Perseus Coloring Pages
Welcome to our Greek Hero Perseus coloring pages section.
Perseus was the son of Zeus and a mortal princess named Danae. He's best known as the hero who brought back the head of Medusa, the Gorgon whose face turned people to stone. With help from Athena and Hermes, a pair of winged sandals and a cap that made him invisible, he crossed the whole world, turned a Titan into a mountain, and rescued a princess from a sea monster. Here's his story in order, with coloring pages along the way.
Jump to: Danae | The Quest | Medusa | Atlas | Andromeda | Homecoming | More About Perseus | Movies and Books | Printable Story
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The Adventures of Perseus
Danae and Zeus
King Acrisius of Argos was told by an oracle that his daughter's son would one day cause his death. So he locked his daughter, Danae, in a room of brass with no door, only a small window open to the sky. But Zeus saw her. One day a swirl of golden magic flashed through the window, and Zeus stood before her. Not long after, Danae had a baby boy and named him Perseus.
The Chest at Sea
Danae kept Perseus hidden for four years, until the king walked by and heard him chattering. He couldn't bring himself to hurt the boy, but he couldn't let him stay either. So he put Danae and Perseus in a wooden chest and set it adrift on the sea. Through a wild storm, Danae sang her son to sleep. On the third morning, the chest washed up on the island of Seriphos, where a kind man found them and gave them a home.
The King's Challenge
Perseus grew up tall and strong. The king of the island wanted to marry Danae, but she wanted nothing to do with him, and the king blamed Perseus. He announced he was getting married and asked every young man for a horse as a gift, knowing Perseus didn't have one. Annoyed, Perseus asked why he didn't ask for something worth having, like Medusa's head.
"Medusa's head it shall be!" said the king.
Help from the Gods
Perseus walked down to the shore, already sorry for his boastful words. As the moon rose, two strangers appeared beside him: a tall woman with gray eyes and a young man wearing winged sandals. They were Athena and Hermes.
Hermes gave Perseus his winged sandals, and Athena told him to find the Gray Sisters, who knew a secret he would need.
The Gray Sisters
The sandals carried Perseus north, over snowy mountains to a frozen sea. There, in a cold cave, lived three ancient sisters who shared a single eye and a single tooth, passing them back and forth. As one handed the eye to another, Perseus snatched it. They begged and pleaded, but he wouldn't give it back until they told him the way to the Maidens of the West.
The Western Maidens
In a sunny garden at the western edge of the world, three Maidens danced around a tree of golden apples. They welcomed Perseus and gave him four gifts: a sword curved like a sickle, a shield brighter than any mirror, a magic pouch, and the Cap of Darkness, which made him invisible to everyone, even them.
Medusa
Beyond the ocean, in a gloomy land, Perseus found the three Gorgons asleep beside a muddy river. He didn't dare look at them. Instead he walked backward, watching them in his shining shield, and with one quick stroke he took Medusa's head and pushed it into his pouch. In some versions, the winged horse Pegasus sprang up in that very moment. Medusa's sisters woke screaming, but Perseus, invisible in his cap, flew away faster than their golden wings could follow.
Medusa coloring pages Pegasus coloring pages
Atlas Turned to Stone
Tired from the long flight, Perseus stopped in the land of Atlas, who ruled at the western edge of the world and owned an orchard where every tree grew golden fruit. Atlas was afraid the young hero had come to steal it, and refused to let him rest. Angry, Perseus held up Medusa's head. Atlas grew into a mountain so tall its peak reached the clouds, with forests for his hair and beard. To this day, the Atlas Mountains in North Africa carry his name.
Andromeda and the Sea Monster
Flying east, Perseus spotted a young woman chained to a rock by the sea, and a huge sea monster swimming toward her. She was Andromeda, a princess whose mother had boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. Perseus turned the monster to stone with Medusa's head and saved her, and soon after, the two were married. Read the whole story below.
Home to Seriphos
Perseus and Andromeda sailed home to Seriphos, since the sandals couldn't carry two. They arrived just as the cruel king was chasing Danae with his sword. Perseus stepped in front of him and pulled out Medusa's head.
"I promised to bring you a present, and here it is!" he said, and the king turned to stone. Perseus gave the kingdom to the kind man who had rescued him and his mother from the sea all those years before.
