Favorite Greek Myths (Yesterday's Classics) by Lilian Stoughton Hyde

was just what he had been expecting, for the gods of Olympus often appeared at just the right time, ready to help those who were brave and determined to do all they could for themselves.
    First Minerva told Perseus how to find the Island of the Gorgons. She said that he must ask the Three Gray Women, who were cousins of the Gorgons, and that nobody else in the whole world could give him the necessary information. Next she said that when he had found the Gorgons, he must not touch either of the older ones, because they were immortal, and he must by no means look at the Medusa, lest he be turned into stone. Then she took her own bright shield from her arm, and holding it high above her head, bade Perseus see how the shells and pebbles on the shore were all reflected in it. She said that when he was ready to strike off the Medusa's head, he must look at that terrible face only in this shield, which she would lend to him for that purpose.
    Now it was Mercury's turn. He lent Perseus his own crooked sword, a sword so sharp that it would cut through brass or iron or any other hard substance. This was the only sword that would cut through the Gorgon's scales. Then he offered to show Perseus the way to the home of the Three Gray Women, who lived in Twilight Land,—a land lying somewhere among the mists that rose from the sea.
    The two immediately set out. They journeyed far to the north till they came to a land of cold and fogs. The farther they went, the thicker the fogs became and the darker it grew. At last, in the dim light, they could faintly see, coming toward them, three very old women. Long gray hair hung over their shoulders; their garments and even their faces were gray; and they groped along in the fog as if they could not see. They seemed to be quarrelling about something. As they came nearer, the quarrel proved to be about the use of their one eye; for they were so very old that they had only one eye and one tooth among the three.
    "Be quick, Perseus! Now is your time," said Mercury. "Seize their one eye, and then you can compel them to tell you how to find the Gorgons. They will never tell you of their own free will."

PERSEUS AND THE GRAIAE

    So Perseus seized the eye, and would not give it back till the Gray Women had answered his questions. They said that the only way to find the Island of the Gorgons was to ask the Hesperides, the daughters of Night. These nymphs were the guardians of the famous golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, which lay near the place where the giant Atlas held up the sky.
    Then Mercury and Perseus started out again, and this time they went far to the west, over land and sea, till they found the Garden of the Hesperides.
    The nymphs of the Garden received Mercury and Perseus in a friendly manner. They said they had been expecting the hero who was to slay the Medusa, and should be glad to help him. They pointed out to Perseus the Island of the Gorgons, already dimly visible on the horizon. Then they brought him a pair of winged sandals which had the power to bear their wearer through the air as fast as Mercury's own; the helmet of darkness, which belonged to Pluto, and made its wearer invisible; and the magic pouch, in which he could safely carry the head of the Medusa. Perseus was now well armed, and ready for his work. With Minerva's bright shield, Mercury's crooked sword, the winged shoes, the helmet of darkness, and the magic pouch, he had not so very much to fear after all even from the terrible Gorgons, and was eager to begin the battle.
    Thinking that the Gorgons would be asleep by midnight, he waited until that time, and then flew straight to the Island. As he hovered over it, like a great golden hawk, he looked into Minerva's shield, by the light of the full moon, and saw a frightful sight. There were all three of the Gorgons fast asleep. Around them was what looked at first like a confusion of strange brown rocks, but the seeming rocks were really men and animals that had been