[Music]
the myth of medusa and perseus
one of the scariest characters in
mythology is medusa the most famous of
the three sisters known as the gorgons
they appear for the first time in
hesiod's writings in the work entitled
theogony which tells the story of three
sisters southano burial and medusa
these were ketta's daughters keta or
seto was the mother of all sea monsters
in greek mythology
the sisters bragged to every mortal they
encountered that they would live in the
ocean until the end of time
the three gorgons have not always been
frightening in fact they were very
beautiful women that's why medusa and
the god of the seas poseidon ended up
having an affair
unfortunately this had happened in the
temple of the goddess athena
considering this offensive athena turned
medusa and her two sisters into
creatures with snakes instead of hair
and eyes that instantly turned anyone
who looked directly at him into stone
she practically made sure that any man
who looked into her eyes was turned
instantly into stone
athens also gave them bronze arms and
golden wings
the same myth is told nearly in the same
way by the greek poet pinder but spiced
a bit the story
medusa was a beautiful and mortal woman
one day she went to the temple of athens
to worship
while she was there poseidon saw her and
seduced or raped her and she became
pregnant
athena annoyed by the desolation of her
temple turned her into an immortal
monster
eventually perseus killed the gorgons he
succeeded because he had many strengths
he was the son of zeus and in battle he
received divine help
the god hades gave him the power to be
invisible by giving him his helm that
had this ability
he received winged sandals for flying
from hermes and a special sword from
hephaestus
but perhaps the most important thing was
the shield of athens which made him
invincible
and practically with all this help and
mainly with the help of this magic
shield perseus guided himself by her
reflection on this shield and beheaded
medusa as she slept
at that moment the sisters of medusa
also appeared who followed and tried to
kill him
he used the gift of invisibility
received from the gods and became
invisible and escaped
while flying over libya with medusa head
in a bag drops of blood spilled over the
libyan plane
every drop of blood turned into a
venomous snake and that's the
mythological reason why libya abounds
with serpents in our days
the power of medusa's head was seen
again when perseus met the titan atlas
perseus asked atlas for a place to rest
for a short time but his request was
denied
knowing that he would not be able to
defeat the titan by his own strength he
took the medusa head out and thus turned
the titan into a mountain
perseus also met andromeda the daughter
of the ethiopian king cephus and his
wife cassiopeia
using the head of medusa perseus managed
to save the princess who was to be
sacrificed to cetus a sea monster sent
by poseidon
he used medusa's head to turn cetus to
stone while freeing andromeda from her
chains
so even after medusa's death her head
had an immense power
this power made her almost invincible
and probably for this reason she told
mortals that she would live forever
until the end of time in the ocean
depths
the myth of the gorgons is found in
every culture the head of medusa has a
special importance in today's world its
representation is used on protective
amulets
one explanation may be that the name
medusa comes from the ancient greek verb
to protect to god
this was the story of the medusa and the
great warrior perseus
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