The only mortal of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. She lay with Poseidon, and when Perseus struck off her head the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang forth from her.1
Hesiod sets her among the children of Phorcys and Ceto: with the grey Graiae and her two Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale, she dwells beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land toward Night, where the clear-voiced Hesperides sing. Alone of the three she suffered a woeful fate, for she was mortal, while her sisters were undying and grew not old.2
Apollodorus likewise traces her descent to Phorcus and Ceto, themselves born of Pontus and Gaia. He gives the Gorgons heads twined about with the scales of dragons, great tusks like swine's, brazen hands, and golden wings on which they flew, and says they turned to stone whoever beheld them.3
Ovid names her the Phorcynida, 'daughter of Phorcys,' and makes the serpent-haired visage itself the marvel: along the roads and fields stand men and beasts turned to flinty stone at the sight of dread Medusa's face.4
With her Poseidon lay — the Dark-haired One, in Hesiod's telling, in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. The union bore no living birth until her death, when Perseus cut off her head and there sprang forth at once the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor 'of the golden blade,' who would father three-headed Geryones.5
Because she alone among the Gorgons could die, Perseus was sent to fetch her head. Guided by Hermes and Athena and armed with an adamantine sickle, he caught the Gorgons asleep and, while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield in which he beheld her image, beheaded her; from the slain Gorgon sprang the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the children she had by Poseidon.6
In Ovid's account, Perseus tells the wedding feast how he came upon her helpless in sleep, her serpent-hair too slumber-bound, and struck her head sheer from the neck; to the winged Pegasus and his brother the blood gave birth, twins of rapid wing.7
Her terror outlasted her life. When Heracles descended to Hades, the souls fled before him save the shade of the Gorgon Medusa; he drew his sword against her as though she were alive, until Hermes told him she was only an empty phantom.8
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
