View source for Medusa

{{redirect|Medusa's head|the brittle star|Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae}}
{{Short description|Goddess from Greek mythology}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Pp-move}}
{{Pp-semi-indef}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Medusa
| image = Gorgona pushkin.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Classical Greek ''[[gorgoneion]]'' featuring the head of Medusa; fourth century BC
| god_of = 
| abode = 
| parents = [[Phorcys]] and [[Ceto]]
| siblings = [[The Hesperides]], [[Stheno]], [[Euryale (Gorgon)|Euryale]], [[The Graeae]], [[Thoosa]], [[Scylla]], and [[Ladon (mythology)|Ladon]]
| consort = [[Poseidon]]
| children = [[Pegasus]] and [[Chrysaor]]
| mount = 
| Roman_equivalent = 
}}
{{Greek mythology sidebar}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Medusa''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ᵻ|ˈ|dj|uː|z|ə|,_|-|s|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Μέδουσα|Médousa|guardian, protectress}}),{{efn|The feminine present participle of ''medein'', "to protect, rule over" (compare [[Medon (mythology)|Medon]], [[Medea]], [[Diomedes]], ''etc.'').<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/the-american-heritage-dictionary-of-the-english-language-by-editors-of-the-ameri |title=The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language By Editors Of The American Heritage Dictionaries}}</ref> Alternatively, it is from the same root and is formed after the participle.<ref>''[[OED]]'' 2001 revision, ''s.v.''; [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2365585 ''medein''] in [[LSJ]]</ref>}} also called '''Gorgo''' ({{Langx|grc|Γοργώ}}){{efn|''Gorgṓ'', "the grim one". From ''gorgos'', referring to a look or gaze, "grim, fierce, terrible"; later also "vigorous".<ref>{{OEtymD|gorgon}}</ref>}} or the '''Gorgon''', was one of the three [[Gorgons]]. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was [[Petrifaction in mythology and fiction|turned to stone]].<ref>''Brill's New Pauly'', [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/gorgo-e426440 s.v. Gorgo].</ref> Medusa and her Gorgon sisters [[Euryale and Stheno]] were usually described as daughters of [[Phorcys]] and [[Ceto]]; of the three, only Medusa was mortal.

Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero [[Perseus]], who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bullfinch |first=Thomas |url=http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/tbulfinch/bl-tbulfinch-age-15.htm |title=Bulfinch Mythology&nbsp;– Age of Fable&nbsp;– Stories of Gods & Heroes |quote=...and turning his face away, he held up the Gorgon's head. Atlas, with all his bulk, was changed into stone. |access-date=2007-09-07 |archive-date=2011-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707075022/http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/tbulfinch/bl-tbulfinch-age-15.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> until he gave it to the goddess [[Athena]] to place on her [[Aegis|shield]]. In [[classical antiquity]], the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the [[apotropaic magic|evil-averting device]] known as the ''[[Gorgoneion]]''.

According to [[Hesiod]] and [[Aeschylus]], she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near [[Cisthene (Mysia)|Cisthene]]. The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in [[Ancient Libya|Libya]], where [[Herodotus]] had said the [[Berbers]] originated her myth as part of [[Traditional Berber religion|their religion]].

==Mythology==
[[File:Centre Close Up of the West Pediment from the Temple of Artemis in Corfu.jpg|thumb|left|An [[Archaic Greece|archaic]] Medusa wearing the belt of the intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol, as depicted on the west [[pediment]] of the Temple of [[Artemis]] on the island of [[Corcyra]]]]
[[File:Seleukos I Nikator Æ 750607.jpg|left|thumb|Coins of the reign of [[Seleucus I Nicator]] of Syria (312–280 BC)]]
The three [[Gorgons]]&mdash;Medusa, [[Stheno]], and [[Euryale (Gorgon)|Euryale]]&mdash;were described by [[Hesiod]] and [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] as offspring of the sea-god [[Phorcys]] and his sister [[Ceto]];<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:270-303 270&ndash;7]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.2.6 1.2.6].</ref> according to [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], however, their parents were "Gorgon" and Ceto.<ref>[[Hyginus (Fabulae)|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' Preface [https://topostext.org/work/206#p.9 9].</ref> Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the [[Graeae]], as in [[Aeschylus]]'s ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', which places both trios of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain":

<blockquote>Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged<br />
With snakes for hair—hatred of mortal man<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' 793–799; Edited and Translated by [[Alan Sommerstein|Alan H. Sommerstein]]. "Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Suppliants, Prometheus Bound", (Loeb Classical Library) Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 531.</ref></blockquote>

In most versions of the story, Medusa was beheaded by the [[Greek hero|hero]] [[Perseus]], who was sent to fetch her head by King [[Polydectes]] of [[Serifos|Seriphus]] because Polydectes wanted to marry Perseus's mother. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help. He received a mirrored shield from [[Athena]], sandals with gold wings from [[Hermes]], a sword from [[Hephaestus]] and [[Hades]]'s [[Cap of invisibility|helm of invisibility]]. Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her; he did so while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by [[Poseidon]]. When Perseus beheaded her, [[Pegasus]], a winged horse, and [[Chrysaor]], a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' 281; Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' Book II, part iv, nos. 1–3. "The Library: Books 1–3.9." Translated by J.G. Frazer, (Loeb Classical Library), Harvard University Press, 1921 (reprint), pp. 155–161.</ref>

