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Medusa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medusa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medusa, by Arnold Böcklin (1878)
Medusa, by Arnold Böcklin (1878)

In Greek mythology, Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα, Médousa, "guardian, protectress"[1]), was a monstrous chthonic female character, essentially an extension of an apotropaic mask, gazing upon whom could turn onlookers to stone. Secondarily, Medusa was tripled into a trio of sisters, the Gorgons.

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[edit] Medusa in classical mythology

Some classical references multiply her[2] into three Gorgon sisters: Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale, monsters with goggling eyes, sharp protruding fangs and lolling tongues, brass hands, and hair of living, venomous snakes. The Gorgons were children of Phorcys and Ceto, or sometimes, Typhon and Echidna, in each case chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graiae, as in Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound, who places both trinities of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain":

"Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged
With snakes for hair— hated of mortal man—"
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, by Benvenuto Cellini.
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, by Benvenuto Cellini.

While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the later fifth century began to envisage her as a being beautiful as well as terrifying. In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a beautiful nymph , but when she had intercourse with Poseidon in Athena's temple, the goddess transformed her hair to serpents and she made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn a man to stone.

In all the versions, while Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon, she was beheaded in her sleep by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus. With help from Athena and Hermes, who supplied him with winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, a sickle, and a mirrored shield, he accomplished his quest. The hero slew Medusa by looking at her reflection in the mirror instead of directly at her to prevent being turned into stone. When the hero severed Medusa's head, from her neck two offspring sprang forth: the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor who later became the hero wielding the golden sword. Jane Ellen Harrison notes that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended ... the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood." (Harrison 1922:187). In Odyssey xi, Homer does not specifically mention the Gorgon Medusa,

"lest for my daring Persephone the dread
From Hades should send up an awful monster's grizzly head"

in the translation of Jane Ellen Harrison, who notes "the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon (Harrison 1922: 187, note 3).

According to Ovid Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas in North-West Africa who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed him into stone. The story was an aetiological myth describing origins of the Atlas Mountains. In a similar manner, the corals of the Red Sea were said to have been formed of Medusa's blood spilled onto seaweed when Perseus laid down the petrifying head beside the shore. Furthermore the poisonous vipers of the Sahara, in the Argonautica, were said to have grown from spilt drops of her blood.

Perseus then flew to his mother's island where she was about to be forced into marriage with the king. He cried out "Mother, shield your eyes," and everyone but his mother was turned into stone by the gaze of Medusa's head.

Then he gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the Aegis. Some say the goddess gave Medusa's magical blood to the physician Asclepius, some of which was a deadly poison and the other had the power to raise the dead.

[edit] Medusa in art and legend

Tête de Méduse, by Peter Paul Rubens.
Tête de Méduse, by Peter Paul Rubens.

Medusa is a well-known mythological icon throughout the world, having been portrayed in works of art as well as popular media over the ages.

Examples of Medusa and the Perseus legend in the arts:

[edit] Medusa in popular culture

Medusa from Clash of the Titans.
Medusa from Clash of the Titans.
Celia from Monsters, Inc.
Celia from Monsters, Inc.
See also Gorgons in modern culture
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Film

  • Perseus encounters Medusa in a climactic sequence of the 1981 film Clash of the Titans. In the film it is said that she had been caught by Aphrodite herself, making love to Poseidon in one of Aphrodite's temples. Medusa was cursed by being turned from beautiful to ugly, with snakes for hair and a snake-like lower body. In addition to turning people to stone with her gaze, this Medusa also uses arrows, and unnerves enemies with the rattle on the tip of her tail. Her blood is able to dissolve a metal shield, and drops of it later transform into fearsome giant scorpions. Medusa's decapitated head also retains its power to turn creatures to stone.
  • The myth was updated and used as the basis of the Hammer horror film The Gorgon, released in 1964. The character Magaera is clearly based on Medusa.
  • Madame Medusa is the name of the villainess from Disney's popular animated film, The Rescuers (1977).
  • The character Celia in the 2001 animated feature Monsters, Inc. is a Medusa/gorgon-like creature who contemplates getting a haircut, panicking her snake-hairs.
  • The switch that turns people to stone in the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show is labelled "Medusa".
  • Tony Randall appears as the character Medusa, one of his seven faces, in the 1964 film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

