The god of the sea, like many of his peers, had frequent affairs with mortal women and minor goddesses. Cursed by AthenaĮven in the stories that came before descriptions of her beauty, Medusa’s tale was bound to the god Poseidon. Like many pretty young women in Greek legend, she attracted the attention of a god. In these versions of her story, Medusa’s beauty would end up being her undoing. Despite her family connection to monsters, she fit the mould of many beautiful young human women in mythology. Medusa in this telling was separated from her monstrous family members and lived a more human life. She had many suitors and was especially known for her beautiful long hair.
By the time of Ovid, she was one of the world’s great beauties.Īccording to him, as the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa was also the only one not born a monster. But it didn’t take long for that to change.Īs early as the 5th century BC there were mentions of Medusa being a beautiful woman in her youth. The earliest stories of Medusa said that she always had a terrible, inhuman form. Later stories had them living in Libya, a favorite setting for myths taking place outside of the Greek world and its cultural influence. She was killed by Zeus before he fought his father and the Titans for power.Įarly accounts placed the Gorgons in a faraway place on the edge of night. Some stories say that there was one more unnamed Gorgon who was older than the others. Medusa was the only one of the three who could ever be killed. Stheno and Euryale, Medusa’s sisters, were immortal. The Gorgons personified just one of the many dangers of the sea. The Graeae represented sea foam, while the other children of Phorcys and Keto were monsters of the ocean. Their parents were early sea gods, predating the Olympians. They were associated with rocks, which when hidden below the surface of the water spelled disaster for ships passing by. The earliest versions of the Gorgons connected them to sharp reefs and the storms that could drive ships onto them. Keto was synonymous with sea monsters that her name was later used for the great serpents Poseidon conjured from the deep. Their other siblings included the monsters Echidna, Scylla, and Ladon. Phorcys and Keto were also the parents of three other monstrous sisters – the Graeae. Medusa and her sisters, the Gorgons, were the children of the primordial gods Phorcys and Keto. There was a lot more to the Gorgon than just the snakes in her hair! Medusa was Once Beautiful Lost in the telling are Medusa’s tragic origins and the unbelievable fate of her famous head.
With monstrous features and snakes in place of her hair, she was a frightful creature that the Greeks believed could scare off even the most potent evil.īut there is much more to the legend of Medusa than just her beheading, and her legacy is far more complicated than that of any other ancient monster. Medusa is remembered, more than anything else, for a face that was so hideous that one look at it would literally turn men to stone. The image of the brave hero slaying the hideous beast endures in art, poetry, and song. The story of the monster Medusa’s death at the hands of the great hero Perseus is one of the most widely told myths from the Greek world.