" Then with a
loud voice he exclaimed, "If I have any friend here let him turn
away his eyes!" and held aloft the Gorgon's head. "Seek not to
frighten us with your jugglery," said Thescelus, and raised his
javelin in act to throw, and became stone in the very attitude.
Ampyx was about to plunge his sword into the body of a prostrate
foe, but his arm stiffened and he could neither thrust forward nor
withdraw it. Another, in the midst of a vociferous challenge,
stopped, his mouth open, but no sound issuing. One of Perseus's
friends, Aconteus, caught sight of the Gorgon and stiffened like
the rest. Astyages struck him with his sword, but instead of
wounding, it recoiled with a ringing noise.
Phineus beheld this dreadful result of his unjust aggression, and
felt confounded. He called aloud to his friends, but got no
answer; he touched them and found them stone. Falling on his knees
and stretching out his hands to Perseus, but turning his head away
he begged for mercy. "Take all," said he, "give me but my life."
"Base coward," said Perseus, "thus much I will grant you; no
weapon shall touch you; moreover, you shall be preserved in my
house as a memorial of these events." So saying, he held the
Gorgon's head to the side where Phineus was looking, and in the
very form in which he knelt, with his hands outstretched and face
averted, he became fixed immovably, a mass of stone!
The following allusion to Perseus is from Milman's "Samor":
"As'mid the fabled Libyan bridal stood
Perseus in stern tranquillity of wrath,
Half stood, half floated on his ankle-plumes
Out-swelling, while the bright face on his shield
Looked into stone the raging fray; so rose,
But with no magic arms, wearing alone
Th' appalling and control of his firm look,
The Briton Samor; at his rising awe
Went abroad, and the riotous hall was mute.
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