Danae- Greek FigureMortal"Princess of Argos"

The Bronze Prison

Danaë was the only child of King Acrisius of Argos. When Acrisius consulted the oracle at Delphi about having a male heir, the Pythia told him he would never have a son, and his daughter's son would kill him. Acrisius imprisoned Danaë in an underground bronze chamber — or a tower of bronze, in some accounts — to prevent any man from reaching her. She was attended by servants but otherwise sealed away from the world, a living entombment meant to keep her childless.

The Golden Rain

Zeus came to Danaë as a shower of golden light that poured through the roof of her prison. She conceived and bore a son, Perseus. When Acrisius heard the infant's cries, he could not bring himself to kill his own daughter and grandson outright. Instead he placed Danaë and the infant Perseus in a wooden chest and cast them into the sea. The chest drifted until it washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where a fisherman named Dictys found mother and child and took them in. Danaë raised Perseus on the island under Dictys's protection.

Liberation

Dictys's brother Polydectes was king of Seriphos, and he desired Danaë. She refused him, and as Perseus grew into manhood Polydectes saw the son as the one obstacle to his designs. He sent Perseus to fetch the head of Medusa, expecting the task to kill him. It did not. Perseus returned with the Gorgon's head, found his mother sheltering at an altar from Polydectes's violence, and strode into the king's hall to turn him and his court to stone. Danaë was free at last.

But the prophecy that had imprisoned her remained unfulfilled. Later, at funeral games in Larissa, Perseus threw a discus that was carried by wind — or by fate — to strike an old man in the crowd. It was Acrisius. The bronze chamber and the chest on the waves had not been enough to outrun the oracle.