According to Greek mythology, Medusa was once a beautiful
woman; Poseidon, god of the sea, fell in love with her, but she
didn’t return his love.
One day they decided to have their fun in Athenas temple, when
Athena learned how they had disrespected and desecrated her temple
she being unable to harm Poseidon she cursed Medusa and her two
sisters who helped her break into the temple to become gorgons.
Gorgons are creatures with a snakes body for legs, a human torso,
snakes for hair, and the ability to turn those who look directly at
their face to stone.
Whoever looked on Medusa’s still beautiful face was turned into
stone.
Poseidon and Athena are archenemys. They competed to be the
patron god of Athens. Therefore, Athena never liked his uncle.
After the Greek hero Perseus cut off Medusa’s head, two
creatures appeared from the drops of her blood: Pegasus, a winged
horse, and Chrysaor, a giant or winged boar. According to myth,
these were Medusa’s children with Poseidon.
Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used
her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as
a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her
shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa
appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.