Perseus

According to Greek mythology, Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa.

Slaying of Medusa
Before that many warriors had tried to kill Medusa, but they all failed and were turned into stone. (TV: Eye of the Gorgon) He had found the three Gorgons sleeping in a cave. (PROSE: Eye of the Gorgon) He only watched them through the reflection in his mirror-like shield and was able to cut off Medusa's head without turning into stone. (PROSE: Eye of the Gorgon, Mythical Monsters) He later gave the head to Polydectes as a wedding gift; Polydectes was turned into stone as soon as he set eyes on Medusa's head. (PROSE: Eye of the Gorgon)

Legacy
The Second Doctor knew that Perseus had used the mirror to defeat Medusa. He told Zoe Heriot about this and used this method to defeat Medusa in the Land of Fiction. (TV: The Mind Robber)

Helen Ayre had studied Greek mythology in her first year of college and had written an essay on the symbolism of the story of Perseus and Andromeda. She wondered if the story hadn't been symbolic at all when she found James Preedy's petrified body. (PROSE: The Suns of Caresh)

Harry Hamlin played Perseus in the film Clash of the Titans. Graham O'Brien cited him as an example of the last person to successfully defeat a Minotaur, but the Thirteenth Doctor and Penelope Polichroniadis corrected him and said it was Theseus who slew the Minotaur. (PROSE: The Maze of Doom)

Behind the scenes
In the illustrations of Mythical Monsters, Perseus was depicted with the likeness of actor. Pasco played the lead role of the hero investigating a surviving Gorgon in the 1964 Hammer Productions film The Gorgon. The film also starred Patrick Troughton and Peter Cushing, two actors who played the Doctor, in major roles.