The Adventures of Perseus

Perseus is part divine (GOD) and part human royalty. In this case, he is the grandson of a Greek
king named Arcisius. Acisius wondered if he would ever have any children, so he consulted an
oracle (a person who could tell the future) to find out the answer. He was told that not only
would he have a daughter, but that his daughter would someday have a son who would wind
up killing him.

Perhaps naturally, this scared Arcisius. He didn’t just become afraid, though – he became
dangerously paranoid. Instead of facing the prophecy, he went a little mad once he actually had
a daughter. He had the girl, who was named Danae, locked into an underground jail that was
lined with brass walls. This jail was meant to keep out any man who would ever find her and
allow her to give birth to a son. Unfortunately, Arcisius (like far too many Greek fathers) forgot
that he didn’t only have to worry about human men. Indeed, he should have been worrying
about a god.

ZEUS was the king of the Greek gods, and he was particularly interested in beautiful (and royal)
human women. Danae was a particularly beautiful girl, and this meant that Zeus just had to
have her. Not one to let a little thing like an underground prison hold him, Zeus transformed
himself into golden rain and snuck into the cave in which Danae lived. As such things tended to
go in Greek mythology, Danae gave birth to a son a few months later. To her credit, she did a
fantastic job of keeping the boy a secret and no one actually knew that Zeus was the father of
her child.

As you might expect, though, babies aren’t easy to hide when you live in an underground
prison. Like most fathers, Arcisius didn’t really buy the story that Zeus was the father, and he
instead assumed that Danae’s nurse had helped his daughter to meet a man and held her
responsible. He had the nurse put to death, and gave serious consideration to killing his
grandson. Fortunately, a number of factors (including his own guilt) stopped him from directly
harming the baby. Instead, he decided to send the boy and his mother away so that the
prophecy couldn’t come true. He had a special ark built, put his daughter and grandson inside,
and then put them out to sea. It was a solution that would keep him from having blood on his
hands, but would still keep the prophecy from coming true.

Seriphos and the Gift

As one might expect, the trip isn’t easy on either the mother or the baby. The ark drifts for a
few days, until it washes up on the Greek island of Seriphos. On Seriphos, the ark is found by a
kindly fisherman by the name of Dictes. DIctes wasn’t just any fisherman, though – he was the
brother of the island’s ruler, Polydectes. The fisherman took in both the mother and the baby,
who would be named Perseus.

Perseus grew up to be a particularly strong and brave young man, much like Zeus’ other famous
sons. His biggest challenge ended up being Polydectes. The island ruler fell in love with his
mother, and Perseus was quite protective of Danae. He kept her under guard at all times to
keep her away from Polydectes, but the ruler wouldn’t be denied forever. He wouldn’t fight
Perseus, but he’d find a way to get to Danae nonetheless.

Polydectes actually had a fairly cunning plan to get rid of Perseus and get to Danae. He threw
an elaborate dinner party, and invited many friends. Polydectes asked a hypothetical question –
what gift would each guest bring, if they actually had to bring one? Perseus, being young and
foolish, answered that he’d bring Polydectes the head of Medusa. Medusa was a Gorgon, a
frightening monster who had the ability to turn men to stone if they stared her directly in the
eyes. Realizing that Perseus was foolish enough to follow through with the boast, Polydectes
called him on it – and said that if Perseus didn’t bring him the head of Medusa, he’d take Danae
as a consolation prize. It was a sure-fire way to get rid of the overprotective young man and to
leave Polydectes alone with his object of affection.

The Quest for Medusa

Perseus set out to get Medusa’s head, determined to keep up his end of the bargain and to
keep his mother safe. Since he was the son of Zeus, though, he wouldn’t be alone. While Zeus
had no particular involvement in Perseus’ life, it didn’t mean that the gods weren’t aware of the
young man. The Greek gods loved to get involved with quests, and thus they’d give Perseus a
few tools that would help him to complete his task.

Perseus was aided in his quest by two gods, Athena and Hermes. He was intelligent enough on
his own, but the gods decided to even the playing field a bit with some gifts. He was given a pair
of winged sandals, which would allow him to fly. He was given the helmet of HADES, which
would render him invisible, and a shiny shield. Last, but possibly not least, was a special bag
that would allow him to hold the head of the monster should he be successful. These gifts
would give him the edge he needed to defeat a monster who had been cursed by the gods for
her vanity.

Perseus made his way to Medusa with the gifts, putting into play a fairly cunning plan. He
would fly above Medusa, looking at her only through the reflection in the mirrored shield given
to him by Athena. She’d never be able to track him, thanks to the invisibility bestowed by the
helmet. With those advantages, he was able to make short work for the Medusa and place her
head in the bag. Perseus fulfilled his vow to Polydectes, defeated a monster, and managed to
get away without any harm to himself.
Andromeda and the Return Home

As is incredibly common in these tales, he also managed to meet a woman on the way home.
This time, the woman’s name was Andromeda and she was set to be sacrificed to a sea
monster. Thanks to all of his gifts, though, he was able to defeat the monster and rescue the
woman. All would have been good, but there was another man involved. This time, it was the
uncle of Andromeda herself.

Andromeda’s uncle wanted to marry Andromeda himself, and he didn’t much like the idea of
sharing her with anyone else. Fortunately, Perseus and Andromeda were able to hatch a plot to
deal with the possessive uncle. When Andromeda’s uncle looked at Perseus, the hero withdrew
Medusa’s head from the bag and turned the other man to home. He repeated this trick when
he returned home, saving his mother from the unwanted attention of Polydectes by turning her
suitor to stone.

