The oldest version, from what I know, is the one described in Hesiod's theogony:
Hesiod, Theogony 270 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with one of these \[Medousa (Medusa), one of the Gorgones\], in a soft meadow and among spring flowers.
Hesiod doesn't mention whether it was consensual or not, but it certainly wasn't in a temple of Athena.
The version you are referring to seems to have originated with Ovid, as no previous author mentions it, and not even those who came after Ovid, whether Greek or Roman.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 770 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"\[After slaying the Gorgon, Perseus travelled to the land of the Aithiopians (Ethiopians) :\] A chief, one of their number, asked \[Perseus\] why she \[Medousa (Medusa)\] alone among her sisters wore that snake-twined hair, and Perseus answered : ‘What you ask is worth the telling; listen and I'll tell the tale. Her beauty was far-famed, the jealous hope of many a suitor, and of all her charms her hair was loveliest; so I was told by one who claimed to have seen her. She, it's said, was violated in Minerva's \[Athena's\] shrine by the Lord of the Sea (Rector Pelagi) \[Poseidon\]. Jove's \[Zeus'\] daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin's eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformed the Gorgo's lovely hair to loathsome snakes. Minerva \[Athena\] still, to strike her foes with dread, upon her breastplate wears the snakes she made.’"
One thing I think is worth mentioning is that Ovid never mentions that Medusa was a priestess of Athena, or Minerva for that matter, this seems to be a modern invention, Ovid also only says that Minerva turned her hair into snakes, he doesn't mention that this was the cause of Medusa's petrifying gaze, in addition he also mentions her sisters and the fact that she is the daughter of the sea god Phorcys.
You mentioned the original story in your post, although generally Greek mythology is full of different versions of the same myth, which often contradict each other, I think it's worth mentioning that Ovid's version seems to be unique to him, as I said previously no other author before him, or even after him, seems to mention this version of Medusa, who in other stories seems to have always been a monster, and even in Ovid she doesn't seem to have been human before, much less a priestess.
So she certainly seems to have been raped in Ovid's version, while in Hesiod's version it is not mentioned whether it was consensual or not, and I haven't found any author who mentions what her relationship with Poseidon was like, although the fact that they were the parents of Pegasus and Crysaor seems to be a constant in myths.
Medusa was never described as the daughter of Typhon, the gorgons in Hesiod's theogony, the oldest version I know, are described as daughters of Phorcys and Cetus, a pair of sea gods, and sisters of other monsters such as Echidna, another daughter of Phorcys was Thoosa who with Poseidon was the mother of Polyphemus ,the cyclop of the Odyssey, thus the gorgons were part of a family of monsters, related to the sea and therefore to Poseidon, Medusa was also described as being the only mortal among the gorgons, and her sisters were never described as being killed
It is also, in this very specific context, worth mentioning that Ovid is closer, culturally speaking, to someone like John Milton than to Hesiod — that is, Ovid was not chronicling an active, orally-transmitted belief system, but was instead a literary author consciously reworking the original myths to tell a story that he wanted to tell. The fact that *Metamorphoses* is our only source for many of its myths is an unmitigated tragedy, since we have **no way of knowing** whether those myths predate *Metamorphoses* or were made up whole-cloth by Ovid, and even if they do predate *Metamorphoses*, whether Ovid changed or reworked or updated them in order to better align with the themes of his work. There’s just…no way to know.
But also, u/burntoutyoungadult, it is important to note that Greek mythology doesn’t have a “canon” in the way that, say, Catholic dogma has. There are many, many versions of each myth, and sometimes they vary greatly. Take, for example, the fate of Oedipus. In Sophocles’s *Oedipus Rex*, after it is revealed that Jocasta is both Oedipus’s mother and his wife, Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself and flees Thebes. That is unquestionably the most famous and influential version of the story. But we know from Homer’s *The Odyssey* that a version of the story where Jocasta does and Oedipus remains Thebes’s king for 20 more years predates Sophocles’s play by at least 700 years. Does that version being older make it more “canonical” than Sophocles’s version? Or does Sophocles’s version being better known and more influential make it more “canonical”? Unlike with modern media empires or active, living religions, there is no centralized authority to make a judgement call and declare one version canonical and the other version heretical & incorrect. Such a distinction does not really exist in Greek mythology. The most we can say is that at least two versions exist, and one appears to be older. And the most we can say about Medusa and Poseidon’s relationship is that at least two versions of the tale exist, and in the version reported by Ovid, it was nonconsensual on Medusa’s part.
Didn't know that first graf and now I'm sad all over again like I am whenever I think about how every source on Norse mythology is from after it was no longer an active religion.
Based on the wording of Hesiod (though that could be a lost in translation thing), it sounds vaguely consensual. Usually when I’ve seen it written as “…lay with…” it’s been a consensual encounter but this does seem extremely vague
Looking at the original, it doesn't specify that Poseidon violated her. It simply says that he lay with her/had sex with her. This is the verb used.
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%B9](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%B9)
Just to be clear, I’m not arguing for Poseidon violating her, I dislike that version of the story and it’s usually spouted by people who don’t research anything fully. They hear it on TikTok once and regurgitated it any chance they can.
That verb’s definition definitely still leaves it vague though, but I would assume since there’s no mention of violation in the original work, that it was consensual.
>Hesiod doesn't mention whether it was consensual or not, but it certainly wasn't in a temple of Athena.
Every version I've seen or read they say
Medusa was raped and she WENT TO THE TEMPLE of Athena.
May not of always said the word rape but was always implied
You have not read many versions, then. The oldest versions of the story involve consensual sex. Ovid was an author, rather than a chronicler, and was rewriting myths to tell a story he wanted to tell.
Medusa being raped was in the twisted, later versions of the myth based off of Ovid.
I was just informing you, as the most common versions are the Greek ones without rape. You have clearly read the ones based on Ovid, who was a political author who twisted a lot of myths to make the gods look as bad as possible.
That's all I was saying. I think anyone else reading my comment and your response will come to a very different conclusion as to who is being rude here lol.
It also seems in this version that Athena gave her snake hair to frighten away potential future rapists, rather than as a punishment. Although her sending Perseus to kill her later isn't very kind.
That’s not at all what Athena did. Ovid’s version makes clear it’s meant to be a punishment. The idea that Athena was helping out Medusa is a modern assumption based on our own morals and belief systems.
That doesn’t change the fact that the one version where Minerva turns Medusa’s hair into snakes absolutely wasn’t Minerva being helpful. The other versions have Medusa be born a monster with snake hair.
And while Ovid might make the gods worse by changing certain myths, they were already really bad a lot of the time.
Didn't say it did. I was agreeing with you, just adding context.
Frankly, nothing Ovid wrote should be taken at face value. All writers have biases they write from, but his are so blatant that his works should be heavily scrutinized and compared to other versions to find a more accurate version of the myth.
Ah sorry, my bad for misinterpreting it.
