Medusa

Medusa (Μέδουσα in Ancient Greek) is a monster who appears in The Lightning Thief. She is a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto 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 is her statues. She has a child from Poseidon, Chrysaor, who was born from her neck, and another child, Pegasus who was born from her blood when Perseus beheaded her.

She is portrayed by Uma Thurman in The Lightning Thief (film).

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 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, Annabeth, and Grover 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, in which he then sends 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 Smelly Gabe 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 Battle of the Manhattan; while speaking to Ethan, he mentioned that unfortunately for him (and good for Ethan and the demigods), Medusa had not reformed yet ever since Percy had defeated her. May is also shown to have a TY Beanie doll of her that she calls "Mrs. Medusa".

The Son of Neptune
Medusa's sisters were chasing down and trying to kill Percy Jackson who was the last person to kill Medusa. One Gorgon even looked like her sister, Medusa, as she was scared she would be turned to stone by her own reflection. The two were also mad at Percy for believing that they can turn him to stone like their sister.

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 who she wanted to turn to a statue and destroy her because Annabeth's Olympian goddess mother was Athena who turned her into a monster. That thing also led to part of the (and probably the most important) reason Athena resents Poseidon; he desecrated her virgin temple with Medusa by going in and having a sexual relationship with Medusa in the temple. Medusa wanted to turn Annabeth to stone as revenge on Athena for turning her into a Gorgon. This is why Medusa harbors a strong hatred against the family of Athena.

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

Appearance
Medusa used to be a beautiful woman that was a girlfriend of Poseidon. Now Medusa is described as a tall, old woman with wrinkled, coffee colored skin and snakes for hair with long elegant wrinkled hands. She also has a middle eastern accent. She wore a long black gown, and her face is a shimmering pale circle under her black veil. These characteristics were not present in the film version of Medusa.

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.
 * Her hands turn into sharp claws that can tear through flesh.
 * She has an extremely persuasive voice; she could slightly Charmspeak.
 * Her head can still be used to petrify people after it has been removed from her body.

Film
In The Lightning Thief Uma Thurman plays Medusa. Percy is seen using an Apple iPod Touch (so he can see what he's fighting without getting turned to stone) 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 (Medusa's snakes were opening Percy's eyes forcefully) by Medusa being run over by Annabeth and Grover in a pick-up truck formerly used by one of Medusa's customers that had been turned into stone. She is shown as being a beautiful middle aged woman with flawless Caucasian skin.

Aegis
Aegis is a bronze shield that has an imprinting of Medusa, given to Zeus by Athena. Thalia Grace owns a replica of this sheild, which is activated by tapping a silver bracelet on her arm.

Also See

 * Medusa's head