Why perseus beheaded medusa

Medusa kept her beautiful face but everything else was so monstrous. And whoever dared to look into her face ended up being turned into stone. Perseus thus had a hard task. He asked Athena and Hermes for help and two of them, together with the nymphs, provided winged sandals to fly him to the end of the world where gorgons lived, a cap that made him invisible, a sword and a mirrored shield. One of the most known art work is the Medusa shield by Caravaggio, painted at the end of the 16th century.

It is exposed in the Uffizi museum in Florence. Close by the museum, in the main plaza of Firenze Florence there is a sculpture of Perseus. This is not the real story of how she was turned into this monster.. Athena was angry that her sacred templed was violated and punished medusa by turning her beautiful hair into snakes.

This is very interesting you seem like a knowledgable individual. I would like to meet you one day and have a deep conversation about the killing of Medusa. Regards, Lionel. As he did show, he held the gleaming shield of Athena before him and stared into it. The sight of Medusa turned a man to stone, but by focusing only on the reflections in the shield he could find her without actually looking directly at her.

When he was close enough he swung down hard with the sword. Perseus beheaded the Gorgon with a single stroke, having never looked directly at her. Her dying scream, however, woke up her man-eating sisters.

He flew out of the cave, quickly dodging them and making his escape unseen. His escape was probably aided by additional sources of chaos in the dark cavern.

Perseus flew away, stopping in Ethiopia to rescue Andromeda from a sea monster before returning to his own homeland. Many stories of Greek heroes involved exceptional feats of strength. Hercules , for example, was well-known for defeating many enemies with both his powerful weapons and in unarmed combat. Perseus, however, did not succeed because of his mastery of weapons or sheer brute strength.

He used the skills favored by his divine patrons, Athena and Hermes. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warfare, who was known to always show favor to those who fought for a just cause. While she often helped the heroes of Greek legends, she showed particular care to those who used their intelligence when they fought. Perseus did not rush immediately into an unwinnable fight against impossible odds.

He sought out information, strategized, and planned out his course of action. While Athena was often associated with heroes who employed wisdom in their fighting, Hermes was a less common patron of noble causes. As a trickster god, however, his help was invaluable to Perseus. Hermes was the patron god of thieves, and Perseus used many similar tricks to complete his quest. He crept through the shadows and used a theft, that of the eye of the Graeae, to achieve his ends.

He was again stealthy, using the chaos of the moment as a diversion to enable his escape. In the Odyssey , her head was kept in Hades to drive the living from the world of the dead.

The Perseus myth provides us with the phenomenon that her face and gaze could turn men to stone. Perseus and Athena were required to control such threatening forces and harness their power. This harness was taken up by ancient Greek artists, who represented the Gorgon across all periods and in all media.

Medusa is a deadly and cryptic other, but she is also ubiquitous, with an undeniable energy that inspired artists to repeat her semblance and story in diverse ways across literature, lore, and art through ancient Greece, Rome, and beyond.

Glennon, Madeleine. Belson, Janer Danforth. Childs, William A. Michael Padgett, pp. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Danner, Peter. Krauskopf, Ingrid.

Zurich: Artemis, Mack, Rainer. Marconi, Clemente. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Milne, Marjorie J. Richter, Gisela M. Vernant, Jean-Pierre.

Zeitlin, pp. Visiting The Met? Terracotta antefix with the head of Medusa. Terracotta aryballos in the form of a helmeted head. Terracotta kylix: Siana cup drinking cup Attributed to the C Painter. Terracotta stand Signed by Ergotimos as potter. Part of the marble stele grave marker of Kalliades. Terracotta painted gorgoneion antefix roof tile. Pegasus can be found on many transportation company logos. Who are the characters in the pictures below from the story of Perseus? Which event from the story is happening in each picture?

Answer the following questions according to the story. How was Perseus conceived? Why did Acrisius want to get rid of Perseus? How does he do that? Who raised Perseus? What three cool items did the Hesperides, Athena, and Hermes give Perseus? What is a Pegasus and how was it born? What happened to Acrisius? What happened to Perseus and Andromeda when they died? How many times did Perseus use the head of Medusa as a weapon?

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