1–2
TRITON
Your monster of the deep, my dear Nereids, the one of you sent against Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, didn’t harm the girl, as you’ve been thinking it would, but is now dead itself.
NEREIDS
Who killed it, Triton? Did Cepheus set the girl there like a bait, and then attack and kill it, after lying in wait for it with a large force?
TRITON
No. But I imagine, Iphianassa, you all know what happened to Perseus, Danae’s child, whom his mother’s father threw into the sea in a chest with his mother, and you saved out out of pity.
IPHIANASSA
I know whom you mean. He must be a young man by now, and a very fine handsome fellow.
TRITON
It was he who killed the monster.
5
IPHIANASSA
Why, Triton? He shouldn’t have paid us in this coin for saving him.
TRITON
I’ll tell you everything, just as it happened. He was sent against the Gorgons, to carry out a task for the king. Polydectes, king of Seriphos, who wished to be rid of Perseus and marry Danae. But when he reached Libya—
IPHIANASSA
How did he do it, Triton? By himself? Did he take others to help him? Otherwise it’s a difficult journey.
TRITON
He went through the air. Athena had given him wings on his feet. Well, when he’d reached where they lived, they must all have been asleep, and Perseus cut off Medusa’s head and flew away.
IPHIANASSA
How could he see? They are not for the eye to behold. Anyone who sees them won’t see anything afterwards.
