Heiberg's Perseus and Other Texts

Heiberg's Perseus represents a landmark in Golden Age culture. It was published in June 1837 as part of his long-standing campaign to convert his contemporaries to G W F Hegel's philosophical system. He calls upon the Greek hero Perseus to be the champion for the cause of Hegelian idealism and to do battle with the pernicious Me-dusa of realism and empiricism. Perseus formed part of his general attempt to correct what he regarded as the philosophical prejudices and misunderstandings of his age. It was widely read and discussed among Danish students and intellectuals of the time, reviewed at length by the philosopher Frederik Christian Sibbern and satirised by Soren Kierkegaard.