"Medusa was beautiful once, so beautiful as to tempt Poseidon. When he came for her, she ran to Athena's temple thinking that the goddess would protect her. She didn't. Poseidon took her on the cold floor. She prayed to Athena for comfort but the goddess found nothing but disgust. She made sure no one would ever want Medusa again, one look at the creature she has become would turn any living thing to stone." - Io, Clash of the Titans (2010)
Anyone who knows even a little bit about Greek mythology has heard of Medusa. A hideous monster with snakes for hair and whose gaze can turn living things to stone, she and her sisters Euryale and Stheno are collectively known as the Gorgons, which derives from the Ancient Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful" (fitting, considering how ugly they supposedly were).
Medusa's tale is actually something of a tragic one. She was originally just an ordinary human woman, who had the misfortune of being noticed by a god; the sea god, Poseidon, took a fancy to her, and in his lust he raped her in the Temple of Athena. Ever the sympathetic goddess (sarcasm), Athena decided to punish Medusa for having the audacity to be violated within her temple, and so she transformed the poor woman into the monster she is known as today. To add insult and injury to this considerable trauma, she was later hunted down and killed by the hero Perseus, who, using a mirror to look at her reflection instead of facing her directly, choped off her head to present to a pompous king. All in all, Medusa had it pretty rough...
A carving of a classic depiction of a Gorgon
Medusa, as she appears in Clash of the Titans (2010)
Despite how well known she is, Medusa has something of an identity crisis regarding her appearance. Classical depictions of the Gorgon depict her as an ogre-like creature, with scaly skin, bronze claws, tusks and wings in addition to the snake hair. More recent depictions, such as the film Clash of the Titans and the God of War franchise, show her with the lower body of a snake, similar to a naga or a lamia, and make her features more serpentine. There are also a lot of versions where her facial features remain human and even vaguely beautiful, which completely contradicts her 'hideous' description. Between these various designs, there are only two constants: the snakes-for-hair and the petrifying gaze.
Not a hundred percent sure where I'm going to go with this one. On the one hand, I'd like to try something closer to the original ogre-like depiction, as I think it'll stick out more from the other designs currently out there, but at the same time I feel the naga-like design that most people associate her with fits more. i do know that I want to push the 'tragic' side a bit. I dunno, time will tell what I come up...
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