finger towards the west.

Even though the Gorgons live across the ocean,

beyond the world's frontiers at the doors of the night,

the same cannot be said for the Graeae

who live in this world.

With the winged sandals to guide him,

Perseus crosses the wild blue yonder

and soon finds himself at the entrance to the cavern

where the three sisters hide.

The son of Zeus must now pay very careful attention,

for between the moment when one passes the eye

to the other, and the moment when the other receives it,

there is a short lapse of time, a tiny crack,

which Perseus must infiltrate with the speed

of an arrow.

Perseus bides his time, and at the split second

when the eye is between two of the creatures,

he grabs it, snatching the tooth at the same moment.

The Graeae scream with fury.

They are suddenly blind and toothless.

They are reduced to nothing.

They implore Perseus.

They are prepared to give him anything, they say,

if only he will give them back the eye and the tooth.

Perseus demands that they tell him

where the Gorgons live and how to get there.

They are only too eager to oblige.

So the son of Danae and Zeus is at last flying

towards the windy island where the monsters abide.

All around, stone statues bear witness to the adventures

of unfortunate warriors who dared brave the Gorgons.

Horror can still be read in their expressions.

The Gorgons are there.

They are sleeping.

For Perseus, the question is

how to cut off Medusa's head without ever coming

face-to-face with her.

It seems like an impossible task.

It is Athena who whispers the solution in his ear.

Perseus takes the silver shield,

which the goddess gave him, and fixes it upright

in the earth.

He uses it like a looking glass,

or more precisely, like a rear-view mirror.

At the moment when Medusa's terrible eyes,

shining like moonstones, turn towards him,

Perseus positions the shield such that his eyes

cannot meet those of the Gorgon.

Medusa is almost upon him, just a breath away.

Perseus raises his sickle

and severs the monster's head.

With a terrible screech, Medusa collapses.

Perseus stuffs the Gorgon's head in his sack

and rushes out of the cave.

Flying back home towards Polydectes' island,

Perseus suddenly notices a young woman

chained to a rock.

It's Andromeda, the daughter of queen Cassiopeia.

She has been offered as a sacrifice to a sea monster

which has devastated the region ever since

the careless Cassiopeia was audacious enough

to claim that she was more beautiful

than all the nymphs of the ocean.

To appease the monsters sent

by the susceptible Poseidon,

an oracle has advised Cassiopeia

to sacrifice her own daughter,

the innocent Andromeda.

The unfortunate girl is lamenting.

Her moans reach Perseus.

He hears her, he sees her, he is immediately seduced

by her beauty.

Out of the question to abandon her to her fate.

Perseus goes and finds queen Cassiopeia

and promises to save her daughter

if he can have her hand in marriage.

Cassiopeia accepts.

Perseus immediately returns to the place

where Andromeda is attached to the rock

in the middle of the waves.

Not a moment too soon, for the monster is cutting its way

through the water, towards the unhappy Andromeda.

Once again, everything depends on a look.

Remembering Athena's advice, Perseus positions himself

between the sun and the sea, such that his shadow

is projected across the surface of the water,

just in front of the beast's eyes.

When it sees this shadow moving before it,

the monster assumes that it must be its prey.

It rushes toward the reflection

and at this very moment

Perseus, from high in the sky, flies down

and kills it.

Andromeda is saved.

Perseus picks up his sack with the Gorgon's head inside.

Accompanied by Andromeda, he finally arrives at Serifos.

But as soon as he lands, he learns

that the infamous Polydectes never had any intention

of marrying anyone other than Danae.

He has profited from Perseus's absence

to repeatedly try to force his mother's consent.

Happily, Danae has found refuge

in the temple of the goddess, Hera.

Perseus places Andromeda under the protection of Dictys,

and goes alone to the court of King Polydectes.

Passing through the corridors, he penetrates the hall

where Polydectes and his court

are enjoying a huge feast.

Silence falls when Perseus appears.

Polydectes stares at him, dumbfounded.

Perseus walks towards him.

He measures him up without a word.

Then he opens his sack and pulls out Medusa's head.

In a slow movement, he raises it, being careful to turn

his eyes away.

In an instant, Polydectes and all his guests

turn into stone statues.

Perseus puts the head back in his sack

and walks out, leaving behind him a petrified world.

But the story is not over.

There is still the grandfather, King Acrisius.

Perseus has realized that if Acrisius behaved towards him

as he did, shutting him in a casket

and tossing him to the waves,

it's because he was afraid of dying at his hands.

He doesn't hold it against him.

On the contrary, he wishes to find him and pardon him.

So, he sets out for Argos.

Unfortunately, Perseus arrives too late.

Hearing the rumors of the fabulous exploits

accomplished by his grandson, but above all,

hearing that he is heading for the kingdom,

Acrisius has shown a clean pair of heels.

But destiny alone decides upon the hour

when the curtain must fall.

A few days after his arrival in Argos,

Perseus participates in games organized in his honor.

The discus throwing event arrives.

There is a dense crowd, in the middle of which

hides an old man with a gray beard.

Perseus throws his discus.

At that precise moment, a violent gust of wind

alters its trajectory.

It flies through the air and it hits the old man

head-on, killing him instantly.

It was Acrisius, King of Argos, Perseus's grandfather.

Once again, the Oracle of Delphi has had the last word

over those who try to stop her predictions from coming true.

(heroic music)