She was locked in a tower of bronze by her own father. The reason: To prevent a heralded child to be born. But those imprisoning her hadn't counted on the gods. This is about Danae, the mother of Perseus, the Greek hero who killed the Medusa. She tells her own story. It's in two parts.
The golden stranger
(Danae's story)
Part 1 - Prisoner
My father, the king of Argos, had gone mad. Totally and completely mad, that was the only way to explain what had happened, what he had done to me. Because he had always loved me, he had always called me his little princess and played with me or boasted about my beauty among his friends. Up until these horrible events. First the wild boar that killed my beloved big brother during a hunt and not long after that mother had died too, from a strange decease which made her cough up her own blood.
Loosing two of his loved ones in shorter time than half a year must have driven father insane. One might think that such disasters would have brought us closer to each other, and first it did. But then father had started to believe my child would kill him. A child not even born. So he locked me up in this terrible and desolate place where no man would be able to see me or talk to me or give me a child. A tower of bronze built upon a sole hill outside the city with no one but my own thoughts as company and no visitors save from the old woman who brings me food three times a day, fresh water for cleaning myself and takes away my dirty laundry. She doesn't speak our language so I can not even talk to her.
Ink and papers is given to me so I can at least write down my thoughts, my dreams, my despair. I have decided to do that to keep my sanity. If I'm gonna grow old and grey here I'll do it with my wits kept. Hopefully one day when age claims my father someone will let me out, so I can at least live my last years in freedom, once more walk in a garden, smell the flowers and watch the birds bath in the puddles after the rain.
Eight long months have I spent here, I keep track by counting the times the foreign maid collects my laundry, once a week she does that. I watch the skies from the little window in the ceiling. When I came here it was winter and snow covered it from time to time. Then spring arrived and with it bluer skies or the soft drumming of rain. With summer came the swallows and the nightingale. The nightingale became my friend for some short weeks, he used to sit outside the window and sing so beautiful.
I talked to him, asked him about the world outside, how my father was doing - because I still loved him in spite, and if the big ships from across the sea had arrived in the harbour. The ships with spices and silk and tanned, strong men speaking foreign languages. Handsome men who my friends and I had used to spy on when we went down to the harbour in a happier life now lost. I wondered about my friends, if they were missing me. If Timandra had married the captain of the guards, how Ellila's child was doing and if Savira was still into writing poetry.
Not long after the nightingale left autumn had arrived and with it fierce thunderstorms and showers of rain. Then, one night came the silver-white eagle. I had never seen a bird like that, so strong and powerful. The eagle sat down by the window and peaked inside my prison, watching me with strangely intelligent eyes.
- Hi, I had said, sitting on my bed. The bird nodded like it had understood me and then it spread its large white wings and took off in the air. Three times it circled the sky, riding a warm current before it disappeared. I never saw it again.
Now it was night, a moonless dark night, with millions of stars in the sky. I was lying on my bed, waiting for sleep to come and watching the stars as so many nights before. But somehow this autumn night felt different. There was something in the air, an - expectation. I don't know how else to describe it, but it felt like something was gonna happen.
Was it imagination or were the stars moving? Swirling, dancing, spinning in the air. Congealing? Shining brighter than ever before as they formed into something - a human being? A man leaping through the sky just like that eagle had done. I stared at him for a long time, this wonderful being.
- Come here! I whispered. Please, please come here! He might not have heard, in a whiff he was gone, and the stars looked normal like nothing strange had ever happened. Certain it had been a dream I rolled over, closed my eyes and fell asleep.
But next night he came back, this golden man, and he defied gravity when he danced so agilely across the sky. Once again I called out to him in a whisper:
- Come here! This time he seemed to have heard, because he stopped in the air, tilted his head like he was listening.
- Please, come here! I rose, stood up on top of my bed, almost reaching the glass of the window with my slender hand while I called out to the golden man once again.
He dived until his head was in level with my window, then he peered inside, smiling. He was the most beautiful being I had never seen, and I was smiling back at him, trying once more to reach the glass with my hand, trying to touch him.
And then the stranger reached out for me, and somehow his glittering hand went right through the glass, touching me. It didn't feel like a human hand at all, it held a tingling, warm sensation, it held compassion and kindness.
- Who are you? I asked.
- A friend, his voice spoken right into my mind.
- Have you come to help me?
- Do not worry, sweetheart, you will be out of here before the next summer solstice.
