#medusa hc

[songsofdivinity]

@nectaric asked: was becoming a priestess of athena something medusa chose for herself? if so, why? what is her general opinion of the gods? did she devote time to worship all of them, or only athena? what is her opinion of athena / the gods AFTER her transformation?

She did indeed choose for herself to become a priestess of Athena. Why? Because Athena is formidable. A goddess with both smarts and the ability to skillfully defend herself; something the young gorgon admired greatly. So many women in their world met unfavourable fates at the hands of men, but Athena carved herself a place in the world and among the Olympians, and did so with grace. Medusa wanted some of that - to learn to be a strong woman - but eventually she found herself devoting more and more of herself to Athena because it gave her a sense of purpose.

As far as her general opinion of the gods pre-punishment, I think she had a healthy respect for them, being that she herself is of divine lineage. She knows the gods a bit more intimately than the average mortal though, and I think that made her a little bit lax with fearing them. She would pray to others occasionally, but she was devoted only to Athena, and I think she felt especially close to her because of that. Her worship made her feel connected to her, and that also perhaps contributed towards her feeling less afraid than she should have when Poseidon came around.

Speaking of, she did of course enjoy being with him as well. His attention flattered her, because attracting a significant figure like him was far different to the mortal men who gave her their affections. I think she got intoxicated by the thrill, and ultimately that is what led her to allow him to deflower her, even though she knew it would lead to trouble. I think maybe she hoped that her lineage, her dutiful worship of Athena, and having Poseidon's affection might spare her of anything more than a stern scolding.

After her punishment, she definitely felt betrayed as a result of that thinking. Truly, I don't think she expected such a harsh punishment, even though she knew she fucked up badly in hindsight. Initially I think there was some resentment towards Athena as well. "After all my service, she did this to me?" kinda thinking. It hurt, especially because it stripped her of her beauty and the affection of others, and forced her to isolate herself. It was a shock, because she was very privileged; she was beautiful and able to walk among people much more easily than her monstrous siblings. Being thrust into a monster's body and forced to live a life she wasn't used to? Yeah, she was very hurt.

Poseidon didn't escape her resentment either, because I think she was hoping he might help her, or defend her. But she got that double feeling of betrayal when her supposed lover left her to her fate. She was very angry, upset, and broken-hearted for quite a while.

However, her feelings didn't stay that way. The hurt never really left, but isolation gives one a lot of time to think, and she was able to admit that she made her own bed and now she had to lay in it. She realised that she betrayed Athena by breaking her vow, and disrespected her by defiling a temple with a god she didn't have the best relationship with. It took her a while to do it, but eventually she does work up the courage to start praying to Athena again. By that point, her feelings are definitely rooted in contrition, though she doesn't necessarily ask for her punishment to be reversed. She figures the best way to show she's sorry is to show Athena she is still devoted to her, and that she doesn't hold any ill-will toward her. For Athena, she holds nothing but love, admiration, and guilt for betraying her in such a way.

Definitely now she has a much healthier fear of crossing the gods too. She's learned her lesson, and while she does still feel hurt by Poseidon's actions, she doesn't carry a grudge towards him. If she were ever given another chance, I think she'd conduct herself very differently, and remember that while her parents are primordial gods, she herself is not above divine punishment for offending the gods.

[likethexan]

Utterly devastated nobody told me there was a vase painting of Poseidon rushing toward Medusa's decapitated body while one of her sisters looks like she's trying to stop him from seeing the bloody scene... implying he either visits her regularly or she called for him before she died :(

[kentstoji]

shang tsung: my kink? knowing all the information (that i can use against you)

titan!reader:

titan!reader: and you still don't understand why people hate you...

[sarafangirlart]

i found out something about medusa that i think almost no one know about

You probably know that ovid changed the origins of medusa that she was a normal woman and was raped by Poseidon in athena's temple and she was cursed by athena. Of course this wasn't the case in the actual ancient greece, since it was actually said in the theogony that she was a monster from birth, but there's this thing: Ovid did invent the rape, yes, but he wasn't the 1st one that made medusa being cursed by athena. There was this other greek author named apollodorus, or pseudo-apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca, that in his collections of greek myths he writes that indeed, medusa was cursed by athena, but it wasn't because of a rape or forbidden romance, it was because medusa was a very vain woman who like to brag about her beauty and hair, and had the foolish idea of saying that her hair looked betten than athena.

