Perseus

Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danaë (the only daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos), despite the fact that Danaë's father kept her shut up in a subterranean bronze chamber (Zeus came to her in the form of a shower of gold). On his birth, Acrisius cast both mother and baby into the sea in a wooden chest, fearful of a prophecy (actually fulfilled many years later) that his daughter's son would one day kill him, but they washed ashore on the island of Seriphos. When Perseus had grown into a man, Polydectes, the king of the island, demanded that he bring him the head of the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa, whose very expression turned people to stone, a quest which he achieved using magical gifts from the gods. He also slew the sea-monster Ceto, and thereby won the hand of the princess Andromeda. They settled at Tiryns in Argos and, through their son Perses, established the family of the Perseidae and the emperors of Persia. According to some sources, he also founded the city of Mycenae.