[[Jane Ellen Harrison]] argues that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended... the basis of the [[Gorgoneion]] is a [[cult (religion)|cultus object]], a ritual mask misunderstood."<ref name="Harrison"/> In the ''[[Odyssey]]'' xi, [[Homer]] does not specifically mention the [[Gorgon]] Medusa:

<blockquote>Lest for my daring [[Persephone]] the dread,<br />
From Hades should send up an awful monster's grisly head.</blockquote>

Harrison's translation states that "the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon."<ref name="Harrison"/>

According to [[Ovid]], in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]], who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed Atlas into a stone when Atlas tried to attack him.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:4.604-4.705 4.604–662]. [[Roger Lancelyn Green]] suggests in his ''Tales of the Greek Heroes'' written for children that Athena used the aegis against Atlas.</ref> In a similar manner, the [[coral (precious)|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 during his short stay in [[Aethiopia (Classical Greek term)|Ethiopia]] where he saved and wed his future wife, the lovely princess [[Andromeda (mythology)|Andromeda]], who was the most beautiful woman in the world at that time. Furthermore, the venomous 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. The blood of Medusa also spawned the [[Amphisbaena]] (a horned dragon-like creature with a snake-headed tail).

Perseus then flew to Seriphos, where his mother was being forced into marriage with the king, Polydectes, who was turned into stone by the head. Then Perseus gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the [[Aegis]].<ref>[[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D15%3Aentry%3Dperseus-bio-1 "Perseus"]</ref>

While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as having monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century BC began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BC, [[Pindar]] already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa".<ref>(Pythian Ode 12). Noted by Marjorie J. Milne in discussing a [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured vase]] in the style of [[Polygnotos (vase painter)|Polygnotos]], ca. 450–30 BC, 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 behind 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.)</ref>

In a late version of the Medusa myth, by the Roman poet [[Ovid]],<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.235.xml 4.794–803].</ref> Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but when [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] (the Roman equivalent of the Greek [[Poseidon]]) mated with her in [[Minerva]]'s temple (Minerva being the Roman equivalent of the Greek [[Athena]]), Minerva punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into horrible snakes. Although no earlier versions mention this, ancient depictions of Medusa as a beautiful maiden instead of a horrid monster predate Ovid. In classical Greek art, the depiction of Medusa shifted from hideous beast to an attractive young woman, both aggressor and victim, a tragic figure in her death.{{sfn|Karoglou|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 9]}} The earliest of those depictions comes courtesy of [[Polygnotus]], who drew Medusa as a comely woman sleeping peacefully as Perseus beheads her.{{sfn|Karoglou|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 9]}}{{sfn|Karoglou|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 10]}} As the act of killing a beautiful maiden in her sleep is rather unheroic, it is not clear whether those vases are meant to elicit sympathy for Medusa's fate, or to mock the traditional hero.{{sfn|Karoglou|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 11]}}

Some classical references refer to three Gorgons; Harrison considered that the tripling of Medusa into a trio of sisters was a secondary feature in the myth:

{{blockquote|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.<ref name="Harrison"/>}}

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
File:Yerebatan 1091.jpg|An ancient Roman carving of the Medusa, now a [[spolia]] in use as a column base in the [[Basilica Cistern]]
File:Sousse mosaic Gorgon 03.JPG|The Medusa's head central to a mosaic floor in a [[tepidarium]] of the Roman era. Museum of Sousse, Tunisia
File:Aplique con Gorgona Medusa.jpg|Aplique with the shape of Medusa discovered in [[Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa]]
File:Glittica romana, medusa, sardonice, II-III sec dc..JPG|A Roman cameo of the 2nd or 3rd century
File:Roof ornament with Medusa's head. Etruscan, from Italy, 6th century BCE. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.jpg|Roof ornament with Medusa's head. Etruscan, from Italy, 6th century BC. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
</gallery>

==Modern interpretations==

===Historical===
[[File:Head of Medusa by Godfried Maes, 1680.jpg|thumb|220px|''[[Head of Medusa]]'' by [[Godfried Maes]], 1680]]

