Medusa

Medusa was once a lovely young girl who had a boyfriend she loved very much. One afternoon she and her boyfriend were looking for a place where they could be alone, and they went into a temple of the goddess Athena. Seeing that nobody else was there, they sat down to talk, and soon they started to kiss.

Athena, looking down from the sky, saw them, and she was very angry that they would use her temple this way. She made Medusa grow very ugly, and have snakes instead of hair. Medusa's boyfriend ran away, frightened.

After that Medusa went away from other people and hid herself, and she lived with her sisters (who had also gotten ugly) for many years. They were so ugly that if you looked at them you would turn into a stone statue!

In Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. It derives from the Greek word gorgos which means “dreadful" while descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes and a horrifying gaze that turned those
who beheld it to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Sthheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and was slain by the mythical hero Perseus.

In late myths, Medusa was the only one of the Three Gorgons who was not immortal; hence Perseus was able to kill her by cutting off her head while looking at her in the reflection of a mirrored shield he supposedly got from Athena.

Some authors say that Perseus was armed with a scythe by Hermes (Mercury) and a mirror (or a shield) by Athena (Minerva) whether the mirrored shield or the scythe, these weapons allowed him to defeat Medusa easily. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Pegasus, her son by Poseidon. Other sources say that each drop of blood became a snake. He gave the head which had the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, to Athena, who placed it on her shield. According to another account, Perseus buried it in the Marketplace of Argos.


According to other accounts, either he or Athena used the head of Medusa to freeze Atlas into stone, transforming him into the Atlas Mountains that held up both heaven and earth. He also used it against a competing suitor. Ultimately, he used it against King Polydectes, who originally had sent him to kill Medusa in hopes of getting him out of the way, while he pursued Perseus's mother Danae.

So the story goes. Perseus returned to the court of King Polydectes, who sat at his throne with Danae. The King asked if Perseus has the head of Medusa, and he replied "here it is" and held it a loft turning the whole court to stone.