The Medusa is a scary creature from Greek legend. She was described as having the face of a hideous woman with snakes instead of hair.
The Medusa was said to be the ugliest creature ever seen. She was one of the three sisters known as the Gorgons. They were the offspring of Phorkys and Keto, and Medusa was the only one of the three sisters who was mortal.
They say that the Medusa was once a very beautiful and many men were in love with her. However, she was extremely vain and boastful. When she wasn’t bragging about her own good looks, she would gaze lovingly at her reflection in the mirror.
She lived far in the north were the sun didn’t visit. Being very curious, she wanted to see the sun, and asked the Goddess Athena for permission to visit the south. Athena refused to allow her to and Medusa flew into a rage, claiming that Athena was jealous of her beauty.
Athena was angered and punished her by putting a curse on her. She turned her hair into writhing snakes and made her face so terrible to behold that anyone who laid eyes on her would immediately turn to stone. Athena sent Medusa to live with the blind monsters, the Gorgon sisters, at the ends of the earth.
On the island of Seriphos, there lived a young man called Perseus. The King wanted to marry his mother and so, to get Perseus out of the way, he came up with an impossible task. He ordered Perseus to bring him the head of the Medusa.
Perseus left on his mission and, along the way, he was given a shiny shield, a sharp sword and a thick sack by the Gods. When he found Medusa, he was able to sneak up behind her. Unable to look her in the face, Perseus looked at the Medusa’s reflection in his mirrored shield and managed to slay her with his sword.
The victorious Perseus beheaded her and put her head in the sack. From her headless body sprang, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a golden sword-wielding giant.
Taking the bag with the Medusa’s severed head, Perseus returned to the Palace. Standing before the King, he pulled the severed head out of the bag and turned everyone in the court to stone.
I thought the real story was that Medusa was sleeping with Posidon and Athena got jealous and put a curse on her.
woah woah woah woah. Wasn’t the myth that Medusa WAS daughter of Phorkys and Keto, apart from her sisters. She was a beautiful woman. Before she became Medusa, she was dating Poseidon, greek god of the sea, horses and earthquakes. Athena is the greek goddess of wisdom and war. She is also a virgin goddess, apart from Artemis and Hestia. Basically, Poseidon took Medusa to Athena’s temple and well, they made out? Athena took this as an offense so she turned Medusa into a gorgon. Her sisters didn’t want her to go through the punishment herself, so they also got turned into gorgons, therefore creating the three gorgons .-.
@requiem do you realize how evil she was huh?
Anyway, I pity Medusa, no matter how vain or pretty that Poseidon liked her, she shouldn’t get killed.
Another variation is that Poseidon took Medusa into Athena’s temple to “get together” and Athena got pissed and turned Medusa into a monster
Both versions are good.
wow man….that is very different from the version i heard.