Several early classics scholars interpreted the myth of Medusa as a quasi-historical – "based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, style, etc., in the past",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/quasihistorical|title=the definition of quasihistorical|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=2017-05-24}}</ref> or "sublimated" memory of an actual invasion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Graves|first=Robert|title=The Greek Myths|year=1955|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=0241952743|pages=17, 244|quote=A large part of Greek myth is politico-religious history. Bellerophon masters winged Pegasus and kills the Chimaera. Perseus, in a variant of the same legend, flies through the air and beheads Pegasus's mother, the Gorgon Medusa; much as Marduk, a Babylonian hero, kills the she-monster Tiamat, Goddess of the Seal. Perseus's name should properly be spelled Perseus, 'the destroyer'; and he was not, as Professor Kerenyi has suggested, an archetypal Death-figure but, probably, represented the patriarchal Hellenes who invaded Greece and Asia Minor early in the second millennium BC, and challenged the power of the Triple-goddess. Pegasus had been sacred to her because the horse with its moon-shaped hooves figured in the rain-making ceremonies and the installment of sacred kings; his wings were symbolical of a celestial nature, rather than speed.<br />Jane Harrison has pointed out (Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion) that Medusa was once the goddess herself, hiding behind a prophylactic Gorgon mask: a hideous face intended to warn the profane against trespassing on her Mysteries. Perseus beheads Medusa: that is, the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines, stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks, and took possession of the sacred horses—an early representation of the goddess with a Gorgon's head and a mare's body has been found in Boeotia. Bellerophon, Perseus's double, kills the Lycian Chimaera: that is, the Hellenes annulled the ancient Medusan calendar, and replaced it with another.}}</ref><ref name="Harrison">{{cite book|last=Ellen Harrison|first=Jane|title=Prolegomena: To The Study Of Greek Religion|orig-year=1908|date=June 5, 1991|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=0691015147|pages=[https://archive.org/details/prolegomenatost01harrgoog/page/n169 187]–188|url=https://archive.org/details/prolegomenatost01harrgoog}}</ref>

According to [[Joseph Campbell]]:

{{blockquote|The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that "the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines" and "stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks", the latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane.

That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued by the conscious mind.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology.|last=Campbell|first=Joseph|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1968|isbn=978-0140194418|location=London|pages=152–153 |quote=We have already spoken of Medusa and of the powers of her blood to render both life and death. We may now think of the legend of her slayer, Perseus, by whom her head was removed and presented to Athene. Professor Hainmond assigns the historical King Perseus of Mycenae to a date c. 1290 B.C., as the founder of a dynasty; and Robert Graves–whose two volumes on ''The Greek Myths'' are particularly noteworthy for their suggestive historical applications–proposes that the legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that 'the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines' and 'stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks', the latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane. That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued by the conscious mind. And in every such screening myth–in every such mythology {that of the Bible being, as we have just seen, another of the kind}–there enters in an essential duplicity, the consequences of which cannot be disregarded or suppressed.}}</ref>}}

===Psychoanalysis===
In 1940, [[Sigmund Freud]]'s "Das Medusenhaupt ([[Medusa's Head]])" was published posthumously. In Freud's interpretation: "To decapitate = to castrate. The terror of Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something. Numerous analyses have made us familiar with the occasion for this: it occurs when a boy, who has hitherto been unwilling to believe the threat of castration, catches sight of the female genitals, probably those of an adult, surrounded by hair, and essentially those of his mother."<ref>Freud, Sigmund (Summer 2017). "Medusa's Head". ''[[The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud]]''. The Hogarth Press. Vol. XVIII, p. 273</ref> In this perspective the "ravishingly beautiful" Medusa (see above) is the mother remembered in innocence; before the mythic truth of castration dawns on the subject. Classic Medusa, in contrast, is an Oedipal/libidinous symptom. Looking at the forbidden mother (in her hair-covered genitals, so to speak) stiffens the subject in illicit desire and freezes him in terror of the Father's retribution. There are no recorded instances of Medusa turning a woman to stone.

[[Archetypal literary criticism]] continues to find [[Psychoanalysts|psychoanalysis]] useful. Beth Seelig chooses to interpret Medusa's punishment as resulting from rape rather than the common interpretation of having willingly consented in Athena's temple, as an outcome of the goddess' unresolved conflicts with her own father [[Zeus]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1516/3NLL-UG13-TP2J-927M|author=Seelig, B. J. |year=2002|url=http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=ijp.083.0895a |title=The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena: Aspects of Triangulation|journal=International Journal of Psycho-Analysis|volume= 83|pages=895–911|s2cid=28961886 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Feminism===
[[File:Medusa.jpg|thumb|''Medusa'' by [[Arnold Böcklin]], {{circa|1878}}]]
In the 20th century, [[feminists]] reassessed Medusa's appearances in literature and in modern culture, including the use of Medusa as a logo by fashion company [[Gianni Versace S.p.A.|Versace]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gevrilgroup.com/versace/gianni-versace-medusa-logo/|title=Versace Medusa Head Logo|website=gevrilgroup.com}}</ref><ref>Pratt, A. (1994). ''Archetypal empowerment in poetry: Medusa, Aphrodite, Artemis, and bears : a gender comparison''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|0-253-20865-3}}</ref><ref>Stephenson, A. G. (1997). [http://worldcat.org/oclc/39703715 "Endless the Medusa: a feminist reading of Medusan imagery and the myth of the hero in Eudora Welty's novels."]</ref>{{sfn|Garber|Vickers|2003|p=7}} The name "Medusa" itself is often used in ways not directly connected to the mythological figure but to suggest the gorgon's abilities or to [[connotation|connote]] malevolence; despite her claimed origins as a beauty, the name in common usage "came to mean monster."{{sfn|Garber|Vickers|2003|p=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' ... [though] none of the women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth."{{sfn|Wilk|2000|pp=217–218}}

