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Not part of Riordanverse
The following article/section is from the Percy Jackson Show continuity and not the Riordanverse canon. |
- This article is about the Disney+ character. You may be looking for the character from the book series or the character from the movie.
| “ | We are not our parents, until we choose to be | ” |
–Medusa to Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase as she hunts them in her basement | ||
Medusa is one of the Three Gorgons. While they are all hideously ugly, Medusa is the only one among them with the power to petrify people with her gaze.
History[]
According to Medusa, the goddess Athena was everything to her. She worshipped her, prayed to her, and made offerings, but the goddess never answered. Not even an omen to suggest she appreciated her love. But then one day, another god came, and he broke that silence. Poseidon; the Sea God told Medusa that he loved her. She felt as though he saw her in a way she had never felt seen before. But then Athena declared that Medusa had embarrassed her and she needed to be punished. So the goddess decided that Medusa would never be seen again by anyone who would live to tell the tale.[1]
Medusa was slain by the hero Perseus in ancient times, who went on to use her head to rescue his mother from a forced marriage. Millennia later, Medusa's body re-formed and she returned to the living world. She set up a home in a remote corner of New Jersey where she passed herself off as a kindly stone carver and small business owner under the alias "Aunty Em".
At Aunty Em's Gnome Emporium, she continued to use her petrifying abilities to turn humans, animals, and monsters to stone and then sold her victims as lawn decorations. Among her victims were Ferdinand Underwood, a satyr on a quest.[2][1]
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (TV series)[]
Season One[]
"We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium"[]
Fleeing from Alecto, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover wander through the New Jersey wilderness until they discover Aunty Em's Gnome Emporium. Annabeth immediately realizes that "Aunty Em" is Medusa after noticing the front lawn full of stone statues. Before the three can run, Alecto catches up to them. Medusa enters the scene and offers the questers sanctuary from the Fury. Out of options, the trio reluctantly accept the Gorgon's offer.
Medusa tells the questers her version of how she came to be a Gorgon, which frames Athena in a far less sympathetic light than Annabeth is used to hearing. The young half-blood girl insists that her mother is wise and just, and Medusa must have deserved her punishment. She then takes Percy aside and tells him that she knows he is more interested in rescuing his mother than finding the Master Bolt. She attempts to persuade Percy that his companions will betray him if his goal conflicts with theirs, and offers her help in saving Sally if he allows her to add Annabeth and Grover to her collection. Percy chooses to stay loyal to his friends, infuriating the Gorgon and prompting her to attack.
Medusa chases the trio into her cellar, which serves as both a shipping warehouse and trophy room of her past victims. She taunts the half-bloods that they are just like their parents: Annabeth is self-righteous and unable to admit wrongdoing, and Percy is too cowardly to stand up for his loved ones. She considers sending their statues to Olympus, and maybe then Athena and Poseidon will regret how they treated her. Working together, the questers kill Medusa and place her head under Annabeth's Yankees Cap, rendering it invisible and harmless. Percy uses the head to kill Alecto, still lurking on Medusa's front yard, and then brazenly sends the head to the gods on Olympus, despite Annabeth and Grover's worries that the gods will see it as disrespectful.
"The Prophecy Comes True"[]
The gods ship Medusa's Head back to Percy and it's found on the doorstep of their apartment by Gabe Ugliano. Opening the box out of curiosity, Gabe is turned to stone by Medusa's Head.
Appearance[]
Medusa used to be a beautiful woman, until she was cursed and transformed into a tall woman with slithering green vipers for hair. Disguised as human, she wears a long white gown, and her face is a shimmering pale circle under her white veil. In disguise, her body looks normal, but once she takes the disguise off, she reveals she has dark green snakes instead of hair and unnaturally blue eyes that no living thing can stare directly into without turning to stone.
Personality[]
Medusa was initially a devout priestess for Athena. After being cursed by the Goddess, Medusa developed an intense hatred towards Athena. However, she did not extend her animosity towards Athena's demi-god offspring as she was initially friendly towards Annabeth and co. and only became hostile when Percy refused to betray his comrades.
Abilities and Tools[]
- Gorgon Petrification: If someone looks into Medusa's eyes, they turn to stone.
Relationships[]
Athena[]
As a mortal, Medusa held Athena in High Regard and was a devout Priestess at her temple. Unfortunately Athena didn't reciprocate Medusa's offerings and turned the latter into a Gorgon after she caught the priestess flirting with Poseidon. This caused Medusa to develop an intense hatred towards the Goddess.
Poseidon[]
When Medusa was mortal, she was romanced by Poseidon. She felt that the god truly loved her, but her feelings changed when Poseidon did nothing to stop Athena from punishing her. In time, she came to see her lover as the "true" monster. She also voiced sympathy for Sally Jackson, another lover of Poseidon and thus another one of his "victims".
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Like the novel, Medusa's backstory is a modified version of Ovid's take on her myth. The writers deliberately kept it ambiguous if Medusa's relationship with Poseidon was completely consensual. In an interview with Variety, episode co-writer Jon Steinberg discussed these choices: "I like that the story perceives that relationship from Percy’s point of view. It’s not entirely clear: Did they love each other? It seems like they did, but what went wrong? Did anything go wrong? Is it possible that Medusa had an awful experience with Poseidon and Sally didn’t?"[3]
- Jessica Parker Kennedy said that this ambiguity shaped her acting choices with the character: "Jon wrote a story of [Medusa] thinking that [Poseidon] was someone she could trust, and he broke that trust. She was feeling safe, and then the situation turned unsafe. So I chose to play that she was a victim of rape and total abandonment, not understanding why Athena would turn on her."[3]
- Rick Riordan, in his role as executive producer for the show, wanted to make Medusa more sympathetic and beautiful than her book counterpart. In the same interview, he said, "In Medusa’s point of view, the real curse wasn’t making her ugly. It was making her invisible. She has chosen, in this version, to own that. To be seen. To be elegant. She turns people into stone and uses that as art."[3]