But Perseus went on until he came to Thessaly, and finding some games going on he took part in them. He threw a discus which accidentally struck his grandfather’s foot, giving him a painful wound which could not be cured. Thus the Oracle was fulfilled. Learning whom he had killed and that Akrisios had died according to an old prophecy, he mourned for him and buried him with honors outside of the city.
Perseus then returned to Argos, where he had left his wife and mother, and he became king of the country in the place of his grandfather, Akrisios. But the thought of sitting on a throne whose rightful king he had accidentally killed was distasteful to him, so he exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes of Tiryns.
It is said that the Persian kings claimed to be descendants from Perses, a son of Perseus and Andromeda. However this may be, Perseus has certainly inspired many a poet and artist and hero to express great actions and courage in word and deed.
CHAPTER XXIX
TRIPTOLEMOS, THE HERO OF ELEUSIS, AND DEMETER, THE EARTH-MOTHER
Twelve miles to the west of Athens is a beautiful hill which ends abruptly close to the sea. It is the acropolis or highest point of Eleusis and is covered with splendid blocks of marble, the ruins of wonderful temples which stood there in ancient times. The greatest of these temples was called The Temple of the Mysteries. Demeter, the Earth-Mother, was worshipped there.
The principal road leading to the acropolis of Eleusis begins at the acropolis at Athens and is called The Sacred Way. Over this road, thousands of years ago, went the stately processions of loose-robed Greeks, their beautiful garments fluttering in the winds. Their heavy chariot-wheels left deep prints in the rocks, and there they are at the present time. There are ruins of temples to the gods along The Sacred Way, and the little lambs and kids skip playfully about among them.
A narrow pass between the hills admits you into a flowery meadow. It was here that Persephone played when a child. There are two salt lakes in the plain in which only priests were allowed to fish in the olden times. There, too, is a well where you stop for a cup of water as people have done through the long ages.
The plain of Eleusis is separated from Attica by a range of low hills clad with fields of wheat and barley. At the foot of the acropolis is the sickly little village of Eleusis, but the Island of Salamis rises across the blue waters of the bay like a fairyland shining through a delicate atmosphere of violet tint. This was the kingdom of Keleos and his son Triptolemos, the Hero of Agriculture, and it was the scene of the story of Demeter and Persephone, the story which brings us to the Hero of Eleusis.
It is said that Kronos and Rhea were the father and mother of the greatest of the gods, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades or (Pluto) and their sister Demeter, the mother of fertility. Though men might plough the fields and the rain moisten the swelling seed-grains, it was Demeter who gave the vital touch which caused the new life to spring up.