Medusa head skin#

While Medusa once had soft and supple white skin, it turned green. This version claims that Athena became spiteful and used her powers to turn the woman into a monster that no man would ever want. Unlike other stories that claim she caught them in the throes of passion, this version says that she was upset that her priestess went against her rules. The two decided to marry, which infuriated the goddess. Medusa followed the goddess for many years before she met and fell in love with Poseidon. Priestesses took a vow of chastity and devoted their lives to her. In one version of the Medusa story, she was a gorgeous young woman who agreed to become one of Athena’s priestesses. When Minerva caught them in the act, she changed Medusa into a terrifying Gorgon. The Roman version of her story is the same but changes the location to Minerva’s temple and her partner to Neptune. When she found them together, Athena transformed her into a woman with serpents in her hair and a cold stare. Poseidon tempted her into having sexual intercourse with him in a temple to Athena. When Ovid wrote her story in Metamopheses, he claimed that she was born beautiful before becoming a snake-haired creature and retained her looks over the years.

The stories about Medusa in Greece are unique because they changed quite a bit over the years. He claimed that both groups of sisters were monsters. They also had another group of sisters called the Graeae who appeared in Prometheus Bound written by Aeschylus. Though both were marine deities, their children were chthonic monsters. The two had three daughters, including Euryale and Stheno. Also known as Phorkys, he lay with his sister Ceto. Legend says that Medusa was one of three children born to Phorcys. Herodotus found some evidence that she appeared in Berber mythology where she was a major part of their religion. Dionysios Skytobrachion wrote about her during the second century and claimed that she both lived and died in an area of Libya. They claim that she spent most of her life in Sarpedon, which was close to Cisthene with her Gorgon sisters and also died there. Thence, by Athena’s curse anyone she looked upon turned to stone.īoth Aeschylus and Hesiod mention Medusa in some of their early stories. From then on she roamed, shamed, shunned and loathed by everyone.

Medusa head skin#

Her pure white milky skin turned a scary green hue. The once lovely hair was morphed into poisonous, dangerous snakes.

She turned Medusa into an ugly creature by making her eyes bloodshot and raging and her face haglike. She went against her vow and married him.įor this Athena punished her hideously. She vowed to be celibate her entire life as a priestess of Athena until she fell in love with Poseidon. She was a beautiful maiden with golden hair. One of the most popular monsters of Greek Mythology is Medusa. Greek Mythology is known for its many fearsome beasts such Mantikhoras and Cyclopes.