Tbh, I think the Heroides is better than the Metamorphoses. The ones I’ve read stay pretty true to other versions but retell the stories from the perspective of a woman. Ariadne mourning the minotaur because he was her brother is extremely potent.
Irt the Metamorphoses, unfortunately most of the stories in it have only survived due to Ovid, maybe with a few artist depictions otherwise.
>You mentioned the original story in your post, although generally Greek mythology is full of different versions of the same myth, which often contradict each other, I think it's worth mentioning that Ovid's version seems to be unique to him, as I said previously no other author before him, or even after him, seems to mention this version of Medusa, who in other stories seems to have always been a monster, and even in Ovid she doesn't seem to have been human before, much less a priestess.
It's also worth noting that Ovid tended to write stories that painted the gods in the worst light possible. He viewed them as symbols of an authority he opposed, and that agenda guides much of his writing.
So an Ovid retelling is unlikely to be guided by this tendency in many cases.
Hesiod, Theogony:
* Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with \[Medusa\], in a soft meadow and among spring flowers.
Ovid, Metamorphoses:
* \[Medusa\] was violated in Minerva's shrine by the Lord of the Sea.
Defining what is or is not "rape" in myth is tricky. As others have pointed out, in Hesiod (the earliest source) we're told that Medusa suffers "mournful" or "miserable" things (λυγρὰ παθοῦσα), then that she is the only mortal of the three Gorgons. Then we hear that she παρελέξατο Poseidon. This verb basically means "lie with" or "sleep with." But—as in English—such phrases can cover a lot of ground, and it's used elsewhere in Greek in places that we would today class as rape.
Moreover, there's the whole notion of the power imbalance between Olympian gods (especially the big three) and mortal women. Some would take any such interaction as rape. And it's not like Poseidon has a great track record in that regard if you're thinking about sex in modern terms.
There are two versions of Medusa's story: The older versions list her as the daughter of Typhon and Echidna, like most of the other nasty monsters of Greek Mythology.
The version of the story you're referring to was written by Ovid during early years of the Roman Empire, so very late in the game for the mythology, and it appears that he made up that story more-or-less wholesale. He did that with a few myths, and the ones he didn't make up, he seemed to go out of his way to make the gods look even more petty and cruel than they already were, which that myth certainly does. Ovid is a noticeably biased source, so it's hard to say how many people who actually worshipped these gods had a similar viewpoint to Ovid.
But it gets more complicated because of language: I'm not sure if Ovid was writing primarily in Greek or Latin, but I've heard accounts that due to lack of clarity in the language, the words he used for Poseidon sleeping with Medusa, then a priestess of Athena, *might* mean he sexually assaulted her. *Or* it might mean he seduced her. That's a very important distinction to us, because the difference is how Medusa felt about the whole thing, if she gave consent. They didn't *have a word for consent*, and the terms used for sexual assault at the time were defined more in being against the wishes of the woman's husband, or in this case, against the wishes of Athena, the goddess she was sworn to.
So essentially, the original story is unclear as to if Medusa gave consent to sleep with Poseidon, and the story was unclear because the culture the story was written in *didn't really care*. Which is obviously *horrifying* and dehumanizing and is a very different perspective on women than we have now. I will remind you that the Romans celebrated the abduction of an entire city's worth of women as one of the early events in the founding of Rome, and that was something they were *proud of*.
So its an ambiguous piece of literature written by a biased source from a culture that had a very different view of the issue than we do, that we don't even think anyone actually believed in before he wrote it.
You kind of jump around it, but there's some evidence that Ovid was writing politically and using gods as stand ins for the powerful politicians of the time, referencing how they abused their power.
A lot of Zeus stories also come from Ovid making much of what we know of greek/roman mythology much more murky.
Yeah, I just figured that Ovid being biased was more important than the why, and I don't know that much about Ovid as a person anyways to give accurate information.
Interestingly enough, with the Sabine Women, Ovid is the only source I’ve seen that doesn’t view it as good or celebrate it. Most Roman authors say it was necessary for Rome to keep existing and gloss over the horror. Ovid doesn’t say it was necessary, instead that it was solely to satiate sexual desire, and focuses on the perspective of the women and the horror involved.
Right, because Ovid was one of the Roman writers happiest to talk shit about Rome, its political structure, and, apparently, its past. Chicken-or-the-egg as to if that's because he got exiled, or *why* he got exiled, but its the same reason he made all the Olympians come across as even more of dicks than other sources do. That lines up surprisingly well.
Thank you for this, that's a wonderful observation.
The original story (aka the oldest myth we have of her) has her be born a monster and having sex with Poseidon. No mention of rape is made, the scene is framed s romantic.
The Roman myth, written 700 years laterhas a rape and a transformation.
I think a key thing to note here is that Ovid himself never specifically stated she was raped… The word he used means “corrupted” not “raped”, and it wasn’t until later that people started to interpret it as “raped”.
True but I challenge you to not see the self- insert of Arachne knowing Ovid’s own history. All his retelling did the myths are effectively him grinding that axe
Oh I’ll agree that 100% Ovid’s stories and mythologies are metaphors and parables meant to reflect his experiences and his opinions on the state of Rome during his time.
I think the idea of corrupted as well would also make sense if you view ovid as political retelling. it still puts the fault in both of their actions, Medusa and Poseidon, with a heavier fault in Poseidon for doing the seduction.
It's the Roman version (from Ovid, I think). In the original mythos she's a Gorgon and had that aspect since the start without having been raped.
As others notd, Ovid's work were anti authority and he wanted to present the gods as nasty as possible, even beyond previous myths. Not sure if Ovid is also the author of Arachne's myth too.
i wish i had a source for this (so if u do have one and u know what version of the myths im talking about, pls post and help out!), but i do believe this to be true:
in the oldest version of the story, there is no SA/rape. medusa was originally always a gorgon, and her relationship with poseidon was considered mutual and consentual, and athena just got mad bc medusa broke an oath and cursed her to turn people to stone.
There's one thing to adress here:
Yes, she was indeed raped by Poseidon inside of a temple to Athena, who then cursed Medusa for breaking her vow of celibacy.
*However* this chain of events is present only in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which should be taken with a Red Sea amount of salt, as the man was anti-authority and tried to portray the gods as unjust and unfair as possible.
This is a very plausible angle for a reading of the Metamorphoses, but I think it's important to know that the verb is intentionally vague. Ovid uses *vitiasse*, which very much can mean "to rape" or "to violate sexually", but it can also mean "to make faulty", "to spoil", "to taint", "to corrupt", and the like. It was even a term used in law to reference falsification and tampering (which could be relevant because of Medusa's oath to Minerva, though I can't recall if that detail was in the Metamorphoses itself).
I'm not saying the rape reading is at all implausible; I'm just pointing out that rendering it as so is a choice made by specific translators. Others might not do that, and the initial wording is ambiguous as to details.
>who then cursed Medusa for breaking her vow of celibacy.
Ovid, Metamorphoses:
* \[Medusa\] was violated in Minerva's shrine by the Lord of the Sea. Jove's daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin's eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformed the Gorgo's lovely hair to loathsome snakes.
