Perseus

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Perseus was the son of Danaë, whom Zeus came to in the form of a shower of gold.  Her father, King Acrisius of Argo, was afraid of what Perseus was going to do to him after he received information from an Oraclethat his daughter’s son would kill him.  After Perseus was born, he threw Perseus and his mother into the sea in a locked wooden chest.  They were taken in by Dictys, who then raised the boy as his own.

King Polydectes, brother of Dictys, fell in love with Danaë.  He soon tried to get rid of Perseus by giving him and impossible task.  To bring him the head of Medusa, the only mortal of the three Gorgons.  Athena caught Medusa and Poseidon in her temple together and punished Medusa by making her into a hideous crature with snakes in place of hair and her single gaze can turn anyone to stone.  He had help from three Gods; Hermes, who gave him an adamantine sword; Athena, a polished bronze shield; Hades, a helet of invisibility.  With these gifts he traced down the Gorgons, with the shield he was able to sneak up on Medusa and take her head, thus from her neck came Pegasus.  He was on the way back when he say a beautiful young maiden tied to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster.  He used the gorgon head of Medusa to turn the sea creature to stone.