A good meteor shower appears in the vicinity of the constellation of Perseus about the 10th of August. These meteors are best seen around three o'clock in the morning and have been recorded as appearing as far back as 811 A.D. This would seem to reasonably assure the annual reappearance of the spectacle but since the number of meteors is steadily decreasing there is a time in the future when it will cease to be. These meteors are popularly known as the "Tears of Saint Lawrence," mentioned as the "fiery tears" in ancient legends because Saint Lawrence was burned at the stake upon the 10th of August in the "sad old days" of religious intolerance. Every year, like ghosts, his tears return and rain down from the sky in drops of fire. They fall at the rate of about one a minute. Miss Proctor, in "Half Hours with the Summer Stars," mentions a quaint old oriental legend in which the meteors are supposed to be darts which are thrown by the angels at the evil ones who are barred from heaven and eavesdrop at its gates.
The myth which is woven about the hero Perseus is a very beautiful one and a few words as to why the Greeks so loved this gallant lad might be well appreciated by those who are not familiar with the story.
Acrisius, King of Argos, was so selfish and quarrelsome that finally Jupiter, who watched over the affairs of mankind, determined to give him something real to worry about, so Acrisius was informed through an oracle that he would lose his crown and die by the hand of his own grandson. Soon after this Perseus was born, and the King was indeed terrified. His fear increased daily, finally bringing him to such a state of madness that he placed the Princess Danae, his own daughter, and her little son in a large chest and threw it into the sea.
The gods, however, watched the chest and held it steady among the roughest waves, finally stranding it in the sea-weed on the little Island of Seriphus where the wanderers were rescued and given a home.
Years passed, and the King of Seriphus grew to love Danae, but he feared Perseus who looked like a golden-haired god. One day this king planned a great feast and informed his guests that each must bring a gift as proof of his loyalty, and the gift must be either costly or rare. Since Perseus had no wealth, the king suggested that he bring to court the head of the Gorgon Medusa who lived across the sea in the wilds of a strange and distant land.
With his heart filled with sorrow at the thought of this wellnigh impossible task, Perseus went out into the fields and walked about alone. What chance had he against this fearful creature that had the wings of an eagle and hair that writhed in living snakes about her shoulders, and coiled and hissed and darted on her head? More than this, her eyes were filled with horror and turned all who gazed upon her into stone! Walking along thus enwrapped in dreary thoughts, the youth felt himself suddenly grow buoyant, and looking down on his sandals saw that living wings had grown upon their heels; then a polished shield reflecting like a mirror was hung upon his arm, and a sword carved from a diamond, which must have once equaled the size of a bowlder, was thrust into his hand. The gods had again taken care of their own! Holding himself proudly, our hero walked to the end of the island where a high cliff jutted above the rocky shore below. He stood on the edge and looked down at the rocks beneath him; then he raised his head and looked at the high white clouds in the sunny sky. He thought of the gods and his mother—and bravely stepped over—then laughed joyously as he skimmed like a bird in the warm rays of the sun.
It is a long tale to tell how he journeyed northward to the land of snow and ice, then southward again, and across the Mediterranean.
"He saw the southern, and the northern pole:
And eastward thrice, and westward thrice, was whirl'd."
After finding the Three Gray Sisters who had but one eye between them, Perseus forced them to tell him where to find the country where the Gorgons dwelt. After many hardships, he found this country on the western shore of Africa and knew it immediately, for all around stood the images of men and beasts whose flesh and blood the Medusa's eyes had hardened into stone:
"Beasts to the rocks were fix'd and all around
Were tribes of stone and marble nations found."