Alright, here’s the deal. If I hear one more person hating on Medusa, I will start throwing hands. She is depicted as one of the worst monsters in Greek mythology, but when you really look at her life, there were few fates that were less terrifying to experience than her own.
When she was born, it seemed as though she was the first and only mortal among monsters in her family. So the world turned her into a monster instead.
Firstly, she was raped by Poseidon in her own goddess’ temple. The mythology happily seems to justify Poseidon’s actions because she was one of the few girls he raped, and, well, how could he have helped himself when she was such a beautiful young maiden? Apart from the blatant, scarring trauma this would have untailed for her, it also barred her from doing the thing she had devoted her entire life to.
As compensation, her goddess gifts her with the ability to turn any who looked at her to stone and snakes on her person to defend herself, so no man could ever hurt her the same way again. For just a few moments, she had this protection; being a threat towards men rather than their victim to abuse.
But then, her legacy is made to seem like childsplay when two egocentric men make a futile, hubristic bet over her life, of whom neither had encountered before. Perseus hunts her down and slaughters her for some sick form of sport, resulting in his name being praised and worshipped like some ultimate hero to be ever-grateful for.
As if slaughtering Medusa in her own home was not enough, Perseus kept her head to use as a weapon, meaning, that, for the second time in her life, egomaniacal men were using her body for their own purpose like some meaningless toy they found in the corner of their room and then disregarded once more when they grew bored of it.
Perseus has been remembered as a hero throughout history for protecting his people (from a woman who never actively sought to attack people, and only used her power as a defence mechanism against abhorrent men similar to Perseus himself), while Medusa went down in history as a repulsive, monstrous crone.