Yeah this is why I can never take the “Athena was actually blessing Medusa!” Thing seriously, every single version of them from Greek to Roman are against each other. The only woman who blessed Medusa with her monsterous appearance is her mother Ceto who is really slept on.

Like if ppl want myths where Athena is nice and protective of women there are plenty of those (but the Athena antis don’t want you to know that lol), did y’all know that Athena, Artemis and Persephone were childhood friends? Did you know that she helped 50 princesses (the Danaides) escape from forced marriage and then helped purify them from murdering their husbands?

[lyxchee-art]

I like you *headcanons your villains and gives them even cooler design*

-Since like Sykes is originally English in the novel, i headcanon him he has a British ancestry

-Medusa is plus sized

-I think McLeach speaks english in a normal accent bc his first language was Indonesian and doesn't know any english until he grew up

-Medusa often speaks French a bit

-McLeach is skilled at repairing weapons

-Sykes has some scars on his face (not bc his dogs did it)

-McLeach is Intersex and goes by any pronouns, but he mainly goes by he/him

[serenfloras]

i watched 3D2Y and the line of rayleigh saying luffy still had six months of training stuck with me

so

luffy deciding to become a better captain and train his haki with a crew that is full of haki masters

what i am saying is temporary kuja pirate luffy vibing with the girls and learning to see from the perspective of those under him

hancock teaching him some of her fighting moves and how to kick real hard and he teaches the girls how to punch even harder

snakeman as a homage to his besties from amazon lily as he applies all he was taught

boa "strength is beauty" hancock: luffy you are very cute this is not me being down bad its just a fact. lets weaponize it

luffy getting some snake aesthetics. he still has a hoodie with the kuja jolly roger

them hiding luffy from the government right under their nose and holding back from chuckling like schoolgirls anytime a marine complained about "straw hat luffy being nowhere to be found" while the man in question raids the perfume yuda's kitchen for the seventh time now and no one suspects shit

just

kuja pirate luffy!!!

[fortnite-headcanons]

Silas hesk is a descendant of Medusa given his connections with snakes and was being controlled by Medusa through the snake before the Gods arrived as a scout to spy on the society

Fortnite Headcanon #198

[cosmicourple]

stupid gow A.U’s #10:

A.U where Athena has snake hair like Medusa & it’s constantly twitching / emoting depending on her mood :3

[justaz]

wait. i was just thinking about it and throwback to chapter 13 of the lightning thief. it really didn’t make sense to me that zeus would send echidna after percy while percy was on a quest to retrieve his master bolt but i had just brushed it off on zeus being Like That. but now that i’m thinking back on it, percy never specified who medusas head was supposed to go to, he just wrote “the gods” and given that zeus is king of the gods it makes sense for the package to go to him yknow? so if the package did go to zeus and he pulled out medusas head and saw “with best wishes, percy jackson” obviously he’s gonna be miffed. since he can’t kill percy directly as he’s on a quest and his brothers child, it makes sense that he would just nudge one of the worst monsters in his direction.

anyways, my headcanon/theory:

zeus sent echidna after percy because percy sent medusas head to olympus and zeus opened it

[beeejayy]

One of if not I think my first commission piece ! @catcrow236 asked me to draw mariemedusa :D

[godsofhumanity]

Athena: I am wise beyond my years, and never once punished someone unjustly.

Medusa: B*TCH, WHAT?!

Athena: ... I may have accidentally punished one person unjustly.

hee hee u didn't ask for this, but this feels like a relevant time for me to post my idea of the medusa myth.

so, i know people hate Ovid, but i like his version of events, and i do like the idea that Medusa and her sisters were mortals...

this may be influenced by external reading that i have now forgotten, but i have this idea that Medusa and her sisters were priestesses (? idk if that's the right term) but they served Athena in her temple, and so, wherever Medusa lived, there would have been an Athenian temple right there.

now, as your usual greek myth goes, i do think Medusa must have been very beautiful, and i think she unwittingly attracts the attention of Poseidon.

but i don't think Medusa ever intends to have some affair with an immortal god; she's just a mortal girl... so when Poseidon first appears to her, he appears like a beautiful, pure white stallion in the fields, or maybe on a beach.

and Medusa, innocent at heart, sees the horse and is just delighted by the sight of this handsome creature. she's surprised at how well kept the wild stallion is and how friendly it is. and then the horse kneels and it allows her to climb on its back.. and Medusa rides for a long time in the wind.. and it's fun. i mean, cmon on, horse riding is fun!

but then it starts to rain.. a little at first, and then a lot. it's heavy. and the stallion immediately gallops into the closest shelter available.

