The History of Monsters. 192. Ulisse Aldrovandi

he himself turned away and presented a rugged face. Atlas was made into a mountain of vast proportions; his beard and hair became forests, his shoulders and hands grew into ridges, and what had once been his head became the very peak of the mountain.

After these deeds were finished, Perseus traveled through Ethiopia and arrived at the place where Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope, was being exposed to a sea monster because of her mother’s vanity. Because Cassiope had boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, Neptune, moved by the nymphs' pleas, sent a sea monster to ravage the Ethiopian coast. When the oracle of Jupiter Ammon was consulted on how to appease the Nereids, it responded that it could not be done unless a child of Cepheus and Cassiope was offered up to be torn apart by the sea beast.

When Perseus saw Andromeda bound to a cliff and about to be devoured by the creature, he was so struck by her beauty that he promised to save her, provided she be given to him in marriage. With Cepheus's consent, the monster was overcome and the girl was wed to Perseus. Later, at the royal palace of Cepheus, Perseus recounted how the hair on Medusa's head had been transformed into snakes: because she was famous for her golden locks and striking beauty, and Neptune desired her, she could not escape his embrace; they lay together in the temple of Minerva. Outraged by this violation of her sacred space, Minerva turned Medusa’s golden hair into a mass of foul serpents.

"Lest this go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon’s hair into loathsome snakes."

In the fifth book, the poet relates that after Andromeda was given to Perseus in marriage, a grand feast was prepared. Meanwhile, Phineus, Cepheus’s brother—to whom Andromeda had previously been promised—suddenly arrived with a band of armed men, attempting to seize the girl from Perseus. But Perseus, not in the least terrified, killed many of them, and by revealing the head of Medusa, he transformed the rest into stone.

"Two hundred bodies remained from the battle; at the sight of the Gorgon, those two hundred bodies turned stiff."

Eventually, Perseus departed for his homeland. Using the head of Medusa, he turned Prœtus—who had driven Perseus's grandfather Acrisius from his throne—into stone. Thus he restored the kingdom to his grandfather, even though Acrisius hardly deserved it, having once locked Perseus and his mother Danae in a chest and cast them into the sea. Regarding this metamorphosis, it is written:

"And with the face of Medusa, he turned the King’s features into bloodless flint."

Up to this point, Minerva had assisted Perseus in achieving so many great feats. But at the same time, Pallas Athena traveled to Mount Helicon in Boeotia. There she learned from the Muses about Pegasus, the winged horse mentioned earlier, who was born from Medusa’s blood along with Chrysaor. Upon arriving at Mount Helicon, Pegasus struck the ground with his hoof, opening a spring that is called the *Hippocrene*, or "Horse's Spring." After this, one of the Muses told Pallas how the Muses themselves were once transformed into birds. While they were traveling toward Mount Parnassus, a storm broke out, and they took shelter at the house of Pyreneus, who had invited them in. Captivated by the maidens' beauty, he ordered the doors of a chamber to be locked so he might violate them. However, the Muses transformed into birds and flew away.

"Pyreneus shuts his house and prepares for violence, which we escaped by taking wing."

While the Muse was telling this story, Minerva noticed nine magpies chattering among the tree branches, speaking almost like humans. To resolve Pallas’s wonder, the Muse explained the whole matter: Pierus had fathered daughters by his wife Euippe, and their beauty made their mother so arrogant that she dared to compare them to the Muses and challenge them to a contest. Consequently, one of the Pierides began to sing a sweet melody, recounting how Typhon and the other Giants struck great fear into the gods (a story told to disparage the deeds of the deities). She even added that the gods, in great fear of the danger, fled to Egypt, where Jupiter was later transformed into a ram, Apollo into a