With snakes for hair-hatred of mortal man Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae, as in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, which places both trios of sisters far off 'on Kisthene's dreadful plain': The three Gorgon sisters-Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale-were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or 'Phorkys') and his sister Ceto (or 'Keto'), chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Mythology An archaic Medusa wearing the belt of the intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol, as depicted on the west pediment of the Temple of Artemis on the island of Corcyra The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth as part of their religion. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.Īccording to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene.

Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, although the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. Medusa is generally described as a human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. In Greek mythology, Medusa ( / m ɪ ˈ dj uː z ə, - s ə/ Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα, romanized: Médousa, lit.'guardian, protectress'), also called Gorgo, was one of the three Gorgons. The Hesperides, Sthenno, Euryale, The Graeae, Thoosa, Scylla, and Ladon Classical Greek gorgoneion featuring the head of Medusa fourth century BC

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