Medusa

By Xah Lee. Date: .

the Gorgons

medusa
Medusa. Marble bust is in the Museo dei Conservatori museum in Rome, Italy. (source: Microsoft Encarta.) medusa statue

The Gorgons, 3 ugly sisters with snake hairs, so ugly that any looker petrifies. Among which, Medusa, is most famous and is the only mortal.

Medusa became hideous by the hand of the goddess Athena, for her rage finding Medusa and sea god Poseidon fucking in her temple.

Medusa were decapitated by Perseus thru the help of Athena and Hermes (god of message). He obtained Athena's shield (used as a mirror to see her thru indirection) and a incredible sword from Hermes, and from nymph of north a bottomless wallet (to put Medusa's head), a invisible cap, a winged sandal. The blood from her severed head sprang her sons the winged horse Pegasus and a boy Chrysaor. Her severed head was also used to petrify Phineas and his army. And the head was finally given to Athena to put on her shield called aegis.

(by the way, Athena is known as a goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Athena is not, for example, known as a goddess of forgiveness, fairness, kindness. She, along with 2 other high goddesses Hera and Aphrodite, vying to be the most beautiful, with bribery, which started Trojan War. )

这位是 Medusa (美杜莎)。她的故事是这样的:有一位绝美的姑娘,有一天,在女神 Athena 的廟裡和海神 Posaiden 打炮(或说是被奸)。被Athena发现,就诅咒,使她变成最丑的女人。丑到什么样呢?就是,只要目光交搓,你就目瞪口呆化为石。

medusa mural on Haight-Ashbury 2011-07-09
Medusa mural on Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco. Artist is Lango. 〔photo by Peter Eimon, from flickr, © [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/legalcode] 〕