Medusa's visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a feminist journal called ''Women: A Journal of Liberation'' in their issue one, volume six for 1978. The cover featured the image of the Gorgon Medusa by Froggi Lupton, which the editors on the inside cover explained "can be a map to guide us through our terrors, through the depths of our anger into the sources of our power as women."{{sfn|Wilk|2000|pp=217–218}}

In issue three, Fall 1986 for the magazine ''Woman of Power'' an article called ''Gorgons: A Face for Contemporary Women's Rage,'' appeared, written by Emily Erwin Culpepper, who wrote that "The Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of our own rage."{{sfn|Wilk|2000|pp=217–218}} [[Griselda Pollock]] analyses the passage from horrorism to compassion in the figure of the Medusa through [[Adriana Cavarero]]'s philosophy and [[Bracha Ettinger]]'s art and Matrixial theory.<ref>[[Griselda Pollock]] (2013) "From Horrorism to Compassion" in G. Pollock (ed.) ''Visual Politics of Psychoanalysis'', London: I.B.Tauris. {{ISBN|978-1-78076-316-3}}</ref>

[[Elana Dykewomon]]'s 1976 collection of lesbian stories and poems, ''They Will Know Me by My Teeth'', features a drawing of a Gorgon on its cover. Its purpose was to act as a guardian for female power, keeping the book solely in the hands of women. Stephen Wilk, author of ''Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon'', questioned Medusa's enduring status among the feminist movement. He believes that one reason for her longevity may be her role as a protector, fearsome and enraged. "Only the Gorgon has the savage, threatening appearance to serve as an immediately recognized symbol of rage and a protector of women's secrets," wrote Wilk.{{sfn|Wilk|2000|p=219}}

Even in contemporary pop culture, Medusa has become largely synonymous with feminine rage. Through many of her iterations, Medusa pushes back against a story that seeks to place the male, Perseus, at its center, blameless and heroic. Author Sibylle Baumbach described Medusa as a "multimodal image of intoxication, petrifaction, and luring attractiveness", citing her seductive contemporary representation, as well as her dimensionality, as the reason for her longevity.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hastings |first1=Christobel |title=The Timeless Myth of Medusa, a Rape Victim Turned Into a Monster |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/medusa-greek-myth-rape-victim-turned-into-a-monster/ |website=Broadly. |date=9 April 2018 |publisher=Vice |access-date=5 December 2018}}</ref>

Elizabeth Johnston's November 2016 Atlantic essay called Medusa the original 'Nasty Woman.' Johnston goes on to say that as Medusa has been repeatedly compared to [[Hillary Clinton]] during the 2016 presidential election, she proves her merit as an icon, finding relevance even in modern politics. "Medusa has since haunted Western imagination, materializing whenever male authority feels threatened by female agency," writes Johnston.<ref name=r1>{{cite web |last1=Johnston |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Original 'Nasty Woman' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-original-nasty-woman-of-classical-myth/506591/ |website=The Atlantic |date=6 November 2016 |access-date=5 December 2018}}</ref> Beyond that, Medusa's story is, Johnston argues, a rape narrative. A story of [[victim blaming]], one that she says sounds all too familiar in a current American context.

{{blockquote|Medusa is widely known as a monstrous creature with snakes in her hair whose gaze turns men to stone. Through the lens of theology, film, art, and feminist literature, my students and I map how her meaning has shifted over time and across cultures. In so doing, we unravel a familiar narrative thread: In Western culture, strong women have historically been imagined as threats requiring male conquest and control, and Medusa herself has long been the go-to figure for those seeking to demonize female authority. |Elizabeth Johnston<ref name=r1/>}}

[[File:Me(dusa)too, oil on canvas, Judy Takács, 2018.jpg|thumb|''#Me(dusa)too…Two'' by [[Judy Takács]], 2018]]

The Medusa story has also been interpreted in contemporary art as a classic case of rape-victim blaming, by the goddess Athena. Inspired by the [[Me Too movement|#metoo movement]], contemporary figurative artist [[Judy Takács]] returns Medusa's beauty along with a hashtag stigmata in her portrait, #Me(dusa)too.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chickswithballsjudytakacs.blogspot.com/2018/09/medusatoo.html|title=#Me(dusa)too|last=Takács|first=Judy|date=September 30, 2018|website=chickswithballsjudytakacs.blogspot.com|access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref>

Feminist theorist [[Hélène Cixous]] famously tackled the myth in her essay "The Laugh of the Medusa." She argues that men's retelling of the narrative turned Medusa into a monster because they feared female desire. "The Laugh of the Medusa" is largely a call to arms, urging women to reclaim their identity through writing as she rejects the patriarchal society of Western culture. Cixous calls writing "an act which will not only 'realize' the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasures, her organs, her immense bodily territories which have been kept under seal." She claims "we must kill the false woman who is preventing the live one from breathing. Inscribe the breath of the whole woman."<ref name=r2>{{cite journal |last1=Cixous |first1=Helene|journal=Signs|volume= 1|issue=4|year=1976|pages= 875–893|jstor=3173239 |title=The Laugh of the Medusa |doi=10.1086/493306|s2cid=144836586|url=https://artandobjecthood.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/cixous_the_laugh_of_the_medusa.pdf |access-date=5 December 2018}}</ref>  Cixous wants to destroy the [[Phallogocentrism|phallogocentric]] system, and to empower women's bodies and language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Klages |first1=Mary |title=Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed |url=https://archive.org/details/literarytheorygu0000klag |url-access=registration |date=2006 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |location=New York, NY |page=[https://archive.org/details/literarytheorygu0000klag/page/99 99] }}</ref> "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her," writes Cixous. "And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing."<ref name=r2/>

