The Myth of Perseus and Perse
“By day, Dictys taught Perseus the ways of the sword, preparing him for any battle he may face. It was clear the young boy showed promising talent, a natural gift for the task. Those same days, Danaë taught Perse the art of weaving, though it was clear it did not suit Perse’s natural strength. Every so often, during the dullest moments of the day, Perse would sneak away from her lessons to watch her twin brother fight. She longed for the chance to pick up a sword. By night, the inseparable twins would talk of their days. Perse would hold onto every word Perseus spoke, filled with longing to learn how to fight. Perseus would listen intently as Perse spoke of her dreams of fighting, but he never encouraged them. Perse wished he would, he could even teach her. But Perseus would often drift to sleep before she gained the courage to ask him. Perse would lie away for hours after that. The deserted house caused the blood to pound in her veins. No one would know if she stole away in the night to practice. She slipped her way out of the house, and taking Perseus’ sword as her own, she stalked into the dead of night to practice. An innate sense of power coursed through her as she slashed the sword through the air. It felt right, it felt like her destiny, but Perse knew her true destiny was to be a wife.”
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This was the first final project I ever submitted for the Classics department, and it was my first piece of writing ever in a Classics class. For this mythology class, we were tasked with a creative writing assignment where we would choose a myth (from classical mythology or any other mythology) and create a twist. Immediately I knew that I wanted to do a retelling of the myth of Perseus because Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Cepheus, and Pegasus, were some of the first constellations other than Ursa Major and Orion, that I could identify on my own. At the time I took this class, I was also taking classes about witches, which focused immensely on female empowerment. Feeling inspired by that, I decided it would be interesting to create a female hero to stand along with Perseus, and essentially, show him up.
As I was looking back at this assignment, I realized I really did not like looking back as far as this work. I thought that my writing was overdramatized to the point that I cringe while reading it. I think this might be because directly before taking Classical Mythology, I took a creative writing course. In some ways that class did help with this project, but in other ways, I feel that it made me melodramatic to the point of embarrassment. However, I did receive a good grade on this assignment, so I will choose to believe that it was not all that bad, but I will say it has definitely taught me that writing in a creative manner can be a much more vulnerable experience, and therefore harder to look back on.
This project exemplifies the following learning goals of the Skidmore College Classics Department:
- read critically and analyze closely literary texts and modern scholarship
- conduct research by traditional and digital methods
- read and analyze historical documents within their social contexts and evaluate the role of the individual in ancient cultures
It also reflects the following literacy:
- Information
Want more information about the reflection? Check out my final portfolio reflection!
