Perseus

Perseus was a well known Greek "hero" (hērōs) figure. That is, he was the son of a mortal woman and a god—Zeus. The story of his birth is told by several mythologists, one of whom is Pherecydes:

… Acrisios married Eurydice daughter of Lacedaimon. they had a daughter, Danae. When Acrisios consulted the oracle about having male children, the god in Pytho responded that he would have no male child, but his daughter would have a son by whom he would be killed. Upon his return to Argos, he had constructed in the courtyard of his home an underground chamber so that no son might be born of her. But Zeus fell in love with the girl and flowed through the thatched roof in a form like gold; she caught him in her lap. Zeus revealed himself and had sex with the girl; they had a son, Perseus. (Pherecydes, frag. 10 trans. Fowler)

One might speculate that the "golden shower" of Zeus in this myth had its origins in the mystery cults and that its ritual re-enactment involved urinating on a woman. Urine is excreted from the same male member as semen so perhaps in the ancient mind urine was thought to have some potential for fertilization. In any case, Danae did somehow become impregnated by Zeus. The question arises, though, as to whether his shower was itself the cause or whether the god had only transformed himself into a shower in order to gain entrance into Danae's sealed chamber. Pherecydes adopts the latter view, saying that once Zeus flowed through the thatched roof and onto Danae's lap he "revealed himself and had sex with the girl." Vase paintings, on the other hand, suggest that Danae's impregnation was by the golden shower itself:

Museum Collection: State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia Catalogue Number: St Petersburg ST 1723Beazley Archive Number: 203792Ware: Attic Red FigureShape: Krater, calyxPainter: Attributed to the Triptolemos PainterDate: ca 490 BCPeriod: Late Archaic / Early Classical

Museum Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris, FranceCatalogue No.: Louvre Ca925 Beazley Archive No.: N/AWare: (Lucanian?) Red FigureShape: Krater Painter: -- Date: ca 450 - 425 BC Period: Classical

--------

Ovid (Met. 4.611) also seems to have held that the shower itself was what caused the conception. He writes that "Perseus was the son of Jupiter, whom Danae had conceived of a golden shower" (Iovis … quem pluvio Danae conceperat auro).

Apollodorus' version of the story, on the other hand, is ambiguous about whether Zeus had intercourse with Danae in the form of the shower or in some human form:

… Zeus, having transformed himself into gold, and having flowed down through the ceiling into Danae's lap, had intercourse with her (sunēlthen). (Lib. 2.4 [34])

Synēlthen, with the prefix syn-, refers in this context to an act of intercourse, not simply an act of entering into Danae. Hyginus too is somewhat ambiguous:

Iouis autem in imbrem aureum conuersus cum Danae concubuit, ex quo compressu natus est Perseus.
Jupiter ( = Zeus), [after] having turned himself into golden rain, laid down together with Danae. From this embrace Perseus was born. (Fab. 63)

However the pregnancy was thought to have happened, the point of the story is that Zeus was Perseus' father and that it was through some private intercourse with this god that Danae conceived Perseus. Notice in all of the stories that Zeus' intercourse with Danae is either explicitly mentioned or implied. There is no actual ‘virgin birth’ in the story. To be sure, Acrisios had tried to preserve his daughter’s virginity. But Zeus found a way to de-flower her despite all her father's efforts. As the story line continues, Acrisios places his daughter and the newborn Perseus in a sealed chest and abandons them to the sea. The chest is then discovered by satyrs, allowing Perseus to grow to manhood. As a young man he searches out and reunites, after so many years, with Arcisios whom he has forgiven. Tragically, however, he kills his father by accident and becomes king in his place, just as the prophecy had foretold.

As a whole, this dramatic tale of divine seduction, abandonment, patricide and cruel fate bears no compelling similarities to the story of Christ's birth in the New Testament. There is no reason to think the story of Perseus' birth influenced or laid the theological groundwork for the story of Jesus' virgin birth.

Primary sources: Pherecydes, frag. 10; Apollodorus, Library 2.4 [34-35]; Pausanius, Guide to Greece 2.16.2, 25.6, 3.13.6; Hyginus, Fables 63.
Minor primary sources: Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.607ff.