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In Greek mythology, Danae was the daughter of Acrisius,
the king of Argos. An oracle had foretold that Danae's future son
would slay his grandfather. In order to prevent this event from
taking place, King Acrisius locked his daughter in an inaccessible
tower, thereby removing her from contact with any potential suitors.
Or so he thought…. The god Zeus, who always had an eye for
female charms, was struck by Danae's beauty and desired her.
Zeus, who unlike us mere mortals possessed the powers of transmogrification, therefore transformed himself into a shower of gold, and in
this form impregnated Danae. The result of this union of human
and divine was the great Greek hero Perseus.
The myth of Danae has interested artists through the ages, including
Titian, Correggio, Rembrandt, and Klimt. A joke of presumably similar
vintage about the moral of this story, unfortunately told at the
expense of the fairer gender, is that a sure-fire way to get to
a woman is through gold....
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