The best known myth recounts her fateful encounter with the Greek hero Perseus. A dishonorable king demanded that he bring him an impossible gift: the head of Medusa. Perseus set out with the aid of the gods, who provided him with divine tools. On his travels, he used the head to turn his enemies to stone and rescue the princess Andromeda from a sea monster After hearing their anguished and furious cries, Athena was inspired to invent the flute to mimic them.
When the goddess played the flute, however, she discarded it after seeing her reflection; her face distended and became ugly as she played While she purposefully and successfully mimicked the wails of the Gorgons, she also unwittingly imitated their wide and dreadful features.
The snake-haired Medusa does not become widespread until the first century B. The Roman author Ovid describes the mortal Medusa as a beautiful maiden seduced by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. While these stories sound fantastical today, to the ancient Greeks they were quasi-historical. Myths, as well as the stories recorded by Homer and Hesiod, were considered part of a lost heroic past when men and women interacted with heroes, gods, and the supernatural.
Tales from this period were repeated in every medium; the evidence from Greece presents a world saturated with heroes and monsters in poetry, prose, and art. As such, Medusa was not just a fantastical beast, but part of a shared past and present in the minds of ancient viewers.
She signified a historical menace—the story of Perseus vanquishing and harnessing her energy was not just a story, but a chapter in the shared allegorical and historical record of the Greeks. Just as Medusa exists in multiple types of stories in the mythological record, she is also portrayed in multiple ways in ancient art.
Her appearance changes drastically through the centuries, but she is always recognizable due to her striking frontality. It is rare in Greek art for a figure to face directly out, but in almost all representations of Medusa, despite style and medium, she stares ahead and uncompromisingly confronts the viewer.
The term gorgoneion refers to the head and face of Medusa, which was used often as a decorative motif. It is a prolific symbol of her particular power that appears in architecture , vase painting , and metalwork. The gorgoneion was a pervasive image in temple decoration of the Archaic period ca. Perhaps the largest example comes from Temple C built ca. In Sicily, southern Italy, and mainland Greece, temples were decorated with numerous antefixes ornamental terracotta roof tile covers that bore gorgoneia During this time, Medusa is depicted as a monster; she has a round face, wide eyes, a beard, and a gaping mouth with an extended tongue and gnashing, sharp teeth Medusa remains a popular image on later architectural components, but her form is more specifically human and female.
She loses the frightful teeth and beard, but is still recognizable Greek vases, cups, and related terracotta objects sometimes included a decorative gorgoneion as well. In some cases it was painted at the bottom of a drinking vessel Athena punished Medusa by cursing her with the horrid face and poisonous snakes for hair. Medusa left her home and wandered in Africa. Ancient Greek mythology states that Medusa dropped baby poisonous snakes as she wandered through Africa. This is the reason for the high number of poisonous snakes in Africa according to the myth.
Medusa was eventually killed by Perseus. Perseus attacked Medusa with a mirrored shield from Athena , winged sandals from Hermes , a sword from Hephaestus , and invisibility from Hade. Perseus was able to see Medusa from the reflection in the mirrored shield, making it possible for him to kill her without looking directly at her.
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These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Others Others. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Medusa was a beautiful young woman who was a priestess for the goddess of wisdom and war, Athena.
Once Athena found out about this affair, her jealousy raged and she became furious! She then decided to put a nasty curse on Medusa for breaking her promise of celibacy. In a late version of the Medusa myth, by the Roman poet Ovid Metamorphoses 4. Athena then punished her for this violation, by turning her into the monstrous, stony-glanced creature that we know. Yes: punished for being raped. But there is nothing normal about Medusa.
However, unlike Medusa, the unnamed animal was never kept alive in captivity. Poseidon and Amphitrite had a son, Triton who was a merman, and a daughter, Rhodos if this Rhodos was not actually fathered by Poseidon on Halia or was not the daughter of Asopus as others claim.
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