Do we like them?

Do we like Medusa?

A character from Greek mythology (the myth of Perseus and the Gorgons) (Ancient Greece, from)

Our score: 6 out of 10. We'd back her. She mostly just wants to be left alone, and in later tellings she is wronged. She is still dangerous to anyone who wanders into her lair.

Medusa is the most famous of the Gorgons. In Hesiod's version these are three monstrous sisters, the daughters of the sea god Phorcys and his sister-wife Ceto. Medusa is the one who can die, while her sisters Stheno and Euryale are immortal. She is known for snakes in place of hair and for a face that petrifies anyone who looks at it. She lives far from ordinary people, surrounded by the frozen forms of those who stared at her.

Her story is about other people coming for her. King Polydectes wants the hero Perseus out of the way, so he tricks him into promising to fetch Medusa's head. Perseus sets out with divine help, including a polished shield from Athena and a sickle from Hermes. Medusa never goes looking for a fight. She is the quest, not the quester.

That is why she scores a 6. She isn't a villain who schemes or conquers, and she is hard to blame for a power she can't switch off. But she is a real danger to anyone who gets close. Later traditions, such as Ovid's, make her more sympathetic. Britannica describes her fall from admired figure to object of fear as a cautionary tale about transgression and punishment. In those versions she is more victim than villain.

Perseus finds her asleep, uses the shield as a mirror so he never meets her gaze, and cuts off her head. Her blood gives birth to Pegasus and Chrysaor, her children by Poseidon. Even in death she stays useful as a weapon: Perseus uses the head to turn his enemies to stone, then gives it to Athena, who places it on her shield.