The Fate of Arcisius

The only lose end left in the tale was Arcisius, who had sent his daughter and grandson away to
make sure that they wouldn’t fulfill the oracle’s prophecy. Upon hearing about Perseus’ deeds,
Arcisius grew afraid of the man and assumed that Perseus would come to murder him just as he
had done to Andromeda’s uncle and Polydectes . He fled far from his own kingdom, hoping to
avoid both Perseus’ wrath and the fate that had been laid out for him by the oracle.

Arcisius fled to a city named Larissa, where the good king Tentamides had set up a series of
sporting events in honor of the gods. Unbeknownst to the king, Perseus was in attendance –
but he had no idea who Arcisius was. Arcisius felt safe enough to watch Perseus compete in the
discus event, and that ended up being the king’s downfall. Prophecy, it seemed, could be put
off but it could never fully be outrun.

Perseus stepped up to throw his discus, but something went wrong. It slipped out from his
hand, flying towards Arcisius. The blow immediately killed the older man, who never got to
meet his grandson. When Perseus actually found out what had happened and who Arcisius was,
he was filled with grief at what he’d done. Arcisius would be buried with honor, a victim of his
grandson just as the prophecy had foretold
Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial
information about economic entities[1][2] such as businesses and corporations. The modern
field was established by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1494.[3] Accounting, which
has been called the "language of business",[4] measures the results of an organization's
economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of users, including investors,
creditors, management, and regulators.[5] Practitioners of accounting are known as
accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used as synonyms.
Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management
accounting, external auditing, tax accounting and cost accounting.[6][7] Accounting information
systems are designed to support accounting functions and related activities. Financial
accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the
preparation of financial statements, to the external users of the information, such as investors,
regulators and suppliers;[8] and management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis
and reporting of information for internal use by management.[1][8] The recording of financial
transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial reports, is
known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most common system.[9]
Accounting is facilitated by accounting organizations such as standard-setters, accounting firms
and professional bodies. Financial statements are usually audited by accounting firms,[10] and
are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).[8] GAAP is
set by various standard-setting organizations such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board
(FASB) in the United States[1] and the Financial Reporting Council in the United Kingdom. As of
2012, "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).[11]

The history of accounting is thousands of years old and can be traced to ancient
civilizations.[12][13][14] The early development of accounting dates back to ancient
Mesopotamia, and is closely related to developments in writing, counting and money;[12] there
is also evidence for early forms of bookkeeping in ancient Iran,[15][16] and early auditing
systems by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.[13] By the time of the Emperor Augustus,
the Roman government had access to detailed financial information.[17]
Double-entry bookkeeping was pioneered in the Jewish community of the early-medieval
Middle East[18][19] and further refined in medieval Europe.[20] With the development of joint-
stock companies, accounting split into financial accounting and management accounting.
The first work on a double-entry bookkeeping system was published in Italy, by Luca Pacioli
("Father of Accounting").[21][22] Accounting began to transition into an organized profession in
the nineteenth century,[23] with local professional bodies in England merging to form the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1880.[24]
Financial accounting
Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information to
external users of the information, such as investors, potential investors and creditors. It
calculates and records business transactions and prepares financial statements for the external
users in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).[8] GAAP, in turn,
arises from the wide agreement

between accounting theory and practice, and change over time to meet the needs of decision-
makers.[1]Financial accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example the financial
statements prepared in 2006 reports on performance in 2005—on an annual or quarterly basis,
generally about the organization as a whole.[8]This branch of accounting is also studied as part
of the board exams for qualifying as an actuary. These two types of professionals, accountants
and actuaries, have created a culture of being archrivals.

Management accounting
Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information
that can help managers in making decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. In
management accounting, internal measures and reports are based on cost-benefit analysis, and
are not required to follow the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP).[8] In 2014 CIMA
created the Global Management Accounting Principles (GMAPs). The result of research from
across 20 countries in five continents, the principles aim to guide best practice in the
discipline.[34]Management accounting produces future-oriented reports—for example the
budget for 2006 is prepared in 2005—and the time span of reports varies widely. Such reports
may include both financial and non financial information, and may, for example, focus on
specific products and departments.[8]

Auditing
Auditing is the verification of assertions made by others regarding a payoff,[35] and in the
context of accounting it is the "unbiased examination and evaluation of the financial
statements of an organization".[36] Audit is a professional service that is systematic and
conventional.[37]An audit of financial statements aims to express or disclaim an opinion on the
financial statements. The auditor expresses an opinion on the fairness with which the financial
statements presents the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of an entity, in
accordance with the generally acceptable accounting principle (GAAP) and "in all material
respects". An auditor is also required to identify circumstances in which the generally
acceptable accounting principles (GAAP) has not been consistently observed.[38]

Accounting information systems

An accounting information system is a part of an organization's information system that focuses
on processing accounting data.[39] Many corporations use artificial intelligence-based
information systems. Banking and finance industry is using AI as fraud detection. Retail industry
is using AI for customer services. AI is also used in cybersecurity industry. It involves computer
hardware and software systems and using statistics and modeling.[40]

Tax accounting
Tax accounting in the United States concentrates on the preparation, analysis and presentation
of tax payments and tax returns. The U.S. tax system requires the use of specialised accounting
principles for tax purposes which can differ from the generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP) for financial reporting.[41] U.S. tax law covers four basic forms of business ownership:
sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and limited liability company. Corporate and
personal income are taxed at different rates, both varying according to income levels and
including varying marginal rates (taxed on each additional dollar of income) and average rates
(set as a percentage of overall income

Forensic Accounting
Forensic accounting is the specialty practice area of accounting that describes engagements
that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. "Forensic" means "suitable for use
in a court of law", and it is to that standard and potential outcome that forensic accountants
generally have to work.