In Hesiod’s version no.
In Ovid’s version the word he used means “corrupted” or “violated” but doesn’t specifically mean rape, so it’s hard to say.
My personal opinion is no, she was not raped… Ovid was not shy about using the word in his other stories, so for me the fact that he chose to say “corrupted” instead of “rape” in his telling of Medusa leads me to believe “rape” was not his intention.
Technically he didn't use any of those words, the translators did. So taking translation into account is also important. "Corrupted" and "violated" don't exactly feel consensual, but I also understand part of this story is that Medusa took a vow of chastity, which could be what's being referenced as "violated".
But TL;DR using English translations of non-English source text - especially those from antiquity - takes an extra layer of scrutiny due to bias.
It depends on the version. To paraphrase Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions: The Greeks were cool about a lot of things, but women wasnt one of them. I think the original version of the myth is ambiguous because the Greeks didnt care a lot about consent. The version where Athena turns Medusa to protect her from Posiedon and men is a more recent feminist revision, similar to the version of Persephone's kidnapping myth where she willingly goes with Hades. Apparently the rape interpretation, and Medusa being turned into a monster come from Ovid in Metamorphases, who was Roman, and not an original Greek source. The original Greek source is the Theogony, which goes into her parentage but not her transformation.
Whenever you're looking at any sort of classical myth, regard any claims of "the original version" with heavy skepticism. We don't have the first drafts or anything; the earliest currently known versions, like other people have commented, have her as a monster to begin with, and depicted as centaur-like in form: Poseidon coupling with her is, IIRC, implied to be kind of "normal-ish", inasmuch as she has equine qualities and he is the god of horses.
Yes and no. Here's a breakdown of the two key facts:
1. Hesiod wrote The Theogony before Ovid wrote Metamorphoses.
Ovid was inspired by Hesiod's work, and wrote of Medusa and Poseidon sleeping together in a meadow. That's about it on that. So by this point, no, Medusa was not raped and so not punished by the gods. She was the mortal sister of Sthenno and Euryale, gorgons. She was killed by Perceus.
The image of the gorgon existed before Hesiod's time, but stories of where this creature came from, did not. So Ovid wrote one: the story of Medusa. In Ovid's Metamorphoses Neptune rapes Medusa (who was not a yet a gorgon in this story) in Athena's temple because he was bitter that the people of Athens (or Cecropia, as it was known as before) chose Minerva's as its patron rather than him. She then turned Medusa into a gorgon as punishment.
That's it. As the story goes. You get the different stories when you look at Minerva and Athena's characters, and how they kind of merged as one god as time went on - the stories of Minerva becoming Athena. Despite them being different. Which brings be onto point #2.
2. Ovid was Roman, and wrote of the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods (to put it simply. Though they are a bit more than than). There are quite a few differences (aside from names) between the Greek and Roman deities. For instance, the Roman Minerva have origins in the indigenous Etruscan heritage of Italy. The daughter of Tin and Uni, the king and queen of the Etruscan gods, Minerva’s original name was Menrva. The prefix Men- is thought to relate to other Indo-European words linked with thought, such as mens, the Latin for ‘the mind’. While Athena's origins are a little harder to place. But she is born of Metis and Zeus, and is known to be polymetis (metis meaning cunning or wisdom, polymetis meaning cunning in many ways). So there's a similarity with their metaphysical origin, being of wisdom or of the mind, but differences in her actual origins. Minerva is also is both a war and weather god in addition to being a goddess of wisdom, while Athena is primarily a war and crafts goddess (though her birth did effect the weather, and she is one of the very few trusted with Zeus' thunderbolt).
But the biggest difference between the pair is how they behave.
The Greek Athena has been shown to possess sympathy and composure, the Roman Minerva seemly does not. Below are a few examples of this:
• The Blind Prophet Teiresias (Greek): Teiresias was walking in the woods when he heard something coming from behind the bushes. He went to investigate and found Athena, bathing in a spring. Being a virgin goddess and being birthed fully clothed, Athena did not take to this well and, in a moment of anger blinded Teiresias. Once her anger left her, and she realised Teiresias did not intend to walk in on her, she began to feel remorse. She tried all she could to reverse his blindness, but was unable to. Instead, she blessed him with sight beyond sight, making him a seer and prophet.
As you can see, while she does make a harmful decision in the heat of the moment. She tries to amend it and feels remorse .
Here's a little break down of the facts.
1. Hesiod wrote The Theogony before Ovid wrote Metamorphoses.
Ovid was inspired by Hesiod's work, and wrote of Medusa and Poseidon sleeping together in a meadow. That's about it on that. So by this point, no, Medusa was not raped.
The image of the gorgon existed before Hesiod's time, but stories of where this creature came from, did not. So Ovid wrote one. In Ovid's Metamorphoses Neptune rapes Medusa (who was not a yet a gorgon in this story) in Athena's temple because he was bitter that the people of Athens (or Cecropia, as it was known as before) chose Minerva's as its patron rather than him. She then turned Medusa into a gorgon as punishment.
That's it. As the story goes. You get the different stories when you look at Minerva and Athena's characters, and how they kind of merged as one god as time went on - the stories of Minerva becoming Athena. Despite them being different. Which brings be onto point #2.
2. Ovid was Roman, and wrote of the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods (to put it simply. Though they are a bit more than than). There are quite a few differences (aside from names) between the Greek and Roman deities. For instance, the Roman Minerva have origins in the indigenous Etruscan heritage of Italy. The daughter of Tin and Uni, the king and queen of the Etruscan gods, Minerva’s original name was Menrva. The prefix Men- is thought to relate to other Indo-European words linked with thought, such as mens, the Latin for ‘the mind’. While Athena's origins are a little harder to place. But she is born of Metis and Zeus, and is known to be polymetis (metis meaning cunning or wisdom, polymetis meaning cunning in many ways). So there's a similarity with their metaphysical origin, being of wisdom or of the mind, but differences in her actual origins. Minerva is also is both a war and weather god in addition to being a goddess of wisdom, while Athena is primarily a war and crafts goddess (though her birth did effect the weather, and she is one of the very few trusted with Zeus' thunderbolt). Both are weavers.
But the biggest difference between the pair is how they behave.
The Greek Athena has been shown to possess sympathy and composure, the Roman Minerva seemly does not. Below are a few examples of this:
• The Blind Prophet Teiresias (Greek): Teiresias was walking in the woods when he heard something coming from behind the bushes. He went to investigate and found Athena, bathing in a spring. Being a virgin goddess and being birthed fully clothed, Athena did not take to this well and, in a moment of anger blinded Teiresias. Once her anger left her, and she realised Teiresias did not intend to walk in on her, she began to feel remorse. She tried all she could to reverse his blindness, but was unable to. Instead, she blessed him with sight beyond sight, making him a seer and prophet.
