Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Perseus 2/4 (M2)



Medusa bragged that she was prettier than Athena, and this angers Athena. When Poseidon rapes Medusa, she prays to the virgin goddess, Athena, for salvation, but Athena just gets angry and turns her into a Gorgon. There are three Gorgons total, and Medusa is the only mortal one. Her hair is of snakes, she has tusks like a wild boar, golden wings, bronze hands, and whenever anyone or anything looks at her, they turn into stone. 

Perseus is helped on his trip by Athena and Hermes. He doesn’t know this at first, but he finds out later in his adventure. Athena helps him by telling him where the sisters of the Gorgons are. He needs to know where they are so he can talk to them and ask them about the location of Medusa. The sisters only had one tooth and one eye in between them. When they wouldn’t tell Perseus where Medusa was, the demigod stole the eye when it was in the middle of being traded between the sisters. This way they had to tell him where the lair of Medusa was, and they did. There are different versions of the myth. Some tell that Medusa’s lair is in the underworld, when in other versions they say that Medusa’s lair is on a deserted island. 

There were nymphs that also helped Perseus out on his journey. They gave him a leather bag, winged sandals, and Hades’ helmet of invisibility. Hermes helped him understand how to use the winged sandals, what to use the bag for, and gave him a sickle-shaped sword that he would later kill the Gorgon, Medusa, with. Athena also gave him the advice to polish his bronze shield so he could look into his shield to kill Medusa. 

Perseus and the helpful gods, Hermes and Athena, all traveled across the oceans to where the Gorgons lived.  

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