===Nihilism===
Medusa has sometimes appeared as representing notions of [[scientific determinism]] and [[nihilism]], especially in contrast with [[romanticism|romantic idealism]].<ref name="Myth and Literary History">{{Cite web|url= http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/medusamyth.htm |title= Medusa in Myth and Literary History |access-date= 2010-01-06}}</ref><ref name=Petersen>{{cite journal|author=Petersen, Per Serritslev|doi=10.1353/phl.2002.0016|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v026/26.1petersen.pdf |title=Jack London's Medusa of Truth|journal=Philosophy and Literature|volume= 26|issue=1 |year=2002|pages=43–56|s2cid=170711057}}</ref> In this interpretation of Medusa, attempts to avoid looking into her eyes represent avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality that the universe is meaningless. [[Jack London]] uses Medusa in this way in his novel ''[[The Mutiny of the Elsinore (novel)|The Mutiny of the Elsinore]]'':<ref>{{Cite book|author= London, Jack |year=1914 |title= The Mutiny of the Elsinore|isbn= 0-935180-40-0|author-link=Jack London |page=121|publisher=Mutual }}</ref>

{{blockquote|I cannot help remembering a remark of [[Benjamin De Casseres|De Casseres]]. It was over the wine in Mouquin's. Said he: "The profoundest instinct in man is to war against the truth; that is, against the Real. He shuns facts from his infancy. His life is a perpetual evasion. Miracle, chimera and to-morrow keep him alive. He lives on fiction and myth. It is the Lie that makes him free. Animals alone are given the privilege of lifting the [[veil of Isis]]; men dare not. The animal, awake, has no fictional escape from the Real because he has no imagination. Man, awake, is compelled to seek a perpetual escape into Hope, Belief, Fable, Art, God, Socialism, Immortality, Alcohol, Love. From Medusa-Truth he makes an appeal to [[Maya (illusion)|Maya-Lie]]." |[[Jack London]]|''The Mutiny of the Elsinore''}}

==Art==
{{Main|Cultural depictions of Medusa and Gorgons}}
[[File:Vincenzo gemito, medusa, 1911 02.JPG|thumb|An embossed plaque in the [[Art Nouveau]] style from 1911]]
[[File:Perseus (Benvenuto Cellini) 2013 February.jpg|thumb|''[[Perseus with the Head of Medusa]]'' (1554), [[Benvenuto Cellini]]]]
[[File:Medusa by Carvaggio.jpg|thumb|''[[Medusa (Caravaggio)|Medusa]]'' (c. 1597), by [[Caravaggio]]]]

Medusa has been depicted in several works of art, including:

* ''Perseus beheading the sleeping Medusa'', obverse of a terracotta pelike (jar) attributed to [[Polygnotos (vase painter)]] (c. 450–440 BC), collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
* Medusa on the breastplate of [[Alexander the Great]], as depicted in the [[Alexander Mosaic]] from [[Pompeii]]'s [[House of the Faun]] (c. 200 BC)
* Medusa column bases of [[Basilica Cistern]] in Constantinople.
*[[:File:Rondanini Medusa Glyptothek Munich 252 n1.jpg|The "Rondanini Medusa"]], a Roman copy of the ''[[Gorgoneion]]'' on the [[aegis]] of [[Athena]]; later used as a model for the Gorgon's head in [[Antonio Canova]]'s marble ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'' (1798–1801)
*[[Medusa (Leonardo da Vinci)|''Medusa'']] (oil on canvas) by [[Leonardo da Vinci]]
*[[:File:PerseusSignoriaStatue.jpg|''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'']] (bronze sculpture) by [[Benvenuto Cellini]] (1554)
*''Perseus and Medusa'' – bronze statue by [[Hubert Gerhard]] (c. 1590)
*[[Medusa (Caravaggio)|''Medusa'']] (oil on canvas) by [[Caravaggio]] (1597)
*''Head of Medusa'', by [[Peter Paul Rubens]] (1618)
*[[Medusa (Bernini)|''Medusa'']] (marble bust) by [[Gianlorenzo Bernini]] (1630s)
*Medusa is played by a [[countertenor]] in [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]] and [[Philippe Quinault]]'s opera, ''[[Persée (Lully)|Persée]]'' (1682). She sings the aria "J'ay<!--J'ay in original--> perdu la beauté qui me rendit si vaine" ("I have lost the beauty that made me so vain").
*[[:File:Perseus Turning Phineus and his followers to Stone.jpg|''Perseus Turning Phineus and his Followers to Stone'']] (oil on canvas) by [[Luca Giordano]] (early 1680s).
*[[:File:Persus-with-the-head-of-med.jpg|''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'']] (marble sculpture) by [[Antonio Canova]] (1801)
*''Medusa'' (1854), marble sculpture by [[Harriet Hosmer]], collection of the [[Detroit Institute of Art]]
*[[:File:Medusa.jpg|''Medusa'']] (oil on canvas) by [[Arnold Böcklin]] (c. 1878)
*[[:File:Dalí.Perseo.JPG|''Perseus'']] (bronze sculpture) by [[Salvador Dalí]]
*[[Medusa with the Head of Perseus|Medusa sculpture by Luciano Garbati]], which portrays her clutching the severed head of Perseus (2008)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lucianogarbati.com/medusa|title=Luciano Garbati's Medusa|website=Luciano Garbati}}</ref>