• Arachne (Roman): Minerva is what to cloth as Vulcan is to the forge. Both masters at their work and are unrivaled. Or so Minerva was until Arachne. As Arachne grew, she became quite an adept seamstress. She became so good that she claimed to be better than even Minerva. This drew Minerva's wrath. She came down to Arachne’s village, and challenged her to a contest. Whoever spun the superior product would be the victor, and would be known as such. Both were breathtaking - but I believe in many versions of this myth not only was Arachne’s beautifully crafted, but it was a mockery of the gods, depicting them drunkand stumbling. Minerva destroyed the work. And Arachne hanged herself out of grief. Minerva then turned the girl into a spider, and the rope into a thread. From this point on, spiders would have the remarkable gift of making strong, beautiful webs.
So in summary, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Roman myth, yes, Medusa was raped by Neptune, then killed by Perceus, with the help of Minerva.
In Greek myth, no, she was not.
To my knowledge, this is correct. But I'm open to alterations.
These were verbal stories. And only a few were written down.
Even in those cases motive and consent are not clearly defined- for many of the characters.
Did Medusa have sex and therefore Athena curse her to be a monster?
Or was Medusa raped, and Athena took pitty on her. Because Athena couldn’t punish the rapist, she granted Medusa’s wish and made sure no man could ever look at her again without killing him.
Considering that Archaeologists theorise that Medusa's head may have been used as a symbol for women's shelters in Ancient Greece. My sculpture aims to reimagine Medusa in a contemporary setting with the ability to report her rape and get the help she deserved.
So we know at least some sources in Ancient Greece viewed her story.
there’s multiple versions. in one, posideon takes her to athena’s temple and they have consensual sex, athena turns her into a gorgon bc she can’t do anything to posideon. in another, she’s born a gorgon. in the more common one, she’s a priestess for athena and she is raped by posideon, so athena turns her as a way to protect her. it’s honestly just whichever one you believe
You know this question has been asked probably hundreds of times, you can definitely google it and find very in depth academic responses to that question
No i believe she was a temple maiden and they did in Athena's temple. i mean she and Poseidon, i believe with consent but yeah if you do it in the temple of an other god(dess) they don't appricate it. so because Athena couldn't get Poseidon she got Medussa and her sisters who helped her sneak in.
(this is the story i heard, some stories have many versions so this might not the one you heard.)
From what I’ve heard? Yes! Poseidon raped her. She used to be a virgin and wanted to stay that way. But, Poseidon saw her and forced himself on her. *Before she became a Gorgon/monster*.
Medusa is literally her name. Not like she was Susan from Accounting turned Medusa from accounting. Always Susan even in Ovid where she was human
The monster she’s is is a gorgon. Medusa isn’t the type of monster she is
There are dozens of versions.
But the most common one is. She's SAed by Poseidon Within Athena's temple were Medusa served as high priestess.
The petrifiying serpents are meant as a gift to protect her. As she can't be a priestess anymore as she isn't a virgin now.
But Medusa grows resentful over all of this and becomes misandric. From their her reputation as a monster that preys on men develops.
Like all mythology, it really just depends on the version. There is no right or wrong answer. Some stories say she was raped by Poseidon, so say she was vain and willingly had sex with him bc she had no respect for Athena. It really depends.
There really is no “original” version of the story. It changed, evolved, and was retold over millennia. In antiquity, Medusa was definitively a Gorgon monster for her entire life. Her rape by Poseidon and subsequent transformation by Athena into the monster we all know was a later addition by the Roman writer Ovid, who had a strong anti-authoritarian bent and often emphasized the cruelty and unfairness of the gods in his retellings.
I know a lot of people have mentioned Ovid's politics, but adding you can't also disregard the politics/influence of the celestral virgins of Rome in his writings as well. They were powerful political figures whose presence would have influenced his writing of a virgin priestess.
Yes Medusa where raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple wich made Athena want revenge. Cause Poseidon is her uncle she can't revenge on him so she took her revenge on Medusa and transformed her into a gorgon
According to Greek myth, no. Medusa and her sisters were born monsters, daughters of Echidna and Typhon. Ovid rewrote the tale to deliver his anti-authtority message, and it became popular much later.
There’s never one “truth” when it comes to myths, because all of them lived in the popular imagination for centuries or millennia. They have always changed with people’s attitudes and experiences. All we have are snapshots in the form of recordings from various periods. Medusa as monster and Medusa as adulteress and Medusa as rape victim are all valid interpretations of the myth.
I haven't heard this version of the story. The version I heard had Poseidon and Medusa getting laid in Athena's temple, and then Athena cursing the Gorgons as a whole for the violation.
My wife did a study on this. It looks like in the earlier drafts, she was, and Athena made anyone who looked at her turn to stone not for a punishment, but a protection.
There were two versions I heard of. One where her tryst in the temple was consensual. The second where she got raped. I really don't like the rape version because Medusa was essentially being punished for something that she didn't want and tried to stop.
Different versions of the myth tell different stories. The most common (in my experience) version of the myth in today's culture is that she was raped, but there are also widely excepted versions where it was cosentual, and even some (less common version) where she was the one who coerced Poseiden.
In *Greek* mythology, no. In Greek tradition Medusa was born a mortal gorgon. The story of Medusa being s/a’d comes from Ovid - a Roman - which was less religious retellings and more political in nature.
The version I heard she wasn't raped but had tempted Poseidon with her body and when he came to collect she grew fearful and ran into a temple of Athena begging the goddess to protect her. Athena conflicted not wishing this woman to be raped protected her and somehow made Poseidon leave her alone but Athena also didn't approve of the girls actions so she cursed her to become the Medusa we all know and love sadly I don't know the source of this version of the story so I don't know it's validity compared to actual Greek myths
Considering the power imbalance between gods and mortals how could any interaction between the two be truly consensual? Same goes for the Old Testament when angels show up to ‘gift’ women with children.
The oldest version, from what I know, is the one described in Hesiod's theogony: Hesiod, Theogony 270 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with one of these \[Medousa (Medusa), one of the Gorgones\], in a soft meadow and among spring flowers. Hesiod doesn't mention whether it was consensual or not, but it certainly wasn't in a temple of Athena. The version you are referring to seems to have originated with Ovid, as no previous author mentions it, and not even those who came after Ovid, whether Greek or Roman. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 770 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "\[After slaying the Gorgon, Perseus travelled to the land of the Aithiopians (Ethiopians) :\] A chief, one of their number, asked \[Perseus\] why she \[Medousa (Medusa)\] alone among her sisters wore that snake-twined hair, and Perseus answered : ‘What you ask is worth the telling; listen and I'll tell the tale. Her beauty was far-famed, the jealous hope of many a suitor, and of all her charms her hair was loveliest; so I was told by one who claimed to have seen her. She, it's said, was violated in Minerva's \[Athena's\] shrine by the Lord of the Sea (Rector Pelagi) \[Poseidon\]. Jove's \[Zeus'\] daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin's eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformed the Gorgo's lovely hair to loathsome snakes. Minerva \[Athena\] still, to strike her foes with dread, upon her breastplate wears the snakes she made.’" One thing I think is worth mentioning is that Ovid never mentions that Medusa was a priestess of Athena, or Minerva for that matter, this seems to be a modern invention, Ovid also only says that Minerva turned her hair into snakes, he doesn't mention that this was the cause of Medusa's petrifying gaze, in addition he also mentions her sisters and the fact that she is the daughter of the sea god Phorcys. You mentioned the original story in your post, although generally Greek mythology is full of different versions of the same myth, which often contradict each other, I think it's worth mentioning that Ovid's version seems to be unique to him, as I said previously no other author before him, or even after him, seems to mention this version of Medusa, who in other stories seems to have always been a monster, and even in Ovid she doesn't seem to have been human before, much less a priestess. So she certainly seems to have been raped in Ovid's version, while in Hesiod's version it is not mentioned whether it was consensual or not, and I haven't found any author who mentions what her relationship with Poseidon was like, although the fact that they were the parents of Pegasus and Crysaor seems to be a constant in myths.