Medusa is so lost in her own world, so marvelled by the "humanity" of this horse that it saw the rain and carried her to shelter that she doesn't realise where the horse has carried her; just outside Athena's temple.

after some time, when Medusa has built this sense of trust and companionship with this horse, she puts her arms around its neck and suddenly she feels arms like that of a man returning her embrace.. the horse's fur now feels like skin and fabric that wasn't there before...

when she looks up, it's Poseidon in a mortal form, and she's absolutely flabbergasted at where this man came from... then she learns that it is Poseidon and what he's here for, and at first she's frightened; she looks around and realises that she's in Athena's temple-- she cannot be here with a man. but then Poseidon charms her and convinces her how blessed she is to have earned the affections of an immortal god- this, of course, isn't a novel concept.

Medusa is manipulated by Poseidon into laying with him inside Athena's temple. At first she refuses because she knows it would be wrong.. but Poseidon convinces her it will be alright; after all, he's a god too- and then Medusa thinks, "well, if he's the one who led me here, i couldn't get into trouble for obeying a god" and so the deed is done.

and Athena, naturally, gets enraged when she sees the sacrilege being committed in her own temple by her own mortal servant and immediately, in a flash of thunder, appears. Poseidon bolts from the scene and only Medusa is left to face the wrathful goddess.

when Athena questions her, Medusa attempts to explain herself; how could she, a mere mortal, refuse a god like Poseidon? he would have killed her and had his way with her no matter what she did...

i like the idea of a rigid Athena. i don't think Athena is too sympathetic to Medusa... i can imagine Athena saying, "it would have been better if you died than lived and desecrated my temple"... i know that's extremely cold, but Athena, to me, does have a cold character. and i do think she is unforgiving.. not totally unforgiving, but she has super high standards and she doesn't really make compromises for mortals.

however, when Athena sees the despair of Medusa, i like the idea of her softening her tone and then saying something like, "if you had only called my name, would i not have helped my servant?" i don't think it ever crosses Medusa's mind to ask for Athena to defend her because Poseidon makes Medusa believe that she's "blessed" and that this is the will of the gods so Medusa hasn't done anything wrong..

now, i think Athena gives Medusa a double-edged sword-- her transformation is meant to be simultaneously a gift and a curse.. Medusa's beauty is what attracted the trouble that made her sin, so Athena decides to take away Medusa's beauty by transfiguring her into something so hideous and monstrous that no one will look in her direction.. but, at the same time, the transformation also ensures that no man, mortal or immortal alike, will ever touch Medusa again because they'll turn to stone before they ever get anywhere.

in this way, i like the idea that Athena grants Medusa protection. she'll be alone and monstrous- that's her punishment. but she'll also be safe and possess the ability to protect herself in a way she couldn't before- that's her blessing.

i don't believe Medusa ever perceives Athena's curse to be a gift, but i think that Athena means it as gift. it's one of those cryptic messages from the divine to the mortal that never really gets understood.

many years later, i like the idea that Athena sends Perseus to slay Medusa to free her from her curse; therefore, Perseus' slaying of Medusa is meant as a mercy from Athena. but anyways, that's another myth on its own.

now, you might ask, "why did Poseidon do it in the first place?" idk. i've heard a version where Poseidon does it to get back at Athena after she wins patronage over Athens.. this would make sense to me. or maybe it really was just that Poseidon had the hots for Medusa. i like the idea that it was some combination of both.

[fengqings-pnutbu-er]

what if hua cheng has like a medusa eye underneath that eyepatch he like stole it and popped inside of his empty eye socket and every time a mortal pisses him off in the slightest, he takes off his eyepatch and turns the mortal to stone?

[psdrawsthings]

lucius malfoy looks like a person who calls his mother by her name instead of "mother"

[sarafangirlart]

Medusa’s gaze only working on men has got to be one of the goofiest “interpretation” of all time.

[bluscr33ns]

// tagz 2

[wildlcck]

currently obsessed w the idea of post epilogue sadie taking in a stray cat n comin back home and talking/complaining about her day to it