Medusa | |
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Medusa, by Caravaggio (1595)
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Parents | Phorcys and Ceto |
Siblings | The Hesperides, Stheno, Euryale, The Graea, Thoosa, Scylla, and Ladon |
Children | Pegasus and Chrysaor |
In Greek mythology Medusa (/məˈdjuːzə, məˈdʒuː-, -sə/, US /məˈduː-/; Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers upon her face would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus (Fabulae Preface) makes Medusa the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.