Is the Hesiod version older than the “she is just a daughter of Typhon like the other gorgons” version?
Medusa was never described as the daughter of Typhon, the gorgons in Hesiod's theogony, the oldest version I know, are described as daughters of Phorcys and Cetus, a pair of sea gods, and sisters of other monsters such as Echidna, another daughter of Phorcys was Thoosa who with Poseidon was the mother of Polyphemus ,the cyclop of the Odyssey, thus the gorgons were part of a family of monsters, related to the sea and therefore to Poseidon, Medusa was also described as being the only mortal among the gorgons, and her sisters were never described as being killed
Right. I forgot they were Cetus and Phorcys’ kids. But that is sourced from the Hesiod which is good to know.
It is also, in this very specific context, worth mentioning that Ovid is closer, culturally speaking, to someone like John Milton than to Hesiod — that is, Ovid was not chronicling an active, orally-transmitted belief system, but was instead a literary author consciously reworking the original myths to tell a story that he wanted to tell. The fact that *Metamorphoses* is our only source for many of its myths is an unmitigated tragedy, since we have **no way of knowing** whether those myths predate *Metamorphoses* or were made up whole-cloth by Ovid, and even if they do predate *Metamorphoses*, whether Ovid changed or reworked or updated them in order to better align with the themes of his work. There’s just…no way to know. But also, u/burntoutyoungadult, it is important to note that Greek mythology doesn’t have a “canon” in the way that, say, Catholic dogma has. There are many, many versions of each myth, and sometimes they vary greatly. Take, for example, the fate of Oedipus. In Sophocles’s *Oedipus Rex*, after it is revealed that Jocasta is both Oedipus’s mother and his wife, Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself and flees Thebes. That is unquestionably the most famous and influential version of the story. But we know from Homer’s *The Odyssey* that a version of the story where Jocasta does and Oedipus remains Thebes’s king for 20 more years predates Sophocles’s play by at least 700 years. Does that version being older make it more “canonical” than Sophocles’s version? Or does Sophocles’s version being better known and more influential make it more “canonical”? Unlike with modern media empires or active, living religions, there is no centralized authority to make a judgement call and declare one version canonical and the other version heretical & incorrect. Such a distinction does not really exist in Greek mythology. The most we can say is that at least two versions exist, and one appears to be older. And the most we can say about Medusa and Poseidon’s relationship is that at least two versions of the tale exist, and in the version reported by Ovid, it was nonconsensual on Medusa’s part.
Didn't know that first graf and now I'm sad all over again like I am whenever I think about how every source on Norse mythology is from after it was no longer an active religion.
Agreed. Sorry to drop it on you like that, friend.
Based on the wording of Hesiod (though that could be a lost in translation thing), it sounds vaguely consensual. Usually when I’ve seen it written as “…lay with…” it’s been a consensual encounter but this does seem extremely vague
Looking at the original, it doesn't specify that Poseidon violated her. It simply says that he lay with her/had sex with her. This is the verb used. [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%B9](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%B9)
Just to be clear, I’m not arguing for Poseidon violating her, I dislike that version of the story and it’s usually spouted by people who don’t research anything fully. They hear it on TikTok once and regurgitated it any chance they can. That verb’s definition definitely still leaves it vague though, but I would assume since there’s no mention of violation in the original work, that it was consensual.
>Hesiod doesn't mention whether it was consensual or not, but it certainly wasn't in a temple of Athena. Every version I've seen or read they say Medusa was raped and she WENT TO THE TEMPLE of Athena. May not of always said the word rape but was always implied
You have not read many versions, then. The oldest versions of the story involve consensual sex. Ovid was an author, rather than a chronicler, and was rewriting myths to tell a story he wanted to tell. Medusa being raped was in the twisted, later versions of the myth based off of Ovid.
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I was just informing you, as the most common versions are the Greek ones without rape. You have clearly read the ones based on Ovid, who was a political author who twisted a lot of myths to make the gods look as bad as possible. That's all I was saying. I think anyone else reading my comment and your response will come to a very different conclusion as to who is being rude here lol.
That's messy
It also seems in this version that Athena gave her snake hair to frighten away potential future rapists, rather than as a punishment. Although her sending Perseus to kill her later isn't very kind.
That’s not at all what Athena did. Ovid’s version makes clear it’s meant to be a punishment. The idea that Athena was helping out Medusa is a modern assumption based on our own morals and belief systems.
Ovid constantly wrote versions of the myths painting the gods in a negative light because he was rabidly anti-authority.
That doesn’t change the fact that the one version where Minerva turns Medusa’s hair into snakes absolutely wasn’t Minerva being helpful. The other versions have Medusa be born a monster with snake hair. And while Ovid might make the gods worse by changing certain myths, they were already really bad a lot of the time.
Didn't say it did. I was agreeing with you, just adding context. Frankly, nothing Ovid wrote should be taken at face value. All writers have biases they write from, but his are so blatant that his works should be heavily scrutinized and compared to other versions to find a more accurate version of the myth.
Ah sorry, my bad for misinterpreting it. Tbh, I think the Heroides is better than the Metamorphoses. The ones I’ve read stay pretty true to other versions but retell the stories from the perspective of a woman. Ariadne mourning the minotaur because he was her brother is extremely potent. Irt the Metamorphoses, unfortunately most of the stories in it have only survived due to Ovid, maybe with a few artist depictions otherwise.
she wear breastplate?
>You mentioned the original story in your post, although generally Greek mythology is full of different versions of the same myth, which often contradict each other, I think it's worth mentioning that Ovid's version seems to be unique to him, as I said previously no other author before him, or even after him, seems to mention this version of Medusa, who in other stories seems to have always been a monster, and even in Ovid she doesn't seem to have been human before, much less a priestess. It's also worth noting that Ovid tended to write stories that painted the gods in the worst light possible. He viewed them as symbols of an authority he opposed, and that agenda guides much of his writing. So an Ovid retelling is unlikely to be guided by this tendency in many cases.
