Medusa: Monster or Victim?

Greek Mythology has been around for thousands of years, but it still plays a big role in modern stories. Like the YA book series “Percy Jackson”, these Greek stories depict all-powerful beings apathetically influencing humans with themes of eternal damnation, immortality, and power.
Many say that these Greek characters are monsters, but there’s one character whose morality is still a subject of debate. Her name is Medusa.
Medusa’s story has been told for centuries. It started as a myth to entertain, but over time, it has been adapted and retold in movies, books, TV shows, and songs. The story changed. But what is Medusa’s story, really?
Medusa was a beautiful woman who lived in Greece and served as a priest in Athena’s temple. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, was powerful and strict. One day, Poseidon, the god of the sea, attacked and raped Medusa in Athena’s temple. When Medusa asked Athena for help, the goddess did not protect her. Instead, she punished Medusa by turning her into a Gorgon—a creature with snakes for hair, fangs, and a deadly gaze that could turn people to stone. Over time, Medusa’s image changed. As Kiki Karoglou put it, this transformation “became increasingly anthropomorphic and feminine” throughout the retellings, changing Medusa’s “Gorgon state” from a terrifying monster into a deadly beauty. She was banished. Men came to kill her, but they were all turned to stone. That was until Poseidon sent his son, Perseus, to kill her. Perseus sliced Medusa’s head off and gifted it to Athena. With it, the goddess wielded the Goron’s powers.
There are two main modern interpretations of the story. The first version says Athena punished Medusa, ignoring the fact that Medusa was a victim. The second version suggests that Athena changed Medusa to protect her from men, giving her powers to stop anyone who tried to harm her.
According to Robin Diver for the University of Birmingham, this view stemmed from a speech that Perseus made after killing Medusa. Diver says, “Perseus’ narration of Medusa’s rape [was] strikingly callous” which led audiences to wonder if the Gods had told Perseus the full story or instead manufactured Medusa into a villain for their own purposes. Originally, Medusa only turned men to stone, which helped this theory.
With modern interpretations come modern retellings and “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” is evidence of this. The book follows Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. On a quest, he meets Aunty Em (Medusa) in her street-side Garden Emporium. She tells Percy about her love affair with Poseidon and how she sought revenge after he abandoned her. Like the original myth, Percy then cuts off her head and sends it to the gods as a warning. The main change was changing the rape into a love affair. In this version, the attack by Poseidon is changed into a romance, possibly to make readers sympathize with Percy instead of Medusa.
Besides entertainment, Medusa has also become a feminist symbol of female rage and empowerment. The symbol was created because, as Gillian Alban said, “Oftentimes when a woman displays any… sharp anger [or] flaming fury… of suppressed frustration arising from oppression, she is labeled monstrous, mad, hysterical, or dangerous”. Seeing that reflected in Medusa’s story, women saw her as a survivor rather than a monster. Medusa tattoos became a way for rape victims to express their power and survival.
So, was Medusa a victim? A monster? A symbol of strength? Even though she wasn’t human at the end of her story, she continues to teach us about trust, betrayal, and power.