Perseus set out with the aid of the gods, who provided him with divine tools. While the Gorgons slept, the hero attacked, using Athena's polished shield to view the reflection of Medusa's awful face and avoid her petrifying gaze while he beheaded her with a harpe, an adamantine sword.
Discover. Meet Perseus, a demigod of Greek mythology who was famous for killing Medusa by cutting off her head, which he displays in one hand. Medusa had live, hissing snakes for hair, and anyone who looked at her face instantly turned to stone.
Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.
Perseus was a demi-god, the son of Zeus and a mortal named Danae. Perseus killed the famed monster Medusa, the hideous gorgon with snakes for hair who turned anyone with the misfortune of looking into her eyes into stone. Cepheus and Cassiopeia were king and queen, and had a beautiful daughter, Andromeda.
Athena was enraged at the disrespect to her shrine and took her revenge. Again, because she couldn't punish Poseidon for insolence, she only took it out on Medusa cursing her.
Poseidon was enamored by Medusa's beauty, and Medusa returned the same feelings. Medusa and Poseidon engaged in a love affair and would have two children together, but not before Athena discovered the illicit affair.
In her aspect as a warrior maiden, Athena was known as Parthenos (Παρθένος "virgin"), because, like her fellow goddesses Artemis and Hestia, she was believed to remain perpetually a virgin. Athena's most famous temple, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, takes its name from this title.
1. Apollo: Zeus' Best-Known Son. Of all the sons Zeus fathered, Apollo is perhaps the best known. Apollo was conceived during an illicit affair between Zeus and Leto (Zeus was married to Hera at the time), along with a twin sister named Artemis.
Accounts Vary, But Some Estimate Zeus Might Have Had Around 92 Different Children. As with many Greek characters, different stories over the centuries give varying accounts on Zeus's life.
The snake-haired Medusa does not become widespread until the first century B.C. The Roman author Ovid describes the mortal Medusa as a beautiful maiden seduced by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. Such a sacrilege attracted the goddess' wrath, and she punished Medusa by turning her hair to snakes.
Some suggest that the origins of the character Medusa may be rooted in the Egyptian Cobra Goddess Wadjet. Depicted as a snake-headed woman or a cobra she was associated with the land as matron and protector of Egypt; of kings and of women in childbirth.
Medusa was a beautiful woman who was raped, killed and beheaded by various gods. However even in the face of tragedy and disgrace, the Medusa was portrayed as meaningful. Following the moment her head was removed, a Pegasus flew out of her body, representing the birth of beauty.
Perseus and his wife Andromeda happily settled in Tiryns and became the parents of seven sons and one daughter. According to Mythology, the descendants of Perseus ruled Mycenae, the most powerful town of Peloponnese in the Mycenaean times.
Because the gaze of Medusa turned all who looked at her to stone, Perseus guided himself by her reflection in a shield given him by Athena and beheaded Medusa as she slept. He then returned to Seriphus and rescued his mother by turning Polydectes and his supporters to stone at the sight of Medusa's head.
Andromeda, in Greek mythology, beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiope of Joppa in Palestine (called Ethiopia) and wife of Perseus.
Zeus was spirited away to Mt. Dikte on the island of Crete where he was raised by the primeval goddess Gaia (Earth), or in some versions by the Nymphs. Amongst these was the Nymph Amaltheia (in some versions of the myth she was a goat) who suckled the young god.
In order to overthrow Zeus, Hera decided that she would drug Zeus and make him fall asleep. Once asleep, the gods tied Zeus to his throne. As Zeus awoke, he was furious and began arguing with the gods who bound him to the throne.
Impregnation by Zeus
Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being Io, Europa, Plouto, Danaë, Aigina, Antiope, Leda, Dia, Alcmene, Laodameia, the mother of Sarpedon, and Olympias.
In some versions of Greek mythology, Zeus ate his wife Metis because it was known that their second child would be more powerful than him. After Metis's demise, their first child Athena was born when Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's head open and the goddess of war emerged, fully grown and armed.
Hera. The most famous of Zeus' wives, Hera was also the sister of the father of the gods, and the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth.
Hebe was the youngest daughter to Zeus and his wife Hera. Her name came from the Greek word for 'youth', and it was thought she had the power to temporarily restore youth in a chosen few.
In Ancient Greek mythology, Dionysus was the god of collective ecstasy. He is often described as an androgynous and asexual figure, whose followers would dance themselves into trances (Jameson, 1993) .
Athena began growing inside Zeus's head. When Haphaestus cut open Zeus's head, and Athena was born, she was not born an infant. Instead, Athena was born a fully grown warrior, dressed in armor and ready for war. This is how Athena became the goddess of war and wisdom.
Athena swore on the day of her birth that she would never marry or have children. The people of Athens, however, believed a story that made their patron goddess an ancestor of their founding kings.