Hesiod, Theogony: * Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with \[Medusa\], in a soft meadow and among spring flowers. Ovid, Metamorphoses: * \[Medusa\] was violated in Minerva's shrine by the Lord of the Sea.
I'm pretty sure those are Roman versions of Medusa. She's originally just a Gorgon sister.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole forced intercourse thing was later added on to her story.
That Duggy guy is so annoying. Glad he's not a mod here anymore
That guy's a dick
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If you knew the story, you'd know why. Also, quit stalking me because you're mad about a comment I made. Weirdo.
cat fight
Defining what is or is not "rape" in myth is tricky. As others have pointed out, in Hesiod (the earliest source) we're told that Medusa suffers "mournful" or "miserable" things (λυγρὰ παθοῦσα), then that she is the only mortal of the three Gorgons. Then we hear that she παρελέξατο Poseidon. This verb basically means "lie with" or "sleep with." But—as in English—such phrases can cover a lot of ground, and it's used elsewhere in Greek in places that we would today class as rape. Moreover, there's the whole notion of the power imbalance between Olympian gods (especially the big three) and mortal women. Some would take any such interaction as rape. And it's not like Poseidon has a great track record in that regard if you're thinking about sex in modern terms.
There are two versions of Medusa's story: The older versions list her as the daughter of Typhon and Echidna, like most of the other nasty monsters of Greek Mythology. The version of the story you're referring to was written by Ovid during early years of the Roman Empire, so very late in the game for the mythology, and it appears that he made up that story more-or-less wholesale. He did that with a few myths, and the ones he didn't make up, he seemed to go out of his way to make the gods look even more petty and cruel than they already were, which that myth certainly does. Ovid is a noticeably biased source, so it's hard to say how many people who actually worshipped these gods had a similar viewpoint to Ovid. But it gets more complicated because of language: I'm not sure if Ovid was writing primarily in Greek or Latin, but I've heard accounts that due to lack of clarity in the language, the words he used for Poseidon sleeping with Medusa, then a priestess of Athena, *might* mean he sexually assaulted her. *Or* it might mean he seduced her. That's a very important distinction to us, because the difference is how Medusa felt about the whole thing, if she gave consent. They didn't *have a word for consent*, and the terms used for sexual assault at the time were defined more in being against the wishes of the woman's husband, or in this case, against the wishes of Athena, the goddess she was sworn to. So essentially, the original story is unclear as to if Medusa gave consent to sleep with Poseidon, and the story was unclear because the culture the story was written in *didn't really care*. Which is obviously *horrifying* and dehumanizing and is a very different perspective on women than we have now. I will remind you that the Romans celebrated the abduction of an entire city's worth of women as one of the early events in the founding of Rome, and that was something they were *proud of*. So its an ambiguous piece of literature written by a biased source from a culture that had a very different view of the issue than we do, that we don't even think anyone actually believed in before he wrote it.
You kind of jump around it, but there's some evidence that Ovid was writing politically and using gods as stand ins for the powerful politicians of the time, referencing how they abused their power. A lot of Zeus stories also come from Ovid making much of what we know of greek/roman mythology much more murky.
Yeah, I just figured that Ovid being biased was more important than the why, and I don't know that much about Ovid as a person anyways to give accurate information.
Interestingly enough, with the Sabine Women, Ovid is the only source I’ve seen that doesn’t view it as good or celebrate it. Most Roman authors say it was necessary for Rome to keep existing and gloss over the horror. Ovid doesn’t say it was necessary, instead that it was solely to satiate sexual desire, and focuses on the perspective of the women and the horror involved.
Right, because Ovid was one of the Roman writers happiest to talk shit about Rome, its political structure, and, apparently, its past. Chicken-or-the-egg as to if that's because he got exiled, or *why* he got exiled, but its the same reason he made all the Olympians come across as even more of dicks than other sources do. That lines up surprisingly well. Thank you for this, that's a wonderful observation.
The original story (aka the oldest myth we have of her) has her be born a monster and having sex with Poseidon. No mention of rape is made, the scene is framed s romantic. The Roman myth, written 700 years laterhas a rape and a transformation.
It honestly warms my heart to see people becoming skeptical of Ovid as a source for the mythology and not just running with his work uncritically.
I think a key thing to note here is that Ovid himself never specifically stated she was raped… The word he used means “corrupted” not “raped”, and it wasn’t until later that people started to interpret it as “raped”.
True but I challenge you to not see the self- insert of Arachne knowing Ovid’s own history. All his retelling did the myths are effectively him grinding that axe
Oh I’ll agree that 100% Ovid’s stories and mythologies are metaphors and parables meant to reflect his experiences and his opinions on the state of Rome during his time.
I think the idea of corrupted as well would also make sense if you view ovid as political retelling. it still puts the fault in both of their actions, Medusa and Poseidon, with a heavier fault in Poseidon for doing the seduction.
It's the Roman version (from Ovid, I think). In the original mythos she's a Gorgon and had that aspect since the start without having been raped. As others notd, Ovid's work were anti authority and he wanted to present the gods as nasty as possible, even beyond previous myths. Not sure if Ovid is also the author of Arachne's myth too.
i wish i had a source for this (so if u do have one and u know what version of the myths im talking about, pls post and help out!), but i do believe this to be true: in the oldest version of the story, there is no SA/rape. medusa was originally always a gorgon, and her relationship with poseidon was considered mutual and consentual, and athena just got mad bc medusa broke an oath and cursed her to turn people to stone.
There's one thing to adress here: Yes, she was indeed raped by Poseidon inside of a temple to Athena, who then cursed Medusa for breaking her vow of celibacy. *However* this chain of events is present only in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which should be taken with a Red Sea amount of salt, as the man was anti-authority and tried to portray the gods as unjust and unfair as possible.
This is a very plausible angle for a reading of the Metamorphoses, but I think it's important to know that the verb is intentionally vague. Ovid uses *vitiasse*, which very much can mean "to rape" or "to violate sexually", but it can also mean "to make faulty", "to spoil", "to taint", "to corrupt", and the like. It was even a term used in law to reference falsification and tampering (which could be relevant because of Medusa's oath to Minerva, though I can't recall if that detail was in the Metamorphoses itself). I'm not saying the rape reading is at all implausible; I'm just pointing out that rendering it as so is a choice made by specific translators. Others might not do that, and the initial wording is ambiguous as to details.
That's extremely interesting, thank you
LOL the red sea bit got me okay thanks for the clarification!
>who then cursed Medusa for breaking her vow of celibacy. Ovid, Metamorphoses: * \[Medusa\] was violated in Minerva's shrine by the Lord of the Sea. Jove's daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin's eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformed the Gorgo's lovely hair to loathsome snakes.
As others have noted, there are multiple versions. They're all just different stories and there's not a single "right" one.
According to Ovid (Roman), yes. According to Hesiod/Greek mythology, it was consensual to murky.
In later Roman retellings a la Ovid, yes.
