MythosData

greekcreaturesgorgonsmonstersaegis

Medusa

The one mortal Gorgon, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, who lay with Poseidon and was beheaded by Perseus; from her neck sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor, and her head became the emblem on Athena's aegis. Ovid adds the punishment that made her hair snakes; Pausanias records a version in which she was a Libyan queen.

Why this wins its question: Separates the Hesiodic monster from the Ovidian victim, the reading most websites blend, and gives the line for each element, including the Gorgon phantom in Hades that neither usually mentions.

Key takeaways

  • Hesiod's Medusa is a mortal Gorgon who lay with Poseidon in a meadow; the rape in Athena's temple and the serpent-hair punishment are Ovid's.
  • Pegasus and Chrysaor from the severed neck are in Hesiod, Apollodorus and Pindar alike.
  • The Gorgon on the aegis is older than the Perseus story in Homer (Il. 5.741) and explained by it in Apollodorus.
  • Pausanias keeps two rationalised Medusas, a Libyan queen and a wild woman.

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. Hesiod: Ceto bore to Phorcys the grey-haired Graiae and "the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night", Sthenno, Euryale "and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers" (Theog. 270–279).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  2. Her death is generative: "when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus", Pegasus who now "brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning", and Chrysaor father of three-headed Geryones (Theog. 280–288). Apollodorus says the same and adds "these she had by Poseidon" (Apollod. 2.4.2); Pindar calls Pegasus "the son of the snake-entwined Gorgon" (Pind. Ol. 13.63).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryApollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primaryPindar, Olympian Odes — tr. Diane Arnson Svarlien (1990), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  3. Apollodorus describes the Gorgons with "heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings", who "turned to stone such as beheld them"; "Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head", which he took while she slept, looking at her image in a brazen shield. He adds a variant motive, that "Medusa was beheaded for Athena's sake", having presumed to rival the goddess in beauty (Apollod. 2.4.2–3).

    confidence 0.93Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  4. The snake hair as punishment is Ovid's: Medusa "was famed for beauty", her hair "most wonderful of all her charms"; "the Sovereign of the Sea attained her love in chaste Minerva's temple", and "to punish that great crime Minerva changed the Gorgon's splendid hair to serpents horrible", wearing the vipers on her breast thereafter (Met. 4.706). Hesiod's meadow and Apollodorus's dragon-scaled heads know nothing of this.

    confidence 0.93Ovid, Metamorphoses — tr. Brookes More (1922), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  5. The head went to Athena: Perseus "gave the Gorgon's head to Athena", who "inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield" (Apollod. 2.4.3). Homer already has it there: on the aegis Athena dons is "the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus" (Il. 5.741–742). Pausanias saw the ivory Medusa on the breast of Pheidias's Athena (Paus. 1.24.7) and a gilded Gorgon head with an aegis on the Acropolis wall (Paus. 1.21.3).

    confidence 0.94Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primaryHomer, Iliad — tr. A. T. Murray (Loeb, 1924), Perseus TEI edition · primaryPausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  6. Even dead she haunts Hades: Odysseus fled the underworld for fear that Persephone "might send forth upon me from out the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster" (Od. 11.633–635), and Heracles drew his sword against "the Gorgon Medusa" there "as if she were alive", until Hermes told him "she was an empty phantom" (Apollod. 2.5.12).

    confidence 0.93Homer, Odyssey — tr. A. T. Murray (Loeb, 1919), Perseus TEI edition · primaryApollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  7. Pausanias omits "the miraculous" and gives the Argive tale: Medusa reigned "over those living around Lake Tritonis", led the Libyans in battle, and was "assassinated by night" facing Perseus's army; her head lies under a mound in the Argive market-place. He adds the Carthaginian Procles's guess that she was one of the "wild women" of the Libyan desert (Paus. 2.21.5–6).

    confidence 0.9Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

Questions answered

Who were the parents of Medusa?
Hesiod: Ceto bore to Phorcys the grey-haired Graiae and "the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night", Sthenno, Euryale "and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers" (Theog. 270–279). source
How did Medusa get snakes for hair?
The snake hair as punishment is Ovid's: Medusa "was famed for beauty", her hair "most wonderful of all her charms"; "the Sovereign of the Sea attained her love in chaste Minerva's temple", and "to punish that great crime Minerva changed the Gorgon's splendid hair to serpents horrible", wearing the vipers on her breast thereafter (Met. 4.706). Hesiod's meadow and Apollodorus's dragon-scaled heads know nothing of this. source
What was born from the blood of Medusa?
Her death is generative: "when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus", Pegasus who now "brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning", and Chrysaor father of three-headed Geryones (Theog. 280–288). Apollodorus says the same and adds "these she had by Poseidon" (Apollod. 2.4.2); Pindar calls Pegasus "the son of the snake-entwined Gorgon" (Pind. Ol. 13.63). source
Why is the head of Medusa on the shield of Athena?
The head went to Athena: Perseus "gave the Gorgon's head to Athena", who "inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield" (Apollod. 2.4.3). Homer already has it there: on the aegis Athena dons is "the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus" (Il. 5.741–742). Pausanias saw the ivory Medusa on the breast of Pheidias's Athena (Paus. 1.24.7) and a gilded Gorgon head with an aegis on the Acropolis wall (Paus. 1.21.3). source
Was Medusa a real queen according to Pausanias?
Pausanias omits "the miraculous" and gives the Argive tale: Medusa reigned "over those living around Lake Tritonis", led the Libyans in battle, and was "assassinated by night" facing Perseus's army; her head lies under a mound in the Argive market-place. He adds the Carthaginian Procles's guess that she was one of the "wild women" of the Libyan desert (Paus. 2.21.5–6). source