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(1878)]] In .) was a monstrous Chthonic female character; gazing upon her could turn onlookers to stone. She was beheaded by the human hero Perseus , who thereafter used her head as a weapon until giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her Shield . In Classical Antiquity and today, the image of the head of Medusa finds expression in the Apotrope known as the '' Gorgoneion ''. MEDUSA IN CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY Some classical references refer to three Gorgon s; Jane Ellen Harrison considered that the tripling of Medusa into a trio of sisters was a secondary feature in the myth: :"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) The three gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno , and Euryale —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 Graeae , as in Aeschylus 's '' 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—" 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 fifth century began to envisage her as a being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BCE Pindar already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa".(Pythian Ode 12). Noted by Marjorie J. Milne in discussing a Red-figured Vase in the style of Polygnotos , ca. 450-30 BCE, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Milne noted that "It is one of the earliest illustrations of the story to show the Gorgon not as a hideous monster but as a beautiful woman. Art in this respect lagged bewhind poetry." (Marjorie J. Milne, "Perseus and Medusa on an Attic Vase" ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' New Series, 4.5 (January 1946, pp. 126-130) 126.p.) In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (''Metamorphoses'' 4.770), Medusa was originally a beautiful Nymph , "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," but when she was raped by the "Lord of the Sea" Poseidon in Athena's temple, the goddess transformed her beautiful 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 and the giant Chrysaor who later became the hero wielding the golden sword. , installed 1554]] '' 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" Harrison's translation notes "the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon (Harrison 1922: 187, note 3). According to Ovid , in North-West Africa Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas , who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed him into stone. In a similar manner, the Coral s 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 '' 4.1515, Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.770 and Lucan's Pharsalia 9.820, 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. MODERN INTERPRETATIONS Psychoanalysis In 1940, ''. First published posthumously. Int. Z. Psychoanal. Imago, 25 (1940), 105; reprinted Ges. W., 17,47. The manuscript is dated May 14, 1922, and appears to be a sketch for a more extensive work. Translation, reprinted from Int. J. Psychoanal.,22 (1941), 69; by James Strachey. .Seelig, B.J. (2002). The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena: Aspects of Triangulation . Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 83:895-911. Feminism In the 20th Century, 2003 , ISBN 0-415-90099-9. The attack on Medusa is discussed as a potential example of violence against women or Rape . The name "Medusa" itself is often used in ways not directly connected to the mythological figure but to suggest the gorgon's abilities or Connote malevolence; despite her origins as a beauty, the name in common usage "came to mean monster."''The Medusa Reader'', Introduction, pg. 1 The book ''Female Rage: Unlocking Its Secrets, Claiming Its Power'' by Mary Valentis and Anne Devane notes that "When we asked women what female rage looks like to them, it was always Medusa, the snaky-haired monster of myth, who came to mind ... In one interview after another we were told that Medusa is 'the most horrific woman in the world' ... {Link without Title} none of the women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth."''Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon'', pg. 218. MEDUSA IN ART (1618)]] See Also: Cultural depictions of Medusa and gorgons From ancient times, the Medusa was immortalized in numerous works of art, including:
Accompanied by a revival of the legend by 2000 , pg. 200, ISBN 0-195-12431-6. SHIPS Notable naval ships named after the monster include the Pearl Harbor survivor USS ''Medusa'' (AR-1) and '' La Méduse '', one of the most infamous shipwrecks of the Age Of Sail and inspiration for the controversial Louvre painting, '' Raft Of The Medusa ''. NOTES REFERENCES
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