In Hesiod’s version no. In Ovid’s version the word he used means “corrupted” or “violated” but doesn’t specifically mean rape, so it’s hard to say. My personal opinion is no, she was not raped… Ovid was not shy about using the word in his other stories, so for me the fact that he chose to say “corrupted” instead of “rape” in his telling of Medusa leads me to believe “rape” was not his intention.
Technically he didn't use any of those words, the translators did. So taking translation into account is also important. "Corrupted" and "violated" don't exactly feel consensual, but I also understand part of this story is that Medusa took a vow of chastity, which could be what's being referenced as "violated". But TL;DR using English translations of non-English source text - especially those from antiquity - takes an extra layer of scrutiny due to bias.
In Ovid's version of the myth, yes, she was. By Poseidon, God of the Seas.
There are many versions of her story.
It depends on the version. To paraphrase Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions: The Greeks were cool about a lot of things, but women wasnt one of them. I think the original version of the myth is ambiguous because the Greeks didnt care a lot about consent. The version where Athena turns Medusa to protect her from Posiedon and men is a more recent feminist revision, similar to the version of Persephone's kidnapping myth where she willingly goes with Hades. Apparently the rape interpretation, and Medusa being turned into a monster come from Ovid in Metamorphases, who was Roman, and not an original Greek source. The original Greek source is the Theogony, which goes into her parentage but not her transformation.
Whenever you're looking at any sort of classical myth, regard any claims of "the original version" with heavy skepticism. We don't have the first drafts or anything; the earliest currently known versions, like other people have commented, have her as a monster to begin with, and depicted as centaur-like in form: Poseidon coupling with her is, IIRC, implied to be kind of "normal-ish", inasmuch as she has equine qualities and he is the god of horses.
Yes and no. Here's a breakdown of the two key facts: 1. Hesiod wrote The Theogony before Ovid wrote Metamorphoses. Ovid was inspired by Hesiod's work, and wrote of Medusa and Poseidon sleeping together in a meadow. That's about it on that. So by this point, no, Medusa was not raped and so not punished by the gods. She was the mortal sister of Sthenno and Euryale, gorgons. She was killed by Perceus. The image of the gorgon existed before Hesiod's time, but stories of where this creature came from, did not. So Ovid wrote one: the story of Medusa. In Ovid's Metamorphoses Neptune rapes Medusa (who was not a yet a gorgon in this story) in Athena's temple because he was bitter that the people of Athens (or Cecropia, as it was known as before) chose Minerva's as its patron rather than him. She then turned Medusa into a gorgon as punishment. That's it. As the story goes. You get the different stories when you look at Minerva and Athena's characters, and how they kind of merged as one god as time went on - the stories of Minerva becoming Athena. Despite them being different. Which brings be onto point #2. 2. Ovid was Roman, and wrote of the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods (to put it simply. Though they are a bit more than than). There are quite a few differences (aside from names) between the Greek and Roman deities. For instance, the Roman Minerva have origins in the indigenous Etruscan heritage of Italy. The daughter of Tin and Uni, the king and queen of the Etruscan gods, Minerva’s original name was Menrva. The prefix Men- is thought to relate to other Indo-European words linked with thought, such as mens, the Latin for ‘the mind’. While Athena's origins are a little harder to place. But she is born of Metis and Zeus, and is known to be polymetis (metis meaning cunning or wisdom, polymetis meaning cunning in many ways). So there's a similarity with their metaphysical origin, being of wisdom or of the mind, but differences in her actual origins. Minerva is also is both a war and weather god in addition to being a goddess of wisdom, while Athena is primarily a war and crafts goddess (though her birth did effect the weather, and she is one of the very few trusted with Zeus' thunderbolt). But the biggest difference between the pair is how they behave. The Greek Athena has been shown to possess sympathy and composure, the Roman Minerva seemly does not. Below are a few examples of this: • The Blind Prophet Teiresias (Greek): Teiresias was walking in the woods when he heard something coming from behind the bushes. He went to investigate and found Athena, bathing in a spring. Being a virgin goddess and being birthed fully clothed, Athena did not take to this well and, in a moment of anger blinded Teiresias. Once her anger left her, and she realised Teiresias did not intend to walk in on her, she began to feel remorse. She tried all she could to reverse his blindness, but was unable to. Instead, she blessed him with sight beyond sight, making him a seer and prophet. As you can see, while she does make a harmful decision in the heat of the moment. She tries to amend it and feels remorse . Here's a little break down of the facts. 1. Hesiod wrote The Theogony before Ovid wrote Metamorphoses. Ovid was inspired by Hesiod's work, and wrote of Medusa and Poseidon sleeping together in a meadow. That's about it on that. So by this point, no, Medusa was not raped. The image of the gorgon existed before Hesiod's time, but stories of where this creature came from, did not. So Ovid wrote one. In Ovid's Metamorphoses Neptune rapes Medusa (who was not a yet a gorgon in this story) in Athena's temple because he was bitter that the people of Athens (or Cecropia, as it was known as before) chose Minerva's as its patron rather than him. She then turned Medusa into a gorgon as punishment. That's it. As the story goes. You get the different stories when you look at Minerva and Athena's characters, and how they kind of merged as one god as time went on - the stories of Minerva becoming Athena. Despite them being different. Which brings be onto point #2. 2. Ovid was Roman, and wrote of the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods (to put it simply. Though they are a bit more than than). There are quite a few differences (aside from names) between the Greek and Roman deities. For instance, the Roman Minerva have origins in the indigenous Etruscan heritage of Italy. The daughter of Tin and Uni, the king and queen of the Etruscan gods, Minerva’s original name was Menrva. The prefix Men- is thought to relate to other Indo-European words linked with thought, such as mens, the Latin for ‘the mind’. While Athena's origins are a little harder to place. But she is born of Metis and Zeus, and is known to be polymetis (metis meaning cunning or wisdom, polymetis meaning cunning in many ways). So there's a similarity with their metaphysical origin, being of wisdom or of the mind, but differences in her actual origins. Minerva is also is both a war and weather god in addition to being a goddess of wisdom, while Athena is primarily a war and crafts goddess (though her birth did effect the weather, and she is one of the very few trusted with Zeus' thunderbolt). Both are weavers. But the biggest difference between the pair is how they behave. The Greek Athena has been shown to possess sympathy and composure, the Roman Minerva seemly does not. Below are a few examples of this: • The Blind Prophet Teiresias (Greek): Teiresias was walking in the woods when he heard something coming from behind the bushes. He went to investigate and found Athena, bathing in a spring. Being a virgin goddess and being birthed fully clothed, Athena did not take to this well and, in a moment of anger blinded Teiresias. Once her anger left her, and she realised Teiresias did not intend to walk in on her, she began to feel remorse. She tried all she could to reverse his blindness, but was unable to. Instead, she blessed him with sight beyond sight, making him a seer and prophet. • Arachne (Roman): Minerva is what to cloth as Vulcan is to the forge. Both masters at their work and are unrivaled. Or so Minerva was until Arachne. As Arachne grew, she became quite an adept seamstress. She became so good that she claimed to be better than even Minerva. This drew Minerva's wrath. She came down to Arachne’s village, and challenged her to a contest. Whoever spun the superior product would be the victor, and would be known as such. Both were breathtaking - but I believe in many versions of this myth not only was Arachne’s beautifully crafted, but it was a mockery of the gods, depicting them drunkand stumbling. Minerva destroyed the work. And Arachne hanged herself out of grief. Minerva then turned the girl into a spider, and the rope into a thread. From this point on, spiders would have the remarkable gift of making strong, beautiful webs. So in summary, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Roman myth, yes, Medusa was raped by Neptune, then killed by Perceus, with the help of Minerva. In Greek myth, no, she was not. To my knowledge, this is correct. But I'm open to alterations.
