Medusa, love her, hate her, I could care less. Medusa is one of the most infamous parts of Greek Mythology and has a deeper meaning than what society usually associates her as. Typically society denotes Medusa's figure to what she is most commonly known as 'The Lady With Snakes In Her Hair,' but she is so much more. Medusa is the catalyst for the early realization of female power and the female gaze.

Medusa was a beautiful woman, turned into a gorgon( Greek monster) after a rape incident at the hands of one god and goddess, Poseidon and Athena. Poseidon is the god of the sea, and Athena is the god of war, siblings in creation from their parents Cronos and Rhea. As a family in which everyone is a Greek god or goddess, everyone in their family exceeds great power over ordinary mortals and, in this case, the former Medusa. 

Medusa was a mortal known for her beauty and daunting looks, ironic because her looks became what society deemed the transformational destruction of her character. Medusa being the beautiful woman she was, captured the eye of the god Poseidon, leading to his sick and twisted notions of rape. Medusa was a naïve, beautiful woman, often prideful of her beauty. One rendition of Medusa's rape states, "In Ovid's Metamorphoses (1st century B.C.), Medusa is a young girl whose "beauty was far-famed'. Because she was raped by Poseidon, the god of the sea, in Athena's shrine, Athena, for fitting punishment transformed / The Gorgon's lovely hair to loathsome snakes" (Bowers). Poseidon raped Medusa in Athena's temple. Angered by this insidious action, Athena wanted revenge, but revenge towards who? Medusa. Although Medusa was innocent in her rape, it did not seem like that to the eyes of the gods. The gods were a powerful group of people who monitored and protected the behaviors of humans. Therefore, when Poseidon raped Medusa, it was not of Poseidon, the god of the sea's fault, but Medusa's. Inciting Athena's blame for the matter on Medusa.

Medusa's horrific storyline was not of a singular story. Medusa once compared her beauty to a goddess in other renditions, which offended Athena; this incited Athena's need for revenge after Medusa's rape. When Medusa was raped, Athena believed it was a form of retribution. After all, Medusa compared her mortal looks to that of a goddess "Medusa dared compare herself to a goddess, dared to equate herself with a powerful figure, thereby giving herself at least the pretense of power. As a mortal woman, such ambitions proved a mistake. Medusa was punished by Athena, losing the one thing she could really call her own and be proud of: her hair. Her tresses were turned into snakes, which are altogether more phallic than her hair had previously been. Medusa's reprimand for her pride was to wear a crown of phalluses on top of her, a hissing reminder that she was below the power associated with the phallus" (Mellas). This rendition allows Athena's revenge to take away Medusa's pride, evoking her beauty and who Medusa was. Athena was offended that Medusa compared herself to those in power, even if it was a remark about beauty. Stripping Medusa's hair which played a part in Medusa's beauty inadvertently stripped Medusa's pretense of power in Medusa's eyes. Medusa, stripped of her pride and innocence from Poseidon's horrible raping, allowed Medusa to transform into something else or, rather, someone else. Although the transformation was external by the hands of Athena, it allowed for power to arise in Medusa internally. Medusa's power originally came from her beauty, but not it would come from her 'horror,' defying her role as a traditional woman in a patriarchal society.

As aforementioned many other scholars wrote about this topic and its dark sexual innuendos in different ways, "In Robert Graves' 1960 children's anthology, Medusa kisses Poseidon in Athena's temple, prompting the goddesses' revenge (119). In Donna Jo Napoli's 2011 anthology, Poseidon falls in love with Medusa for her unusual features, and the two are happily married (44-45; 128-131). In Rick Riordan's 2014 anthology, a companion to his Percy Jackson novels, Poseidon persuades Medusa to go with him into Athena's temple for a romantic encounter, again prompting Athena's revenge (187-189)." (Driver). The similarity of these differentiating novels is that Posdeion and Athena are the sources of the evils Medusa will encounter. The manipulation of Medusa's naive character, the words 'unusual features' to degrade her original beauty, and deciet were the products of Medusa's interaction with Poseidon and Athena.Earlier, Medusa's 'cockiness' or her self-esteem served her 'right' when she was transformed into a horrific creature, a gorgon. Or that Medusa's inciting the attraction of a male counterpart is a cause for her punishment, which was really Poseidon's manipulative coercion over the naivete of a mortal. But neither of these explanations is right. While these novels'  may encapsulate a fragment of the truth about the evils Medusa encountered, many rarely spotted how she reclaimed being a victim after her beauty turned. 

Medusa was a victim of severe abuse from the gods. The creation of her 'horror' was not just the creation of snakes as her hair; it was the misrepresentation in media and mythology. Medusa's label of a 'dangerous monster' was not only because of her metamorphosis as a gorgon but what Medusa represented for the 'female gaze.' The female gaze for women is " learning to see clearly for themselves, thus reconstructing the traditional male images of women" (Bowers). Medusa's beauty turned into horror showcases how Poseidon used the traditional male images of women towards Medusa's original form by seeing her as an object he can manipulate and degrade. Athena's role exemplifies how the counterreaction of the male gaze objectifies and degrades women. Athena turned Medusa's hair into snakes because Medusa was prideful of her beauty, which Poseidon manipulated for his discretions. Poseidon and Athena openly degraded Medusa for who she was, causing her to become a gorgon or a dangerous monster. Yet, Medusa became powerful during her time as a gorgon as she contributed to the female gaze by becoming a terrifying power of her own gaze. After Medusa became a gorgon, she had snakes in her hair and eyes that could turn people into stone. The correlation between Medusa's former self captivating the eyes of man to now destroying man's life encapsulates her power. The media often confuses Medusa's power as a 'woman scorned hath fury' instead of realizing that she is reclaiming her power and not using it for evil. Medusa's depiction and storyline consistently refer to the idea that the female gaze is when women reconstruct themselves instead of falling into the patriarchy that is the man. Her storyline is ironic because she now turns men into objects when they dare to look her in the eye rather than being the female object she formerly was. To further explain Medusa's irony in objectification, "Patriarchal males have had to make Medusa- and by extension, all women--the object of the male gaze as a protection against being objectified themselves by Medusa's female gaze" (Bowers). Medusa's ugly names obtained throughout her time were horrific, but her character was not. Men feared Medusa's power because it meant that women were strong, and to the objectifying male gaze, that notion needed to end. 

Medusa exemplifies what new-age feminists would call a girl boss, yet it is still more than that. Medusa was a victim, and society nor Greek mythology should ever negate that, but Medusa was a survivor and a challenger of traditional beliefs. Medusa started the topic of the female gaze many in our society fail to realize. As she beckons for change, she inspires society and turns the conversation. Medusa truly embodies early feminization, even if her external looks don't fit that description.