[edit] Games

  • Medusas are monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games.
  • Medusa appears as a character in numerous computer games, among them Heroes of Might and Magic II, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Phantasy Star I and the Castlevania series. In Castlevania, creatures known as Medusa Heads are extremely common.
  • The Medusa appears as a unique monster in NetHack on her own level, complete with a statue of Perseus.
  • In the Playstation 2 game God of War, the player, Kratos, encounters Medusa and fights gorgons as enemies. The gorgons appear as large snakes with female human torsos and a head of snakes as hair. Kratos also uses the head of Medusa as a weapon in turning enemies into stone. Also collecting multiple gorgon eyes throughout the game gives Kratos a larger life meter.
  • Medusa is the main antagonist in the Kid Icarus series of video games. She is a god in the series.
  • In the video game Karnov, the player battles a monster, supposedly "Medusa", who appears with a centipede like body, a female torso and head with wiggling snakes as hair.
  • In the game Age of Mythology, gorgons are snakelike creatures armed as archers who work as your allies, petrified and shooting enemies at range. They can be upgraded from Medusa to Medusa Matriarchs.
  • Medusa is a new "Harbinger" in the Nightmare/Atmosfear series. She replaced Khufu in his version of the DVD Board Game, and it is presumed she will replace all other characters when they host.
  • Medusa is also one of the main enemies in the game Spartan: Total Warrior. She has been tight up and is able to shoot a vertical beam with a radius of -/+ 20 feet which will turn enemy's inside the radius into a temporary stone form.
  • Medusa is a hero in Defense of the Ancients, a popular custom map for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
  • Medusas can be found as monsters wandering the Giran Territory in the MMORPG Lineage II.
  • Medusa is one of the bosses fought in the video game Wonder Boy in Monster Land for the Sega Master System.
  • In the Sega arcade game, The Ocean Hunter, a giant squid miniboss is named Medusa.

[edit] Music

[edit] Television

  • In the short lived FOX cartoon series Siegfried and Roy: Masters of the Impossible, one of the monsters that the cartoon Siegfried and Roy faced was the Medusa.
  • One of the monstrous teenagers in the cartoon series Gravedale High is a valley girl version of Medusa, usually referred to as "'Dusa".
  • The heroes come face to face (or rather, eye-to-protective goggles) with Medusa and her Gorgon sisters in Episode 1.9: "Sibling Rivalry" of Teletoon's Class of the Titans.
  • In the 1996 episode "Heroes" of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Jonny's enemy Jeremiah Surd creates a virtual Greek temple in Questworld, where he transforms himself into Medusa with the ability to turn anyone he sees into stone. Both Race and Jessie Bannon are turned into stone, but Jonny defeats Surd by turning the villain himself into stone with a reflective search device.
  • Comedienne Julie Brown starred as the title character in her 1992 Showtime television movie Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful, a parody of celebrity Madonna and her backstage documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare.
  • In the episode "Hercules and the Gorgon" of Hercules: The Animated Series, Medusa (Jennifer Love Hewitt) falls in love with Hercules, and in order to meet him, allies with Hades to become human.
  • In Watch Over Me, Medusa is a fictional biochemical virus created by Krieger Laboratories. The virus starts with hallucinations, then in later stages slowly paralyzes all muscles in the body reaching the heart last. Comparable to "turning into stone," the only cure to this disease is to inject oneself with an antidote called Perseus.
  • In the Lost episode "Exposé", the fictional Medusa spider (Latrodectus regina) is said to have very strong attractive pheromones, and its bite will paralyze its victims for eight hours in a manner which simulates death, even to a doctor.

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The verb medein "to protect, rule over", has given the name of another dangerous protectress, Medea.
  2. ^ "The triple form is not primitive, it is merely an instance of a general tendency... which makes of each woman goddess a trinity, which has given us the Horae, the Charites, the Semnai, and a host of other triple groups. It is immediately obvious that the Gorgons are not really three but one + two. The two unslain sisters are mere appendages due to custom; the real Gorgon is Medusa " (Harrison 1903:187).

[edit] References

  • Jane Ellen Harrison, (1903) 3rd ed. 1922. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion,: "The Ker as Gorgon"

[edit] External links

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