They were frightful winged monsters, whose bodies were covered with scales; hissing, wriggling snakes clustered round their heads instead of hair; their hands were of brass; their teeth resembled the tusks of a wild boar; and their whole aspect was so appalling, that they are said to have turned into stone all who beheld them.
These terrible sisters were supposed to dwell in that remote and mysterious region in the far West, beyond the sacred stream of Oceanus. The most celebrated of the three sisters was Medusa, who alone was mortal. She was originally a golden-haired and very beautiful maiden, who, as a priestess of Athene, was devoted to a life of celibacy; but, being wooed by Poseidon, whom she loved in return, she forgot her vows, and became united to him in marriage.
For this offence she was punished by the goddess in a most terrible manner. Athena received Medusa's head as a sacrifice from Perseus. She gave the head as a gift to her father Zeus , who used it to create his shield , Aegis , on oracular advise to win against the remaining Titans.
He used the Aegis to defeat Aex or Aix , who had a head as terrifying as her body was beautiful. Thalia Grace has a shield modeled after the Aegis, which usually causes enemies to be paralyzed or run away in terror. Grover is the first to figure out that Medusa, not "Aunty Em," is their hostess. He sees a statue that looks unusually like his deceased Uncle Ferdinand and recalls that his Uncle Ferdinand was turned to stone by the monster Medusa. Medusa holds a grudge against Annabeth because she is the daughter of Athena, the one responsible for Medusa's misery.
Eventually, her head was chopped off by Percy Jackson just as the original Perseus. Her head was later used by Sally Jackson to turn her ex-husband Gabe Ugliano into stone. When Chiron is explaining how the use of technology can be dangerous for demigods , he says that a demigod once tried to Google the Gorgons, causing them to appear. It is not mentioned if one or all of them appeared. He ran into them at a Bargain Mart, where the two were acting as store employees so they could find demigods that entered.
Because he killed Medusa years ago even though he couldn't remember it , the two seek revenge against him as their sister is still reforming in Tartarus. The two gorgons kept reforming after Percy had killed them numerous times, including hitting them with a cop car and smashing them with bowling balls.
Stheno ignorantly tells Percy about gorgon blood , explaining that blood taken from the left side of their body would be deadly while blood from the right side could heal. They also inform him about an army heading south that will attack Camp Jupiter , but also inform him that they were brought back using the Doors of Death by their patron, Gaea.
When Percy tried to call a truce by saying they couldn't kill each other as they constantly reform and Percy's skin was like iron , they explain that he could be killed, even with the Achilles Curse , but it would simply by a matter of time before finding his Achilles heel.
But some later authors made it explicit. Have you had Perseus's quests, then? Have you seen Sthenno's petrifying eye? A bit earlier, Pseudo-Apollodorus author of the Bibliotheca says in the first or second century CE that all three could petrify:.
As Lauren mentioned, Homer and many other authors mentions only a single Gorgon sometimes "Gorgo" , whose head was on Athena's shield; the sisters don't show up much outside the Perseus myth. Apart from the petrification, Hesiod similarly mentions that all three were monsters; Pseudo-Apollonius says all three were identical in appearance; Ovid says that all three were originally beautiful, but Medousa had her hair turned into snakes.
Medousa's defining characteristic seems to have been that she was mortal , while her sisters weren't, which is why Perseus was able to kill her:. Only she [Medousa] was mortal, while the others are undying and unaging, the two of them; she [Medousa] is the only one blue-haired [Poseidon] wandered with amid the soft meadows and springtime flowers. This is the only mention I can find of multiple Gorgons in the Theogony , with no mention of petrification.
Many authors specify that Medousa could petrify people, but I can't find any specific mention that her sisters couldn't. Medusa was the only mortal of the three sisters, and the only beautiful one. Poseidon raped her in one of Athena's temples. The other gods demanded that Medusa be punished for "defiling" the temple never mind punishing Poseidon for raping her.
Athena changed her into a hideous creature with snakes for hair — interpretations vary on whether this was punishment for defiling the temple or a way to protect her from further abuse. Medusa was now so hideous that anyone who looked at her turned to stone. Myths about the Gorgons range. Earlier poets Aeschylus called all three monsters, or said there was only one Gorgo altogether Homer and Euripides. Later stories have the details about Medusa's rape and transformation such as Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Hesiod in Theogony seems to split the difference, saying all three were monsters but that only Medusa had the petrification powers. All material from Theoi. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.
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