Medusa remained a common theme in art in the nineteenth century, when her myth was retold in [[Thomas Bulfinch]]'s ''Mythology''. [[Edward Burne-Jones]]' [[List of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones#The Perseus Cycle (1875-90s)|Perseus Cycle]] of paintings and a drawing by [[Aubrey Beardsley]] gave way to the twentieth-century works of [[Paul Klee]], [[John Singer Sargent]], [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Pierre et Gilles]], and [[Auguste Rodin]]'s bronze sculpture ''[[:File:Zürich - Kunsthaus - Rodin's Höllentor IMG 7384 ShiftN.jpg|The Gates of Hell]]''.{{sfn|Wilk|2000|p=200}}

===Flags and emblems===
The head of Medusa is featured on some regional symbols. One example is that of the flag and emblem of [[Sicily]], together with the three-legged ''[[Flag of Sicily|trinacria]]''. The inclusion of Medusa in the center implies the protection of the goddess [[Athena]], who wore the Gorgon's likeness on her [[aegis]], as said above. Another example is the coat of arms of [[Dohalice]] village in the [[Czech Republic]].

<gallery>
File:Dohalice CoA CZ.gif|Municipal coat of arms of [[Dohalice]] village, [[Hradec Králové]] District, [[Czech Republic]]
File:Flag of Sicily.svg|[[Flag of Sicily]]
File:Ceinturon d'uniforme, 1.jpg|Ceremonial French military uniform belt of [[World War I]]
File:Epouvantail pour les ennemis de la France Fleisch.jpg|Medusa image in a historical caricature of the [[Reign of Terror]] during the [[French Revolution]] 
</gallery>

==Science==
Medusa is honored in the following [[International Code of Zoological Nomenclature|scientific names]]:<ref>WoRMS Editorial Board (2017). World Register of Marine Species. Available from http://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ. Accessed 2017-09-06. {{doi|10.14284/170}}</ref>

