Medusa

First appears: Apollodorus, Library 2.4

🌐 Also appears in: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Medusa)

Medusa was a Gorgon, the child of Ceto and Phorcys, and a sister of Stheno and Euryale. Hesiod describes her as one of the Gorgons who lived beyond Ocean, and says she “suffered a woeful fate.”

In the accounts of her death, Perseus cut off Medusa’s head while she slept, guided by Athena and using a brazen shield to avoid looking directly at her. From her body sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor, whom she had by Poseidon; as Apollodorus records, “there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor.”

Relationship record

Life events

• Perseus beheaded Medusa, and Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from her body.(Apollodorus, Library 2.4)
  • With: Perseus Pegasus Chrysaor Poseidon
  • “So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon.”
• Perseus cut off Medusa’s head, causing Chrysaor and Pegasus to spring forth.(Hesiod, Theogony 139-265)
  • With: Perseus Chrysaor Pegasus
  • “With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean;”

Apollodorus, Library 2.4

• siblings with Stheno “They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.”
• siblings with Euryale “They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.”
• child: Pegasus “When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon.”
• child: Chrysaor “When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon.”
• enemies with Perseus “So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her.”

Hesiod, Theogony 139-265

• with Phorcys (interaction) “and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate”
• with Perseus (interaction) “And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus”
• parent: Ceto “the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate”
• parent: Phorcys “the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate”
• child: Chrysaor “And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus”
• child: Pegasus “And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Mythology. Made with Rho MD.