The Discus
When Acrisius heard his grandson was coming home to Argos, he fled, still afraid of the old prophecy. Later, Perseus entered an athletic contest in a nearby land and threw a discus farther than anyone ever had. It landed in the crowd and struck an old man, who died. It was Acrisius. By running away from the prophecy, he had run right into it. Perseus was heartbroken and wouldn't take the throne of Argos. He traded it for another kingdom and lived happily with Andromeda in Mycenae for many years.
More About Perseus
Medusa's Head and Athena's Shield
When his adventures were over, Perseus gave Medusa's head to Athena, who had helped him from the very start. She set it in the center of her aegis (shield or cloak).
Perseus' Gear
Perseus couldn't have done it alone. Hermes lent him winged sandals that flew faster than an eagle. The Western Maidens gave him a sword curved like a sickle, a shield so bright he could use it as a mirror, a magic pouch strong enough to hold Medusa's head, and the Cap of Darkness, which made him completely invisible.
Perseus and Herakles
Perseus and Andromeda had a big family, and one of their granddaughters, Alcmene, became the mother of Herakles. That makes Perseus the great-grandfather of the strongest hero in Greece.
If you've read our Herakles page, you might spot a puzzle. Herakles meets Atlas holding up the sky, generations after Perseus turned him into a mountain. Greek myths were told by many different storytellers over hundreds of years, and they didn't always line up.
Perseus in Movies and Books
The movie Clash of the Titans (1981, and again in 2010) made Perseus famous all over again, but it changes quite a bit. In the movie, Perseus rides Pegasus, while in the myth he flies with winged sandals and Pegasus belongs to a different hero. The movie's monster is the Kraken, which actually comes from Norse legends, not Greek ones.
Rick Riordan named his hero Percy Jackson after Perseus. Percy's full name really is Perseus, and the books are full of Greek gods, monsters and heroes, including Medusa herself.
Percy Jackson and Greek mythology
Perseus in the Night Sky
Almost everyone in this story became a constellation. Perseus, Andromeda, her mother Cassiopeia, her father Cepheus and even the sea monster, Cetus, are all in the sky together, with Pegasus right beside them. Look for them on autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere. One of the brightest stars in Perseus is called Algol, and it's said to be the eye of Medusa.
Andromeda and the Sea Monster
Perseus flew east over the sea with Medusa's head safe in the pouch at his side. The winged sandals carried him fast, and he was in a hurry to get home to his mother.
After a time he came to a warm country of palm trees and pyramids, where a great river flowed down from the south. Looking down, he saw something strange. A young woman stood on a rock at the edge of the sea, her arms chained to the stone. Far out in the water, something huge was swimming toward her.
Perseus pulled off his Cap of Darkness and landed beside her. When she saw him, with his long hair and laughing face, she thought he was the handsomest young man she had ever seen.
"Save me!" she cried, reaching out to him.
Perseus drew his curved sword, cut through her chains, and lifted her higher up the rock. By now the monster was close. It lashed the water with its tail and opened its jaws so wide it looked as though it could swallow them both, and the rock as well.
It was terrible. But it was not half as terrible as a Gorgon.
As the beast came roaring toward the shore, Perseus pulled Medusa's head from the pouch and held it up. The monster stopped short. Its gray-green scales went dull and still, and it settled into the sea as a huge black rock.
Perseus tucked the head away and asked the young woman who she was.
Her name was Andromeda, and she was the daughter of the king and queen of that land. Her mother was very beautiful and very proud of it. Every day the queen went down to the shore to admire her face in the still water, and she boasted that not even the sea nymphs were as lovely as she was. The nymphs heard her, and they asked the god of the sea to punish her. He sent the monster to wreck the farms and towns along the coast. An oracle said there was only one way to stop it. The king and queen must give their daughter to the beast.
They loved Andromeda more than anything, and for a long time they refused. But every day the monster did more damage, until at last they had no choice.
While Andromeda was still telling her story, the king and queen came down the beach with a crowd of people behind them, all weeping. They were sure she was gone. When they saw her alive and well beside a stranger, they could hardly believe it.
The king asked Perseus what reward he would like.
"Give her to me for my wife," said Perseus.
The king was delighted. Seven days later, Perseus and Andromeda were married with a great feast in the palace, and all across the land, people talked of nothing but the hero's courage and the princess's beauty.
You can still find them both in the night sky, along with the proud queen, the king, and the sea monster, all turned into stars.