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*''[[Acanthemblemaria medusa]]'' <small>[[Smith-Vaniz]] & [[Palacio]] 1974</small>
*''[[Apodochondria medusae]]'' <small>[[Ju Shey Ho|Ho]] & [[Dojiri]] 1988</small>
*''[[Archimonocelis medusa]]'' <small>[[Curini-Galletti]] & [[Cannon (surname)|Cannon]] 1997</small>
*''[[Atractus|Atractus medusa]]'' <small>[[Paulo Passos|Passos]] et al. 2009</small><ref name=Beolens>[[species:Bo Beolens|Beolens, Bo]]; [[species:Michael Watkins|Watkins, Michael]]; [[species:Michael Grayson|Grayson, Michael]] (2011). "Medusa", p. 175 in ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}.</ref>
*''[[Australomedusa]]'' <small>[[Frederick Stratten Russell|Russell]] 1970</small>
*''[[Boeromedusa]]'' <small>[[Jean Bouillon|Bouillon]] 1995</small>
*''[[Bothrops medusa]]'' <small>[[Richard Sternfeld|Sternfeld]] 1920</small><ref name=Beolens />
*''[[Cardiodectes medusaeus]]'' <small>[[Charles Branch Wilson|Wilson C.B.]] 1908</small>
*''[[Chama oomedusae]]'' <small>[[Matsukuma]] 1996</small>
*''[[Cirratulus medusa]]'' <small>[[Johnston (surname)#People with the surname Johnston|Johnston]] 1833</small>
*[[Coronamedusae]]
*''[[Csiromedusa]]'' <small>[[Lisa-ann Gershwin|Gershwin]] & [[Zeidler]] 2010</small>
*''[[Csiromedusa medeopolis]]'' <small>[[Lisa-ann Gershwin|Gershwin]] & [[Zeidler]] 2010</small>
*''[[Discomedusa lobata]]'' <small>[[Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus|Claus]] 1877</small>
*[[Discomedusae]]
*''[[Eustomias medusa]]'' <small>[[Robert Henry Gibbs|Gibbs]], [[Clarke#People with the surname|Clarke]] & Gomon 1983</small>
*''[[Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae]]'' <small>[[Carl Linnaeus|L.]] 1758</small>
*''[[Gyrocotyle medusarum]]'' <small>[[Otto Friedrich Bernhard von Linstow|von Linstow]] 1903 ([[Species inquirenda|taxon inquirendum]])</small>
*''[[Halimedusa]]'' <small>[[Henry Bryant Bigelow|Bigelow]] 1916</small>
*''[[Halimedusa typus]]'' <small>[[Henry Bryant Bigelow|Bigelow]] 1916</small>
*''[[Heteronema medusae]]'' <small>[[Skvortzov]] 1957</small>
*''[[Hoplopleon medusarum]]'' <small>[[Keppel Harcourt Barnard|K.H. Barnard]] 1932</small>
*''[[Hyperia medusarum]]'' <small>[[Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller|Müller]] 1776</small>
*''[[Hyperoche medusarum]]'' <small>[[Henrik Nikolai Krøyer|Krøyer]] 1838</small>
*''[[Leptogorgia medusa]]'' <small>[[Frederick Bayer|Bayer]] 1952</small>
*''[[Lilyopsis medusa]]'' <small>[[Metschnikoff]] & [[Metschnikoff]] 1871</small>
*[[Limnomedusae]]
*''[[Loimia medusa]]'' <small>[[Marie Jules César Savigny|Savigny]] in [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarck]] 1818</small>
*''[[Loimia medusa angustescutata]]'' <small>[[Arthur Willey|Willey]] 1905</small>
*''[[Lulworthia medusa]]'' <small>([[Max Mapes Ellis|Ellis]] & [[Benjamin Matlack Everhart|Everh.]]) [[Cribb (surname)|Cribb]] & [[Joan Cribb|J.W. Cribb]] 1955</small>
*''[[Lulworthia medusa var. biscaynia]]'' <small>[[Meyers]] 1957</small>
*''[[Lulworthia medusa var. medusa]]'' <small>([[Max Mapes Ellis|Ellis]] & [[Benjamin Matlack Everhart|Everh.]]) [[Cribb (surname)|Cribb]] & [[Joan Cribb|J.W. Cribb]] 1955</small>
*''[[Magnippe caputmedusae]]'' <small>[[Stock (surname)#People|Stock]] 1978</small>
*''Medusa'' <small>[[João de Loureiro|Loureiro]] 1790</small>
*''[[Medusablennius]]'' <small>[[Victor G. Springer|Springer]] 1966</small>
*''[[Medusaceratops]]'' <small>[[Michael J. Ryan (paleontologist)|Ryan]], [[Anthony Russell (paleontologist)|Russell]] & [[Scott Hartman|Hartman]] 2010</small>
*''[[Medusafissurella]]'' <small>[[James Hamilton McLean|McLean]] & [[Richard Kilburn|Kilburn]] 1986</small>
*''[[Medusafissurella chemnitzii]]'' <small>[[George Brettingham Sowerby I|G. B. Sowerby I]] 1835</small>
*''[[Medusafissurella dubia]]'' <small>[[Lovell Augustus Reeve|Reeve]] 1849</small>
*''[[Medusafissurella melvilli]]'' <small>[[George Brettingham Sowerby III|G. B. Sowerby III]] 1882</small>
*''[[Medusafissurella salebrosa]]'' <small>[[Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller|Reeve]] 1850</small>
*''[[Mesacanthoides caputmedusae]]'' <small>([[Hjalmar Ditlevsen|Ditlevsen]] 1918) [[W. Wieser|Wieser]] 1959</small>
*''[[Myxaster medusa]]'' <small>[[W. K. Fisher|Fisher]] 1913</small>
*[[Narcomedusae]]
*''[[Ophioplinthus medusa]]'' <small>[[Theodore Lyman (zoologist)|Lyman]] 1878</small>
*''[[Phallomedusa]]'' <small>[[Rosemary E. Golding|Golding]], [[Winston Ponder|Ponder]] & [[Maria Byrne (malacologist)|Byrne]] 2007</small>
*''[[Phallomedusa austrina]]'' <small>[[Rosemary E. Golding|Golding]], [[Winston Ponder|Ponder]] & [[Maria Byrne (malacologist)|Byrne]] 2007</small>
*''[[Phallomedusa solida]]'' <small>[[Eduard von Martens|Martens]] 1878</small>
*''[[Phascolion medusae]]'' <small>[[Cutler (surname)#Engineering.2C science.2C mathematics and medicine|Cutler]] & [[Cutler (surname)#Engineering.2C science.2C mathematics and medicine|Cutler]] 1980</small>
*''[[Philomedusa (cnidarian)|Philomedusa]]''
*''[[Philomedusa vogtii]]'' <small>[[Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller|Müller]] 1860</small>
*''[[Polycirrus medusa]]'' <small>[[Adolph Eduard Grube|Grube]] 1850</small>
*''[[Polycirrus medusa sakhalinensis]]'' <small>[[Galina Buzhinskaja|Buzhinskaja]] 1988</small>
*''[[Sarcomella medusa]]'' <small>[[Johannes Schmidt (biologist)|Schmidt]] 1868</small>
*[[Stauromedusae]]
*''[[Stellamedusa]]'' <small>[[Kevin Raskoff|Raskoff]] & [[George Matsumoto|Matsumoto]] 2004</small>
*''[[Stellamedusa ventana]]'' <small>[[Kevin Raskoff|Raskoff]] & [[George Matsumoto|Matsumoto]] 2004</small>
*''[[Stygiomedusa]]'' <small>[[Frederick Stratten Russell|Russell]] 1959</small>
*''[[Stygiomedusa gigantea]]'' <small>[[Edward T. Browne|Browne]] 1910</small>
*''[[Thylacodes medusae]]'' <small>[[Henry Augustus Pilsbry|Pilsbry]] 1891</small>
*[[Trachymedusae]]
}}

