Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hera
Perseus
Perseus' impossible task was to kill the gorgon, Medusa. With a head of snakes she could
turn a man to stone with a single glance. Armed with an invisibility cap and a pair of fly-
ing sandals from Hermes, Perseus used his reflective shield to avoid Medusa's stare.
Having cut off her head and secreted it in a bag, it was shortly unsheathed to save
Andromeda, a princess bound to a rock and about to be sacrificed to a sea monster. Me-
dusa's head turns the sea monster to stone, Perseus gets the girl.
Oedipus
You can run but you can't hide… Having been abandoned at birth, Oedipus learned from
the Delphic oracle that he would one day slay his father and marry his mother. On the
journey back to his birthplace, Thiva (Thebes), he killed a rude stranger and then dis-
covered the city was plagued by a murderous Sphinx (a winged lion with a woman's
head). The creature gave unsuspecting travellers and citizens a riddle; if they couldn't an-
swer it they were dashed on the rocks. Oedipus succeeded in solving the riddle, felled the
Sphinx and so gained the queen of Thiva's hand in marriage. On discovering the stranger