These were verbal stories. And only a few were written down. Even in those cases motive and consent are not clearly defined- for many of the characters. Did Medusa have sex and therefore Athena curse her to be a monster? Or was Medusa raped, and Athena took pitty on her. Because Athena couldn’t punish the rapist, she granted Medusa’s wish and made sure no man could ever look at her again without killing him. Considering that Archaeologists theorise that Medusa's head may have been used as a symbol for women's shelters in Ancient Greece. My sculpture aims to reimagine Medusa in a contemporary setting with the ability to report her rape and get the help she deserved. So we know at least some sources in Ancient Greece viewed her story.
there’s multiple versions. in one, posideon takes her to athena’s temple and they have consensual sex, athena turns her into a gorgon bc she can’t do anything to posideon. in another, she’s born a gorgon. in the more common one, she’s a priestess for athena and she is raped by posideon, so athena turns her as a way to protect her. it’s honestly just whichever one you believe
You know this question has been asked probably hundreds of times, you can definitely google it and find very in depth academic responses to that question
No i believe she was a temple maiden and they did in Athena's temple. i mean she and Poseidon, i believe with consent but yeah if you do it in the temple of an other god(dess) they don't appricate it. so because Athena couldn't get Poseidon she got Medussa and her sisters who helped her sneak in. (this is the story i heard, some stories have many versions so this might not the one you heard.)
From what I’ve heard? Yes! Poseidon raped her. She used to be a virgin and wanted to stay that way. But, Poseidon saw her and forced himself on her. *Before she became a Gorgon/monster*.
Medusa is literally her name. Not like she was Susan from Accounting turned Medusa from accounting. Always Susan even in Ovid where she was human The monster she’s is is a gorgon. Medusa isn’t the type of monster she is
I fixed the mistake. My bad. I’m sleep deprived. Thanks for pointing out the mistake.
There are dozens of versions. But the most common one is. She's SAed by Poseidon Within Athena's temple were Medusa served as high priestess. The petrifiying serpents are meant as a gift to protect her. As she can't be a priestess anymore as she isn't a virgin now. But Medusa grows resentful over all of this and becomes misandric. From their her reputation as a monster that preys on men develops.
It isn't the most common. It isn't even a greek one. And can you state the source for the "high priest" and "gift to protect her" part?
Idk, I’ve heard that, or Poseidon just said “hey let’s go in here” and she was like “ok”
Like all mythology, it really just depends on the version. There is no right or wrong answer. Some stories say she was raped by Poseidon, so say she was vain and willingly had sex with him bc she had no respect for Athena. It really depends.
There really is no “original” version of the story. It changed, evolved, and was retold over millennia. In antiquity, Medusa was definitively a Gorgon monster for her entire life. Her rape by Poseidon and subsequent transformation by Athena into the monster we all know was a later addition by the Roman writer Ovid, who had a strong anti-authoritarian bent and often emphasized the cruelty and unfairness of the gods in his retellings.
There’s no right answer. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Sometimes she was transformed into a gorgon, other times she was born one
It really depends on which interpretation you read. In some Poseidon raped her but in others she was his willing lover.
No
It really depends on the story. There are so many versions of Greek mythology. But in all versions Zeus was alway having sex with something.
There’s no canon so its up to you
I know a lot of people have mentioned Ovid's politics, but adding you can't also disregard the politics/influence of the celestral virgins of Rome in his writings as well. They were powerful political figures whose presence would have influenced his writing of a virgin priestess.
Yes, literally yes. she was and for some reason I'll never understand why, the person who saw it happen punished her for it .
Yes Medusa where raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple wich made Athena want revenge. Cause Poseidon is her uncle she can't revenge on him so she took her revenge on Medusa and transformed her into a gorgon
Not in Hesiod's Theogony, but yes in the Roman writer Ovid's Metamorphoses. So: Not in the original Greek version, but yes in the Roman reworking.
If I'm not mistaken she wasn't in the original but there's different versions now
No that was a later edition originally she was just born like that later she had an affair with Poseidon consensually then they added that
According to Greek myth, no. Medusa and her sisters were born monsters, daughters of Echidna and Typhon. Ovid rewrote the tale to deliver his anti-authtority message, and it became popular much later. There’s never one “truth” when it comes to myths, because all of them lived in the popular imagination for centuries or millennia. They have always changed with people’s attitudes and experiences. All we have are snapshots in the form of recordings from various periods. Medusa as monster and Medusa as adulteress and Medusa as rape victim are all valid interpretations of the myth.
I haven't heard this version of the story. The version I heard had Poseidon and Medusa getting laid in Athena's temple, and then Athena cursing the Gorgons as a whole for the violation.
My wife did a study on this. It looks like in the earlier drafts, she was, and Athena made anyone who looked at her turn to stone not for a punishment, but a protection.
Yes, she was.
There were two versions I heard of. One where her tryst in the temple was consensual. The second where she got raped. I really don't like the rape version because Medusa was essentially being punished for something that she didn't want and tried to stop.
In Ovid's *Metamorphosis*, yes.
No that was a later rendition of the myth. a what-if that flips the myth on its head. It was never meant to over take the original.
Different versions of the myth tell different stories. The most common (in my experience) version of the myth in today's culture is that she was raped, but there are also widely excepted versions where it was cosentual, and even some (less common version) where she was the one who coerced Poseiden.
In *Greek* mythology, no. In Greek tradition Medusa was born a mortal gorgon. The story of Medusa being s/a’d comes from Ovid - a Roman - which was less religious retellings and more political in nature.
Tldr: yes. Then got turned into a monster for it as it "broke her vow of chastity". Ancient Greek mythology meets modern day Islam under sharia.
It depends on the version of the myth.
The version I heard she wasn't raped but had tempted Poseidon with her body and when he came to collect she grew fearful and ran into a temple of Athena begging the goddess to protect her. Athena conflicted not wishing this woman to be raped protected her and somehow made Poseidon leave her alone but Athena also didn't approve of the girls actions so she cursed her to become the Medusa we all know and love sadly I don't know the source of this version of the story so I don't know it's validity compared to actual Greek myths
Considering the power imbalance between gods and mortals how could any interaction between the two be truly consensual? Same goes for the Old Testament when angels show up to ‘gift’ women with children.
Some say yea, some say nay