Medusa

How Medusa became a monster

Medusa was one of several monstrous children born to the primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto. Her siblings included the other Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale; the snake-woman hybrid Echidna; the dragon Ladon; and the Graiae, a trio of women who shared a single eye and tooth. In some accounts, such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses (written about 8 ce), Medusa was not born hideous and was, in fact, renowned for her beauty and most admired for her hair. Her loveliness became her undoing when she was pursued by an enamored Poseidon, who violated her in the very refuge to which she had fled—a temple to Athena, whom Medusa served as a priestess. (In some versions, Poseidon’s seduction of Medusa was consensual, rather than an assault.) Enraged by the desecration of her sacred space and the breach of custom—as a priestess, Medusa was required to remain chaste—Athena meted out a cruel punishment: a curse that left the once beautiful woman with a head of snakes instead of hair and a face that turned all those who looked at it into stone.

The slaying of Medusa

The best-known myth associated with Medusa is the manner of her death. In the most common version, the hero Perseus was sent on an impossible quest by Polydectes, king of Seriphus, where Perseus and his mother, Danaë, had lived after being cast out by Danaë’s father, Acrisius, king of Argos. Polydectes, who desired Danaë, tricked Perseus into promising him the head of Medusa as a gift. Perseus compelled the Graiae to provide him with three enchanted items—sandals that gave him the ability to fly, a bag in which to transport Medusa’s severed head, and a helmet (or cap) belonging to Hades that made him invisible. In some versions, the Graiae directed Perseus to the Stygian nymphs, who guarded the three magical items. Perseus also received a polished shield from Athena, who warned him against looking directly at Medusa, and a sickle from Hermes. In other versions of the story, the location of the Gorgons was revealed by Athena, the Graiae, or the nymphs.

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Perseus found Medusa asleep with her Gorgon sisters, surrounded by the frozen forms of humans and animals who had gazed at her. Looking at her reflection in the polished shield, Perseus decapitated her with the sickle. He then escaped the pursuing Stheno and Euryale by using the sandals and helmet. From the blood that spurted from the slain Medusa’s neck sprang the warrior Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon.

Medusa’s head, hair, and blood

Perseus detoured from his journey home to save the Ethiopian princess Andromeda, who had been chained to a rock as sacrifice for a sea monster. At the time, Ethiopia was being ravaged by the sea monster as retribution for a boast made by Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, in which she claimed that her daughter’s beauty eclipsed that of the Nereids, who were the daughters of the sea god Nereus. Cassiopeia and her husband, Cepheus, promised to give Andromeda in marriage to Perseus if he killed the monster. However, when he did so, Cassiopeia and Cepheus reneged on their promise and summoned an armed group of Andromeda’s suitors, prompting Perseus to use Medusa’s head to kill his opponents. On return to Seriphus, Perseus turned Polydectes and his supporters to stone using Medusa’s head.

The severed head was eventually given to Athena, who placed it on her aegis, a shield or breastplate (in some stories the aegis belonged to Zeus, who was Perseus’s father). According to another account, Perseus buried it in the marketplace of Argos, the land of which he eventually became ruler. Heracles (Hercules) is said to have obtained a lock of Medusa’s hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and given it to the princess Sterope to protect her town of Tegea against attack. When exposed to view, the lock was supposed to bring on a storm, which would put the enemy to flight. Additionally, drops of Medusa’s blood are believed to have fallen in Libya as Perseus passed over it; the drops are said to have been transformed into snakes. Athena gave some of the residual blood to the divine healer Asclepius and two drops to her adopted son Erichthonius; the blood from Medusa’s right side was life-giving, whereas the blood from her left side was poisonous.