Riordan Wiki:Featured Articles/Medusa

Medusa (in Ancient Greek: Μέδυσα) is a monster who can petrify people to stone if they look her directly in her eyes. She was portrayed by Uma Thurman in The Lightning Thief.

She is a daughter of Phorkys and Keto and was once a priestess of Athena. After Medusa and Poseidon desecrated Athena's virgin temple, Athena cursed Medusa and her sisters. Her hair was turned to snakes and anyone who would look upon her gaze would turn to stone. She was once a beautiful woman before Athena cursed her. Her only company are her statues. She had a child with Poseidon, Chrysaor, who was born from her neck, and another child, Pegasus, in some myths; though others say Pegasus was born from Poseidon and Demeter, who was born from her blood when Perseus beheaded her.

In a late version of the Medusa myth told by the Romans, Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," priestess in Athena's temple, but when she and Poseidon were caught together in Athena's Temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva as just and well earned.

Posing as a Middle Eastern old lady named Aunt Em (Aunty "M"), Medusa lures people into her "Emporium" and then turns them into statues by making them look at her face, usually directly at her eyes. She wears a veil to hide her face, and would trick people into looking at her face by pretending to take a photo of them and lifting the veil to uncover her head. At one point, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood are lured into the shop by the smell of food during their Quest. Medusa feigns kindness, by giving them food and talking to them about her shop. She also mentions that her sisters are gone (they faded because people forgot about them, like Cottus and Gyges), but then attempts to turn them into statues. Annabeth and Grover realize who Medusa really is and try to get Percy to let them leave. Percy, however is under Medusa's spell and keeps them from going. Percy only figures out that "Em" means M for Medusa when it is too late to escape. After a long struggle, Percy defeats Medusa by severing her head with Riptide, his celestial bronze sword. He then sends the head to Olympus via the Hermes Express. Her severed head is later used by Percy for several other purposes such as giving it to his mom, who later uses the head to turn Gabe Ugliano to stone. Medusa had turned many people and creatures into statues, including Grover's Uncle Ferdinand. Grover mentioned the statue looking like his uncle from the start, but did not realize that it was actually him until Medusa revealed herself.

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