==In popular culture==
{{Main|Cultural depictions of Medusa and Gorgons|Greek mythology in popular culture}}
<!-- This is not the place to add a bulleted list. -->

==Myth sources==
===Primary myth sources===
Greek:
* Hesiod, ''Theogony'', 270 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng2:270-285 text])
* Apollodorus, ''The Library'', book II, part iv, no. 2-3 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng2:2.4.2-2.4.3 text])
* Aeschylus, ''Prometheus Bound'', 790–801 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg003.perseus-eng2:780-805 text])

Roman:
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses iv. 774–785, 790–801'' ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng3:4.706 text])

===Mentioned in===
Greek:
* Homer, ''The Iliad'', Book 5, line 741 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng3:5.711 text]); book 8, line 348 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng3:8.335 text]); book 11, line 36 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng3:11.1 text])
* Homer, ''The Odyssey'', Book 11, line 635 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng3:11.601 text])
* Euripides, ''Ion'', lines 1003–1023 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg010.perseus-eng2:1000-1020 text])
* Apollonius Rhodius, ''Argonautica'', book 4, line 1515 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0001.tlg001.perseus-grc2:4.1513-4.1517 text])

Roman:
* Publius "Virgil" Maro, ''Aeneid'' vi.289 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0690.phi003.perseus-eng2:6.282 text])
* Lucan, ''The Civil War'', book ix.624–684 ([https://scaife-cts.perseus.org/api/cts?request=GetPassage&urn=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0917.phi001.perseus-eng2:9.1 text])
* Valerius Flaccus, ''Argonautica''

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* {{anl|Apotropaic symbols}}
* [[Caput Medusae (disambiguation)|''Caput Medusae'']] - [Head of Medusa] (disambiguation article)
* {{anl|Cassandra}}
* {{anl|Comaetho (priestess)|Comaetho}}
* {{anl|Humbaba}}
* {{anl|Medea}}
* {{anl|Medusa complex}}
* {{anl|Nāga}}
* {{anl|Shahmaran}}
* {{anl|Theodontius}}
* {{anl|Tiamat}}
}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes'', Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* ''[[Brill's New Pauly]]: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 5'', Equ-Has, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 2004. {{ISBN|978-90-04-12268-0}}. [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-pauly Online version at Brill].
* [[Timothy Gantz|Gantz, Timothy]], ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* {{cite book |last1=Garber |first1=Marjorie |last2=Vickers |first2=Nancy |title=The Medusa Reader |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-90099-7}}
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Hard |first=Robin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC |title=The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology" |date=2004 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-18636-0 |language=en}}
* [[Jane Ellen Harrison|Harrison, Jane Ellen]] (1903) 3rd ed. 1922. ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'',: "The Ker as Gorgon"
* [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus, Gaius Julius]], ''[[Fabulae]]'', in ''The Myths of Hyginus'', edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at ToposText].
* {{cite book | title = Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin | volume = 75 | number = 3 | first = Kiki | last = Karoglou | location = New York, USA | isbn = 978-1-58839-642-6 | date = February 1, 2018 | publisher = [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZKDwAAQBAJ}}
* [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Brookes More, Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Ovid]]. ''[[Metamorphoses]], Volume I: Books 1–8''. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 42. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 1977, first published 1916. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99046-3}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL042/1916/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Seelig BJ. The rape of Medusa in the temple of Athena: aspects of triangulation in the girl. Int J Psychoanal. 2002 Aug;83(Pt 4):895–911. doi: 10.1516/00207570260172975. PMID 12204171.
* Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
* Walker, Barbara G. (1996). ''The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets''. New Jersey: Castle Books. {{ISBN|0785807209}} 
* {{cite book|last1=Wilk |first1=Stephen |title=Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=New York|isbn=9780195124316 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://rg.ancients.info/medusa/ Ancient coins depicting Medusa]
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/medusamyth.htm "Medusa in Myth and Literary History"&nbsp;– English.uiuc.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218013829/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/medusamyth.htm |date=2008-12-18 }}
* [http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Gorgones.html Theoi Project, Medousa & the Gorgones] References to Medusa and her sisters in classical literature and art
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000225 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Medusa)]

{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}
{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{Portal bar|Mythology|Ancient Greece|Myths}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Medusa| ]]
[[Category:Gorgons]]
[[Category:Decapitation]]
[[Category:Deeds of Athena]]
[[Category:Heraldic beasts]]
[[Category:Libyan characters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into monsters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]
[[Category:Women and death]]
[[Category:Women in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Snakes in popular culture]]