To: alt.mythology
From: rdiller@quads.uchicago.edu (Mark Diller)
Subject: Re: Greek Monsters
Date: 29 Dec 1994 22:14:41 GMT
Quoting: |killjoy@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com (Dan Vieira) 
         |>trog (trog@primenet.com) 

|> I enjoy the Greek history about monsters but i need some help. First whats
|> the name of that one thats half lion halfgoat and a snake tail? Two if
|> medusa was once a beautiful woman how come her sisters are gorgons? thats
|> all thanks

|2)  Medusa never was a beautiful woman, but rather, along with the two 
|other Gorgons and their other sisters, the Graeae, always ugly.

Not so;  there was a tradition that stated that Medusa was once very
beautiful, so much so that she claimed to rival Athena in looks.  The goddess
in revenge turned her into a hideous monster.  A third tradition I've heard
in late sources states that (beautiful) Medusa had sex with Poseidon in 
Athena's temple, and the transformation was due to this sacrilege.

The tradition of a beautiful Medusa may have to do with her prehistory, about
which we know nothing but which is hinted at by the meaning of her name, which
is simply "Queen."  It may be that in olden times she was simply a goddess,
and thus beautiful like most goddesses, but later was demonized for whatever
reason.  Note in this connection the myths involving Medusa that parallel 
those of other goddesses (for instance, she gives birth to Pegasos with
Poseidon as the father, while Demeter gives birth to the divine horse Areion
after consorting with the same god).  Note also that there is no certain reason
to assume that Medusa was always thought of as a Gorgon;  this may have been
an entirely different bogey-man type of creature which only in Archaic times
came to be associated with her.  The fact that Medusa was, strangely enough,
the only mortal Gorgon supports the inference that there was some fundamental
difference between them.
-- 
Mark Diller - Univ. Chicago Divinity School - aka zagreus@aol.com