Name: The myth of Medusa - Laura Aitken-Burt
Uploaded: 2025-06-13T14:43:05.000Z
Duration: 5 min 46 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

Before her hair was a writhing nest of snakes and her eyes had the power to petrify, Medusa was a young woman who worshipped at the temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.

But all the while, as Medusa tended to Athena's shrine, Poseidon, god of the seas and horses, was watching her.

And one night, he crept into the temple as Medusa prayed and assaulted her.

Athena reacted swiftly to the desecration of her shrine.

But instead of punishing Poseidon, she focused her wrath on Medusa.

The young woman felt her body transform until she was a monstrous gorgon, her face framed by coils of hissing snakes.

No man could freely look upon her again, for if they met her eyes, they'd instantly turn to stone.

Medusa sought refuge in a hidden cave inhabited by the world's two other gorgons, Steno and Euryale.

However, unlike Steno and Euryale, who could never die, Medusa remained mortal.

Time passed, and would-be heroes journeyed to the cave to make their names by murdering Medusa, but fell to her gaze every time.

This was the way of things until another young man named Perseus began his quest for glory, Medusa his intended trophy.

Perseus was born of the mortal princess, Danae, after Zeus impregnated her in the form of golden rain.

However, Danae's father had received a prophecy foretelling that her son would kill him, so he locked Danae and Perseus in a chest and threw it into the sea.

But the king of their new land, Polydectes, lusted after Danae.

She tried turning King Polydectes away to no avail, and Perseus grew protective.

To distract Perseus, Polydectes feigned that he'd finally given up on Danae and would-be wedding another.

When Perseus offered Polydectes whatever wedding gift he desired, Polydectes saw the opportunity to be rid of Perseus and suggested that he prove his manhood by fetching a gorgon's head.

Perseus accepted the foolhardy mission, gathered a crew, and set sail towards Greee, three ancient sisters.

They shared a single eye and tooth and harbored numerous secrets.

As one sister passed their eye to another, Perseus grabbed it and forced them to reveal the locations of the nymphs of the River Styx and the cave of the gorgons.

With the nymph's help, he obtained Hermes' winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, and a special satchel.

And he'd accepted a gleaming sickle from Hermes and a shield that shone like a mirror from Athena herself, the goddess who'd cursed Medusa with her monstrous form to begin with.

Then, one night, Perseus approached and Medusa fell asleep.

Perseus entered, crept towards the gorgon's slumbering forms, guiding his way with the reflections on Athena's shield.

When he came upon Medusa resting peacefully, he bore his sword down upon her neck.

From the wound sprung Medusa and Poseidon's hybrid offspring, a winged horse named Pegasus and a warrior called Chrysor.

As Perseus stuffed Medusa's head in his satchel, Stheto and Euryale awoke to the horrific scene and attacked.

But donning the cap of invisibility and winged sandals, Perseus escaped unscathed, reached only by Euryale's pained cry of despair echoing through the cave.

Perseus was met by his crew's adulation, and because death had failed to dim the power of Medusa's gaze, Perseus used her severed head to kill Polydectes, then gave it to Athena who placed it on her shield.

But Athena's wasn't the only shield emblazoned with Medusa's face.

Ancient Greek and Roman artists committed Medusa's image to everything from armor and paintings, to ceramics and mosaic floors.

And while it was customary for ancient Greek subjects to appear in profile, Medusa was almost always facing directly outwards.

She was an apotropaic symbol, one that imbued both fear and protection at once.

In many versions, including the earliest, she was always a Gorgon.

In others, like the ancient Roman poet Ovid's, she had a sympathetic, human backstory, as a woman who'd experienced cruelty and injustice.

We've made our first ever physical game, custom-tailored for all of you mythology lovers, Pandora's Legacy.

Play as Pandora as you try to set right the chaos that has been unleashed by Zeus's box in a beautifully illustrated jigsaw puzzle escape room game.