Serifos; Perseus’ beginning and end in his journey to track down the terrible Medusa. The mythical hero was on a mission to get her head and offer it to Serifos’ king as a wedding gift. Navigating the darkest seas and reaching the end of the world, Perseus makes the impossible possible; he cuts off the poisonous snakes pouring down Medusa’s hair, skillfully dodges her petrifying gaze and finally decapitates her. He triumphantly returns home to Serifos.
Once he returns, he discovers he had fallen victim to a scheme. The cunning king sent him off on the impossible mission in order to force Perseus’ mother, Danae into marrying him. Outraged and delirious, Perseus storms into the palace holding Medusa’s head. One look at her and everyone turns into stone. The king and his court are now petrified forever. On his way out, Perseus forgets to cover Medusa’s head and everything on the island turns into stone as well; the trees, the forests, the lakes and the streams. Serifos is no longer a green, fertile island, but an arid land full of rocks and stones. Serifos’ wild and naked landscape together with the small creeks that escaped Medusa’s look, are still there to remind the story of Perseus.
From antiquity to the present, Perseus’ myth has triggered the imagination of countless artists who beautifully illustrated it on pots, sculptures and famous canvases. Perseus continued his adventures through art and was glorified once again by anonymous ancient potters and by the paintings of Titziano, Caravaggio, Rubens, the figures of Rodin. From archaic art it went through Renaissance and Baroque before it appeared in the abstract forms of modern art. Up until our times of banality, rational analysis and numerical omnipotence, its poetry and timeless values still inspire and touch.
