Medusa- The Cursed Beauty

Medusa the woman with snakes in place of her hair, is probably one of the most well-known creatures in Greek mythology.

However, she was not always like that. Daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, two primordial identities of the sea. Medusa was born with incredible beauty. The young woman snatches heart wherever she went. Yet, despite her immense beauty, Medusa was kind and pure and because she admired the goddess Athena, she decided to become the priestess of the temple dedicated to Athena. Virginity and purity were indispensable requirements for this position. Medusa was a perfect priestess, perhaps too perfect even.

Because she was so beautiful, the number of visitors who went to the temple just to admire her grew every day. That made the goddess Athena very jealous.

For having the most beautiful hair of all Greece, one day a citizen dared to say that her hair would be prettier than the hair of Goddess Athena. Although, hurt and enraged Athena did not took revenge. Nevertheless, one day when the shore was near, Medusa was spotted by Poseidon, God of the seas.

He fell in love with the girl right away. Yet she resisted the constant flirtations of God. Poseidon has a personal hatred against goddess Athena and so owning her priestess became an obsession.

Tired of being rejected, God decides to possess her by force. Desperate Medusa runs into a temple of Athena in pursuit of protection. Poseidon enters behind her, grabs the young woman and rapes her on the floor in front of the goddess statue. After the violence ended, the goddess appears enraged. And she decided to cruelly punish her priestess. For the Goddess to punish the Poseidon was out of the question, since she considered that his act was of female entities nature. But she considered Medusa guilty for seducing the god and bringing dishonor to the temple and the goddess.

Athena curses the young women. Turning her beautiful hair into snakes, and from this day forward anyone who looks into her eyes would instantly turned into stone. Medusa was now chased by the warriors who wished her head as a trophy, yet they all turned into stone.

The hero Perseus finally was able to kill the creature, what no one knew that Medusa was carrying the child of Poseidon. And with her death, from her shed blood, was born the Pegasus Horse.