The ancient Greek legend of Perseus was treated by, among others, Aeschylus and Ovid, and there are many variations of detail in later versions. In his cycle of paintings Burne-Jones concentrates on the most familiar episodes of the hero's search for the Gorgon Medusa and his rescue of Andromeda, which can be seen to provide obvious parallels with the quest of the Arthurian knights and the story of Saint George and the Dragon. In The Earthly Paradise, Morris pref- aced "The Doom of King Acrisius" with this argument, which offers the necessary background to the series: Acrisius, King of Argos, being warned by an oracle that the son of his daughter Danae* should slay him, shut her up in a brazen tower built for that end beside the sea: there, though no man could come nigh her, she nevertheless bore a son to Jove, and she and her new-born son, set adrift on the sea, came to the island of Seriphos. Thence her son, grown to manhood, set out to win the Gorgon's Head, and accomplished that end by the help of Minerva; and afterwards rescued Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, from a terrible doom, and wedded her. Coming back to Seriphos he took his mother thence, and made for Argos, but by stress of weather came to Thessaly, and there, at Larissa, accomplished the prophecy, by unwittingly slaying Acrisius. In the end he founded the city of Mycenae, and died there. This cartoon and Perseus and the Sea Nymphs (cat. no. 90) were Burne-Jones's first cartoons for the series; the corre- sponding oils (now at Stuttgart), of the same date, he left unfinished. Two scenes are here combined: an image of the dejected hero being approached by the hooded figure of the goddess Minerva and Minerva revealing herself to a startled Perseus. Goaded by Polydectes, King of Seriphos, Perseus has sworn to bring back the head of Medusa, the most terrifying of the Gorgons in that her stare turns every living thing to stone. An enemy of the Gorgons, Minerva offers Perseus aid, in the form of a sword and a mirror, to deflect Medusa's fatal look. One of Burne-Jones s notebooks includes a list of twenty- eight subjects, under the heading "Doom of Acrisius," which must have occurred to him as likely visual counterparts to Morris's poem, perhaps at an early stage when an illustrated edition of The Earthly Paradise was still under consideration. 1 The painting corresponds to the entry "Perseus meeting Minerva as old woman — M. changing to goddess, giving him armour," but indicates that the artist, while reluctant to keep to the letter of Morris s imagery, was prepared to modify slightly his own first conception. Although he portrays Minerva with "a fair breast- plate," she has no "hauberk to her knees" but heavy drapery, mak- ing her presence as powerful as that of the complementary figure of the goddess in The Wheel of Fortune (cat. no. 52). 1. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; see Locher 1973, pp. 48-49.
Fitzwilliam Work list: 1875... a scheme of wall pictures- of the story of Perseus... made many studies for Perseus 1877... worked on Perseus set - making two cartoons for the first pictures and beginning the oil pictures. Balfour 1882 ... small panel pictures of Perseus and the Graiae - Agnew.. On the Gorgons pursuing Perseus 1884... In November and the next four or five months I designed the three last subjects for Perseus in watercolour - making full size cartoons of them, these were nearly finished by about April (1885) 1887 In the Winter an Spring I finished in oil the last subject of the Perseus set, called "the Balefull head" Although a photograph shows the series framed in 1894, a second photograph of "The Arming of Perseus" in the home studio in 1895, unframed and on an easel indicates that the artist was still working on this series whilst also working on the oil versions. It also suggests that Henderson probably bought his set either very late in the artist's life or from the artist's son. The Perseus Series is Burne-Jones, final examination of a narrative which explores the trials of a distressed maiden and her eventual rescue. He first explored this formula with Cupid and Psyche, developed it into the St George series and made his final observations in the Perseus series. In all three the masculine element is the most active and the female is portrayed a victim to be rescued. What makes the Perseus Series the most articulate, is the predominant sensuality even sexuality, particularly in The Doom Fulfilled, in which there is a sublimated representation of the coital act.