Medusa
The Gorgon
muh-DOO-suh
The only mortal Gorgon, punished for something done to her, and killed for a look she never chose to have.
Domains
PetrificationThe Averting Gaze
Symbols
Serpent HairStone StareSevered HeadGorgoneion
The Story
Her sisters Stheno and Euryale were born monstrous and immortal; Medusa was neither. Ovid's version is the one that stuck: a beautiful priestess of Athena, assaulted by Poseidon in the goddess's own temple, and turned by Athena into the thing whose face no one can meet.
Perseus took her head with a mirrored shield, winged sandals, and the Helm of Darkness, a hunt equipped almost entirely by the gods. Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from her neck, and the head went on working: Perseus used it as a weapon, then gave it to Athena, who wore it on the aegis.
Did You Know?
- Her face was painted on shields, city walls, ovens, and roof tiles as a ward. Turning the killing stare outward to protect the thing behind it is one of the oldest tricks in Greek visual thinking.
- The free-swimming stage of a jellyfish is called a medusa, after the tentacles.
- In the earliest art she is not beautiful at all, a broad grinning face with tusks and a lolling tongue. The tragic beauty is a Hellenistic and Roman development, roughly six centuries later.