What actually happened is incredibly vague. In any case, Ovid seems to have invented the Neptune and Medusa getting freaky in the temple of Minerva tale. There was a lot of tension between Ovid and Rome due to his banishment. Many of his retelling of Roman/Greek myths add a lot more god fuckery into the story and it's thought that this was Ovid's way of trying to badmouth the Roman elites at the time. Ovid even gave her a new backstory in his favorite variety which was the tale of 'the goddamn gods just are fucking us all over.' I've been reading about Ovid lately and the dude had a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder. Her transformation to pretty lady who happens to turn people to stone and has snake hair was completed by the Romans. The Greeks then said that the Gorgons lived in Libya and with that merging Medusa started becoming less monster and more beautiful in Greek art. Medusa was just one of the pack.Īt some point she merged with a Libyan snake goddess. Her mother was Ceto, a sea goddess, who's claim to fame is that she had lots of monster babies. Also, the oldest Greek art that show weird tusked creatures (often with wings) are often depictions of the Gorgons. You can see this most clearly in the legend of Perseus. Originally she was a Gorgon, a hideous monster from birth, who just happened to be mortal when her two sisters are immortal.

Medusa the curse of athena game