What is the myth of Medusa?

Question

Myth or legend...

Answer 1

Some classical references multiply her into three Gorgon sisters: Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale, monsters with goggling eyes, sharp protruding fangs and lolling tongues, brass hands, and hair of living, venomous snakes. The Gorgons were children of Phorcys and Ceto, or sometimes, Typhon and Echidna, in each case chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graiae, as in Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound, who places both trinities of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain":

"Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged
With snakes for hair— hated of mortal man—"
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, by Benvenuto Cellini, installed 1554While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century began to envisage her as a being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BCE Pindar already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa". In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a beautiful nymph, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," but when she was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple, the goddess transformed her beautiful hair to serpents and she made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn a man to stone.

In all the versions, while Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon, she was beheaded in her sleep by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus. With help from Athena and Hermes, who supplied him with winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, a sickle, and a mirrored shield, he accomplished his quest. The hero slew Medusa by looking at her reflection in the mirror instead of directly at her to prevent being turned into stone. When the hero severed Medusa's head, from her neck two offspring sprang forth: the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor who later became the hero wielding the golden sword. Jane Ellen Harrison notes that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended ... the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood." (Harrison 1922:187). In Odyssey xi, Homer does not specifically mention the Gorgon Medusa,

"lest for my daring Persephone the dread
From Hades should send up an awful monster's grizzly head"
in the translation of Jane Ellen Harrison, who notes "the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon (Harrison 1922: 187, note 3).

According to Ovid, Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas in North-West Africa who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed him into stone. The story was an aetiological myth describing origins of the Atlas Mountains. In a similar manner, the corals of the Red Sea were said to have been formed of Medusa's blood spilled onto seaweed when Perseus laid down the petrifying head beside the shore. Furthermore the poisonous vipers of the Sahara, in the Argonautica 4.1515, Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.770 and Lucan's Pharsalia 9.820, were said to have grown from spilt drops of her blood.

Perseus then flew to his mother's island where she was about to be forced into marriage with the king. He cried out "Mother, shield your eyes," and everyone but his mother was turned into stone by the gaze of Medusa's head.

Then he gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the Aegis. Some say the goddess gave Medusa's magical blood to the physician Asclepius, some of which was a deadly poison and the other had the power to raise the dead.

Answer 2

I've heard in late sources states that (beautiful) Medusa had sex with Poseidon in Athena's temple, and the transformation was due to this sacrilege.

The tradition of a beautiful Medusa may have to do with her prehistory, about which we know nothing but which is hinted at by the meaning of her name, which is simply "Queen." It may be that in olden times she was simply a goddess, and thus beautiful like most goddesses, but later was demonized for whatever reason. Note in this connection the myths involving Medusa that parallel those of other goddesses (for instance, she gives birth to Pegasus with Poseidon as the father.

Answer 3

medusa was a beautiful maiden who was raped by the god poseden in the temple of athena. athena being a virgin god took this as a desacration of her temple and took it out on medusa and turned her hair into snakes. medusa could then turn men and women to stone with a look and did.

Answer 4

She's part of the 3 Gorgon sisters in Greek mythology. Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were monsters with goggling eyes, sharp protruding fangs and lolling tongues, brass hands, and hair of living, venomous snakes. She could turn anyone who looks directly at her into stone. The Greek hero Perseus killed her using winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, a sickle, and a mirrored shield that were given to him by Athena and Hermes.

Answer 5

I remember once reading a book on Hercules when I was young. I believe she was a woman who had snakes for hair and if you looked at her you turned to stone.

There's some good information on wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa

Answer 6

i think medusa had snakes for hair and if you looked her in the eyes, you would turn to stone(pretty sure thats the legend)

Answer 7

the snakes in her hair were her helpers.they let her know who was bad and who was good by hissing or spitting venom.medusa was a nice but very misunderstood lady.many people were afraid of her and made judgements without getting to know her first.that's why she was always angry and turning those people into stone with her piercing eyes.

Answer 8

her hairs and her eyes

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa

This is quite accurate.