Medusa

Medusa (Μέδουσα in Ancient Greek) is a Gorgon which appears in The Lightning Thief. She was a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. After Medusa and Poseidon desecrated Athena's 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.

The Lightning Thief
Posing as an old lady, Medusa lures people into "Aunty Em's Gnome Emporium" and then turns them into statues by making them look at her. At one point, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are lured into the shop by the smell of food, during their Quest. Medusa feigns kindness, but then attempts to turn them into statues. After a long struggle, Percy defeats Medusa by severing her head, which he then sends to Olympus via the Hermes Express. Her severed head is later used by Percy for several other purposes. Sally Jackson later uses the head of Medusa to turn Gabe Ugliano to stone. Medusa had turned many people and creatures into statues, including Grover's Uncle Ferdinand (Who was revealed to be a searcher like his brother and nephew.) Grover mentioned the statue looking like his uncle from the start but did not realize that it was actually him until Medusa revealed herself.

The Last Olympian
Although Medusa does not appear in this book, her lair was being used by Kronos as his base in the Second Olympian War, while speaking to Ethan Nakamura he mentioned that unfortunately for him (and good for Ethan), Medusa had not reformed yet since Percy had defeated her.

Personality
Medusa was also kind to Percy in her own strange way, and wanted him to stay with her forever by becoming a statue because, according to Annabeth, she and Poseidon had a thing in the past. Since Percy was Poseidon's son, she didn't want him to suffer, unlike Annabeth. That thing also led to part of the (and probably the most important) reason Athena resents Poseidon; he desecrated her temple with Medusa by breaking in and bringing Medusa. Medusa wanted to turn Annabeth to stone as revenge on Athena for turning her into a monster.

Oddly, she refered to Percy and Annabeth as Godlings, a term used in the yet unreleased Kane Chronicles to describe people possessed by Egyptian Gods. It is unknown why she refered to them as this.

Appearance
Medusa is described as an old woman with wrinkled, coffee coloured skin and snakes for hair. She also has a middle eastern accent.

Powers

 * If someone looks into her eyes, he/she turns to stone. She is said to be petrifyingly ugly.
 * She can use the snakes in her hair as a offensive weapon.

Film
In The Lightning Thief movie, Uma Thurman plays Medusa. Percy is seen using an Apple iPod Touch to fight Medusa in the film, as opposed to the globe he uses in the book. In the book, she never gets near turning Percy to stone but in the film, Percy is only stopped from opening his eyes by Medusa being run over by Annabeth and Grover in her truck.

She is shown as being a beautiful middle aged woman with flawless Caucasian skin.

Also See

 * Medusa's head
 * Gorgon