I. Name
Perseus, the name of the slayer of the Gorgon Medousa and the rescuer of Andromeda, is also the name of the elder son and heir of Philip V of Macedon (ruled 179–168 bce). His defeat by the Romans at Pydna, which ended the Third Macedonian War (171–68 bce), is referred to at 1 Macc. 8.5 (“Perseus king of the Kittieis”).
II. Identity
The more memorable stories of Perseus are woven into a single narrative of birth by Zeus to Danaë (despite her imprisonment), of being cast adrift in a chest (λάρναξ) with his mother,…