In Greek mythology, Zeus took the form of golden rain when he fathered Perseus with Danaë.
Danaë had been confined by her father, Acrisius, because an oracle warned that her future son would kill him. Zeus entered the locked chamber as a shower or stream of gold, and Danaë later gave birth to Perseus. This unusual form is one of the most recognizable details in the hero’s origin story.
The episode inspired many later artworks, including paintings by Renaissance and Baroque artists. The golden rain is not the same as the golden fleece associated with Jason and the Argonauts, nor is Danaë the woman transformed into a tree in another myth. In the Perseus tradition, the event explains Perseus’s divine parentage before his encounter with Medusa.