Medusa

Statue of Medusa. Handmade of alabaster,and painted in museum patina.

Medusa was one of three sisters born to Phorcys and Ceto known as the Gorgons. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, the Gorgons were the sisters of the Graiai and lived in the utmost place towards the night by the Hesperides beyond Oceanus. Later authors such as Herodotus and Pausanias place the Gorgons’ abode in Libya. The Gorgon sisters were Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa; Medusa was mortal while her sisters were immortal.

Beyond the Gorgon’s birth, there is little mention of the Gorgons as a group. But SHE has several myths about her life and death. The most famous of these myths concern her death and demise. In Hesiod’s Theogony, he recounts how Perseus cut off the head of Medusa and from her blood sprang Chrysaor and Pegasus, Chrysaor being a golden giant and Pegasus the famous white winged-horse.

Perseus & Medusa

The myth of Perseus and Medusa, according to Pindar and Apollodorus, started with a quest. Perseus was the son of Danae and Zeus, who came to Danae in the form of a golden spring. It was foretold to Danae’s father, Acrisius the King of Argos, that Danae’s son would kill him. So Acrisius locked his daughter away in a bronze chamber, but Zeus transformed into a shower of gold and impregnated her anyway. Acrisius, not wanting to provoke Zeus, hurled his daughter and grandson in a wooden chest into the sea. The mother and son were rescued by Dictys on the island of Seriphos. It was Dictys who raised Perseus to manhood.  But it was Dictys’ brother Polydectes, the king, who would send him on a life-threatening quest.

Medusa was a formidable foe, since her hideous appearance was able to render any onlooker into stone. In some variations of the myth, Medusa was born a monster like her sisters, described as girded with serpents, vibrating tongues, gnashing their teeth, having wings, brazen claws, and enormous teeth. In later myths (mainly in Ovid) Medusa was the only Gorgon to possess snake locks, because they were a punishment from Athena. Accordingly, Ovid relates that the once beautiful mortal was punished by Athena with a hideous appearance and loathsome snakes for hair for having been raped in Athena’s temple by Poseidon.