His human form disappeared in a golden cloud of sparkling stars, and my heart skipped a beat, because I thought he was leaving me. What he did instead was the very opposite, the glittering cloud swept in through the window like the glass was gone, and the next moment it took the shape of a man instead. A man sitting beside me on my bed.
The next thing happening was even more wonderful, because he stopped being a cloud and turned into a normal human. As normal as you might call the most handsome man I had ever seen. He left even the young, proud athletes pale with his wiry, strong and lithe body, long blond hair and enchanting smile. But most special of all were his glittering eyes. Blue like heaven, sparkling like sapphires and holding intelligence, wisdom, humour and good-hearted charm.
I wanted to ask this stranger a million things, but my brain had stopped working. The only thing that came out of my mouth was a stupid attempt at welcoming him.
- Thank you, he smiled, melting my heart.
- Stranger, friend, why have you come?
- Because I think it is a terrible waste that such a beautiful, kind and intelligent girl should spend her days alone in a castle of bronze. I can not help you out at the moment, but I'm working on it. Meanwhile I guess I just have to keep you company. Do you like peaches?
- Peaches? I love them! Why?
- I brought some.
From what seemed out of nowhere the stranger brought some fruit and we ate them, while he told that his friend the Silver Eagle has seen me in the tower and told him about me. He had spent some time learning about my faith, and now he was trying to come up with a way of saving me.
- But this means I have to take you somewhere else. Somewhere safe. Somewhere were you can find people to trust, and who won't harm you. I can't just let you out, because your father would probably kill you as soon as I'm gone.
- Who are you, I asked again. Where do you come from?
- I'm a friend, that's all you need to know at the moment. And I come from far away. You know the sailors in the harbour?
- Yes.
- I come from a place ten times as far from here as their dwellings.
- From the stars?
- In a way, yes.
- Then, since you don't wanna say your name, I guess I'll call you Starman.
The stranger laughed, it was the most wonderful sound I had heard in a long time.
- That's very fitting. But I promise you, in time you will learn my real name, Danae.
- But you know mine.
- As I said, I have done some researches. Now I have to go, there are more people out there in need of me. But don't despair, little Danae. I'll be back tomorrow night.
With those words the stranger leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. The next moment he was gone, only the taste of peaches upon my lips revealing that his visit had been more than just a dream.
The next day was probably the longest one since my first days in this prison. Over the time I had developed some kind of routine here. I rise with the sun, and wash my face, hair and upper body, do some gymnastics to keep my body fit, and am done in time for breakfast. After eating I braid my hair, do some writing, put down which day it is and what the weather is like outside, if it's hot or cold in my dwelling and if there's any birds in the sky. Then comes lunch and after that I do some more exercising, first high jumps and kicks and boxing until I'm sweating and then slow movements, concentrating on my breathing.
I wash off the sweat, take a short nap and then I spend the rest of the time until dinner writing or reading from my earlier writings. I'm writing fairytales; stories about kings and queens, heroes and monsters, like if I'm really going to have a child on my own someday, a child to read for. I don't know why I do these things, probably it's just a way for me to daydream, to escape my prison if only in my mind. After dinner I read or write until sunset and then I go to sleep.
But this day the only thing I could think of was the stranger, the golden man. Starman. Longing for night to fall, hoping that he would keep his words and come back to me. Fearing that he would not, that he had been nothing but a dream or an hallucination.
Starman did come back. Once again he was there, like a shower of gold passing through the glass and then turning into his handsome self and sitting down upon my bed. This time he had brought more fruit; strawberries, grapes and cherries to go with the peaches. Wonder where he found them this time of year. He also brought some books for me to read.
Then we talked. He told me stories about faraway places he had visited and strange creatures he had seen. Big, gray beings called elephants with long long snakes for noses, from which they could spray water upon themselves. Giraffes with incredible long necks so they could grace from treetops and whales, creatures big as houses that lived in the depth of the endless seas.
- Have you seen dragons?
- Not in many many years. I think they are extinct, Starman told.
He stayed a bit longer that night, and then he came back the next night and the next. And we talked and talked Starman and I, he told of his many journeys, of heroes and heroines and of real monsters, the few that still existed, like the fearsome Medusa who lived with her equally fearsome sisters on an island by the end of the Earth.
On the seventh night I asked him something that have been on my mind for a while.
- Are you really one of the gods?
- Perhaps. Does it matter to you?
- No... I mean, yes, because if you were, I would never be able to...
- To what?
