In Greek mythology Medusa (/məˈdjuːzə, məˈdʒuː-, -sə/, US /məˈduː-/; Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus (Fabulae Preface) makes Medusa the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.
Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter 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.
sacra eiecisti tanquam lapillos
in lacum, ad flores, ad fabulas
cum pervolavat cupiditas
totam oram cordis
totam oram cordis
deos, ad deos, medusas
versa glaucas
far, nefas, borealia oscula
et laetitiae verbera
pistor misce
dum epicis crepundis coelum
totum vincam lubricum
deos ad deos medusas
versa glauca
versa glauca
sacra eiecisti tanquam lapillos
in lacum, ad flores, ad fabulas
cum pervolavat cupiditas
totam oram cordis
deos, ad deos medusas