Written by: Riti Niraula - 27029, Grade IX
Posted on: 26 June, 2023
Medusa is the name we have primarily heard in the ancient stories of Greek Mythology. Medusa was a monster also known as the ‘Gorgon’. She had three sisters who were also the Gorgons, known as ‘The Three Gorgons Sisters’. They all lived together at the end of the world or on the island in the middle of Poseidon's great ocean. The other sisters are not mentioned much in Greek mythology as much as Medusa is.
Before turning into a Gorgon, Medusa was a woman known for her beauty and was a mortal. One day Medusa went to the temple of Athena to worship. When she was there, Poseidon saw her, he was amazed by her beauty then seduced and raped her, and soon after, she became pregnant. Athena was mad at her for violating the temple, so she turned her into a mortal gorgon. She then was no longer beautiful and she turned into a monster who had snakes for her hair and would turn anyone into stone if they looked at her directly. Although there are many myths that say that Athena was jealous of Medusa’s beauty hence she was turned into an ugly monster, other myths say that Athena did what she did so that nobody would harm Medusa ever again. It is highly debatable but the fact is that she ‘punished’ the victim and not the perpetrator. Killing a Gorgon who had the ability to turn anyone into stone and whose sisters were immortal sounds like a task almost impossible, but Perseus was able to do it by using his weapon a single time. Perseus was the son of Zeus and a human princess named Danae. A man who wanted to marry Perseus’s mother challenged him to bring the head of the Gorgon, and young Perseus agreed. Perseus had no clue where to find the snake-haired monster but he was assisted by his two half-siblings Athena and Hermes. Athena gave him the bronze shield and Hermes gave him the winged sandals. Then he went to the place where ‘The Three Gorgons Sister’ lived. All three sisters were born with only one eye which they shared with each other, and only one tooth they took turns eating. Perseus knew about it, and when Medusa was sleeping and the other two sisters were passing the eye between each other and safeguarding the place, Perseus snatched the eye at the right time and told them he would give it to them if they told the information he needed. He went to the place after a while when all the three sisters were sleeping and when he found the right moment he cut her throat and killed her without directly looking into her eyes.
After that, he gave returned the god’s gift back to Athena and also gave the gorgon head as a reward.
