- Ammon: I was partial to tragedy in my youth. That was before experience taught me that life was tragical enough without my having to write about it.
- [first lines]
- Acrisius: Bear witness, Zeus, and all you gods on high Olympus! I condemn my daughter Danae, and her son Perseus to the sea! Her guilt and sin have brought shame to Argos! I, Acrisius the King, now purge her crime and restore my honor! Their blood is not on my hands!
- Zeus: Perseus has won. My son has triumphed.
- Hera: A fortunate young man.
- Zeus: Fortune is ally to the brave.
- Thetis: What a dangerous precedent. What if there more heroes like him? What if courage and imagination became everyday mortal qualities? What will become of us?
- Zeus: We would no longer be needed. But, for the moment, there is sufficient cowardice, sloth and mendacity down there on Earth to last forever.
- Zeus: Perseus and Andromeda will be happy together. Have fine sons... rule wisely... And to perpetuate the story of his courage, I command that from henceforth, he will be set among the stars and constellations. He, Perseus, the lovely Andromeda, the noble Pegasus, and even the vain Cassiopeia. Let the stars be named after them forever. As long as man shall walk the Earth and search the night sky in wonder, they will remember the courage of Perseus forever. Even if we, the gods, are abandoned or forgotten, the stars will never fade. Never. They will burn till the end of the time.
- Zeus: Release the Krakken!
- Thetis: Hear me, vain and foolish mortal woman. You dare compare your daughter's beauty to mine and in my own sacred sanctuary? You will repent your boast and the cruel injury you have inflicted on my son, Calibos.
- Cassiopeia: Forgive. Forgive.
- Thetis: In 30 days, on the eve of the longest day of the year, your daughter Andromeda must be taken to the sacrificial rock at the edge of the sea, there bound and chained to the stone. She must be unknown to man, a virgin. A sacrifice suitable for the Kraken. She must be delivered to the Kraken at the setting of the sun or else the Kraken will destroy all Joppa and everyone within the city. For the insult you have done to me and the cruel injury inflicted on my son, I demand the life of Andromeda. In 30 days.
- [discussing Zeus' womanizing]
- Thetis: So many women, and all these transformations and disguises he invents in order to seduce them. Sometimes a shower of gold, sometimes a bull or a swan. Why, once he even tried to ravish me disguised as a cuttlefish.
- Hera: Did he succeed?
- Thetis: Certainly not.
- Athena: What did you do?
- Thetis: Beat him at his own game. I simply turned myself into a shark.
- [they laugh]
- Ammon: Oh impetuous... foolish... Ah dear, the young. Why do they never listen? When will they ever learn?
- Thetis: My priests of Joppa are loyal. I will speak to them in dreams and omens.
- Zeus: Destroy Argos! And to make certain no stone stands, that no creature crawls. I command you to let loose the last of the Titans. Let loose the Kraken!
- Perseus: I was lying on the seashore, looking up at the moon.
- Ammon: Oh, the moon! That might explain things. You see, the moon affects the brain.
- Thetis: It is time for chance to intervene. Time you saw something of the world, Perseus. Time you came face to face with fear. Time to know the terrors of the dark and look on death. Time your eyes were opened to grim reality.
- Princess Andromeda: [upon recognizing Perseus] You!
- Cassiopeia: You know him?
- Princess Andromeda: Only... from a dream.
- [whispers in the crowd]
- Princess Andromeda: I beg you, abandon me.
- Perseus: Ask your riddle.
- Princess Andromeda: In my mind's eyes I see... three circles joined in priceless, graceful harmony. Two full as the moon. One hollow as a crown. Two from the sea, five fathoms down. One from the earth, deep under the ground. The whole, a mark of high renown. Tell me, what can it be?
- Perseus: Have courage, princess. What can it be? Three circles joined. Two moons and a crown.
- Princess Andromeda: Tell me!
- Perseus: The answer is a ring! Two pearls in a circle of gold! The ring of the Lord of the Marsh. The pearl ring of Calibos. Here, on the claw hand of Calibos himself!
- [gasps from the crowd as he pulls from his cloak the severed hand of Calibos, the ring still attached]
- Perseus: The ring. A gift from his mother... the goddess Thetis. Is that the answer?
- [Andromeda hesitates in disbelief]
- Perseus: Is that the answer? Tell me!
- Princess Andromeda: [overcome with joy] Yes!
- [cheers from the crowd]
- Perseus: We fought in the swamp!
- [the crowd silences]
- Perseus: I spared his life on one condition. That he renounce his curse. There will be no more bonfires. No more nightmares. Light has conquered darkness. You're free.
- Princess Andromeda: [to Perseus] In my mind's eye, I see, three circles joined in priceless, graceful harmony. Two full as the moon, one hollow as a crown. Two from the sea, five fathoms down. One from the earth, deep under the ground. The whole, a mark of high renown. Tell me, what can it be?
- Perseus: How may a mortal man face and defeat the Kraken?
- Stygian Witch: The Kraken is invulnerable. 100 men could not fight him.
- Stygian Witch: An army could not kill him.
- Perseus: Nothing is invulnerable. There must be a way.
- Stygian Witch: Perhaps, one way.
- Stygian Witch: But a way even more dangerous than the Kraken itself.
- Perseus: Tell me.
- Stygian Witch: Give me the eye and l'll tell you.
- Perseus: First, tell me.
- Stygian Witch: The head of Medusa, the Gorgon!
- Stygian Witch: One look from the head of Medusa can turn all creatures into stone. No matter how huge and powerful. And her blood is a deadly venom.
- Stygian Witch: A Titan against a Titan!
- Stygian Witch: You must win Medusa's head. She's not going to give it to you. As a present. As difficult and dangerous as to vanquish a thousand Krakens. Your only chance against the Kraken. Give us the eye. We have answered your question.
- Perseus: One more question. lf the eyes of Medusa, even after her death, can turn all living creatures into stone, what about the blood?
- Stygian Witch: Deadly and poisonous.
- Athena: I will never part with you, my beloved Bubo. Bubo.
- Ammon: Call no man happy who is not dead!
- Zeus: Find, and fulfill your destiny!
- Ammon: The sands of time run like quicksilver.
- Zeus: A hundred good deeds cannot atone to one murder. A thousand temples or statues or sanctuaries, whether dedicated to me, or to you Hera, my wife, or to Thetis, lovely goddess of the sea, or to you Athena, ever wise and full of care, or to Aphrodite, goddess of love. Nothing can wipe or forgive this one contemptible act of blood.
- Ammon: How did you get here?
- Perseus: I'm not sure I know where "here" is.
- Greek Soldier: She remains alone, away from these accursed, hell-sent swarms of blood-gutted marsh flies.
- Perseus: There must be a way to kill the Kraken.
- Ammon: No. No way known to man.
- Perseus: You claim to be an optimist.
- Ammon: Yes, I am. I believe that man can overcome most obstacles.
- Perseus: I've had enough of your philosophy. It's time for action, not words!
- Ammon: Now wait one moment. I said there was no way known to man. There might be a way known to woman.
- Ammon: The sands of time run like quicksilver. We'll be across these mountains tomorrow, near the Isle of the Dead. And then, Medusa. I wrote a play about her long ago. I was partial to tragedy in my youth. Before experience taught me that life is quite tragic enough without my writing about it. Medusa... She was priestess to Aphrodite. Yes, and a most beautiful woman, by all accounts. She was seduced by Poseidon. They made love in the temple of Aphrodite. And that goddess was so jealous that she punished Medusa. She transformed her into an apparition so horrible that one look from her will turn any living creature... into stone.
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