For Your Daily Dose Of Weird Or Horror Stuffs.
02/01/2025
The story of Medusa
[Greek mythology]
Medusa was not evil. In fact, she was the most beautiful woman of all time (it's a tight battle between her and Aphrodite [Zeus' daughter]. But I think Aphrodite got to be the most beautiful after Medusa because a snake monster). She was actually turned into a snake monster by one of the goddesses we considered as the most kind of all, Athena (the goddess of battle strategy, and wisdom). Athena did this because Poseidon forced himself on Medusa in her temple (typical Poseidon stuff.
No big deal and from that came the horse, Pegasus. Now that l've gotten your attention, let's start from the beginning!
Medusa was the most beautiful woman to walk the
planet earth. She was so beautiful, that Gaia, the personification of earth, was like "You can step on me all you like girl". Everyone was head over heals for Medusa.
When I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Regardless of their gender or age. But Medusa was a virgin and wanted to remain a virgin forever. She devoted herself to Athena, the virgin goddess of purity, wisdom and strategic warfare. Medusa moved into Athena's temple full time to save on rent and worship her ALL DAY.
Now here's the thing. Medusa was so beautiful that
she attracted a crowd of simps creeping outside the temple everyday (regardless of gender and age like I said.
It's just like that 2006 movie Perfume, just without the serial killer part tho). Now there's Athena, the goddess of wisdom but I think she forgot her that title for a minute cos she got mad jealous about all the attention Medusa
was getting and that's where my man Poseidon comes in.
Lil back story, Poseidon and his niece Athena had a
forever feud going on where they tried to make each other's live miserable ever since Athena stole one of the cities that worshipped Poseidon. A city now known as Athens. Poseidon saw Athena's anger and jealousy and wanted to be the cherry on top by getting on top of Medusa and my man's did exactly that. Forced his way inside her inside Athena's temple and since that broke the virgin theme of Athena's sorority club, Athena punished Medusa for it.
Now here's the mind blowing part. Athena said it
was Medusa's fault for being so flashy with her beauty (Wow! Way to be a b Athena). So she turned Medusa to the hideous snake monster we popularly know her as and from that point onward, anyone who looks at her turns into stone (not so beautiful anymore huh? I mean even if she was still beautiful, one glance at her and you're rock hard!).
A couple of people got turned into stone cos definitely she has to move around and people will look at her without knowing what she really is. The soldiers got alerted and they wanted to slay the monster but remember, this was just a poor girl who had no crime but worship a goddess. She wanted to be left alone so she fled to an Island to live in peace alone and there she still worshipped Athena until she was finally beheaded by Perseus, Zeus' son, on his quest to become a hero.
Today, history class teaches us that Medusa is a monster and Perseus is a hero (I'm gonna create a post for Perseus soon so watch this space). When Medusa died, Poseidon's seed was still in Medusa from the mounting at the temple. From the blood of Medusa's
severed head came out the giant Chrysaor and arguably history's most famous and beautiful horse, Pegasus, the winged horse which became the trusted steed of Perseus, the man who just slayed it's mother (I swear, Greek mythology is whole drug trip on its own).
It is important to note that Medusa's story and
origin wasn't originally definitive. There was no consensus until the poet, Ovid, wrote this version in 8 CE and everyone connected with it and adopted it into Greek and Roman mythology to this day, 2000 years later. I'll pick a day where I'll explain how Roman and Greek mythology differ and where they even influence one another.