- I don't know. Keep you as a friend I guess.
- You can still do that. When you're out of here I won't be able to visit you every night, but you can still whisper my name in the wind and I will hear you and answer. The wind will carry my words back to you.
Hearing that I started to cry.
- I don't wanna lose you. I'd rather stay here the rest of my life if I can have you visiting me like this every night.
- That is not possible my dear, I am to get you out and you will have your life back. My visits are only sad excuses for real love from one of your own kind.
- No, they are not. Please, don't leave me.
Starman held me close. Slowly he whispered my name, toyed with strands of my dark hair, promising me it was gonna be al right.
- You will know life again, Danae. You will know laughter and friendship. You will feel the sun upon your beautiful face. You will eat and drink when you feel hunger and thirst and you will swim in the ocean and collect sea-shells for necklaces like you used to do as a child.
- But I wanna be with you.
- No, that is not possible. I am from - far away, as I told you. I can only visit you for a short time. A time to be used wisely. To help you regain your courage and to help you out. Now, stop crying, little one! Tomorrow night I will bring you something special, since it is your birthday.
My birthday! I had almost forgot about that, now I had been in the tower for almost nine months. And my mother had been dead for a year.
Starman stayed until I fell asleep that night, and the next night he brought me orange juice and honey-bread. We ate and drank and he joked about some stupid people up north and I laughed so much I had hard to finish my drink. Then he brought me something more. He brought me passion. Love.
After finishing eating Starman didn't talk to me like he used to, instead he held me close and started to kiss me, slowly and tender. First I thought of hesitating, but then I thought - what the - I was probably never gonna taste kisses like this anymore. I could as well have Starman kissing me as no-one. I started to kiss back and Starman's kisses became hotter, more passionate. He kissed me on my neck and further down.
Somehow I found myself naked, when he tenderly laid me down on my back and started to use his lips and tongue upon my breasts, biting gently. When he slowly touched the inside of my tights with his soft hands, I opened up, breathing irregular, eyes unfocused. Starman leaned down, kissed me on my secret place, lifted his head and met my looks.
- You're beautiful my love, he said. You're a treasure, and treasures ought not to be kept in vaults, they should be out glittering in the sun.
Next thing he used his tongue at a place of pleasure I didn't know I had, triggered sensations I have been unable to even imagine earlier. Then he rose, and I saw his manhood in the pale moonlight, it was magnificent. Just a second or two I saw it before he covered me with his viril body and entered inside of my willing cavities. I had been a virgin until now, and yet I felt that this was special, unique. I was making love to a god. I came at those thoughts as well as at the physical sensations erupting inside of me.
When it was over, Starman laid down beside me, held me close, caressed me and whispered wonderful things in my ears. Resting like that I fell asleep, the warmth of his arms and the mellow of his voice lulling me to sweet dreams.
In the morning he was gone, and he stayed gone. I waited in vain for him that night, and when he didn't show up I cried myself to sleep. Had I scared him off somehow? Or had he just wanted to sleep with me, and left me when he had satisfied himself? Was I ever gonna see him again? Or was I gonna rot in this damned tower with those wonderful eight nights as the only joy to remember?
No, Starman came back five nights later, saying he was sorry, but important business had kept him away. We made love again, and it was as passionate and wonderful as the first time, the only difference that he took farewell when I was still awake.
- The stars are unruly at the moment, he told me. I will not be able to visit you as frequently as before, but I will keep my promise. Before the next summer solstice you will be out. And now I think I know a place where to bring you. I just have to perform some last research.
I took his hand.
- I love you my magic friend. Whatever happens, I will never forget you or what you have given to me.
- Of that I am certain. Now good night my little Danae.
Winter came and with it my dwelling went cold. In the mornings there was a cover of ice upon my water basin. I made fires in the stove, but they didn't warm much, when the embers had died my room was cold again. Once more it was Starman who helped me, he brought me a gown which felt like the softest silk, but warmed like thick fur. He also gave me gloves, socks and a blanket of the same material. I kept these things well hidden away from the maid and washed them myself in the basin.
But my ordeal was far from over, I started to feel sick in the mornings, lost my appetite for breakfast, instead I was heaving and retching in the waste hole behind the wall by the stairs. It couldn't be the food, it was as fresh as ever. It couldn't be the cold, I had never heard of people throwing up out of being frozen. It could only be... when was the last time I had had my bleeding? I went through my papers. There it was, the day after the visit of the Silver Eagle. Was I...?