Who Were Gorgons? Three Female Monsters Who Could Kill People Just By Looking At Them

The earlier examples of Greek literature mention Gorgons. These are three such monsters who had living venomous snakes instead of hair on their heads. Whoever looked into their eyes turned to stone. These were actually three sisters born to Phorcys, a primordial sea god, and Ceto, a sea goddess. Medusa was the most beautiful of these three as the two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were monsters from the beginning and were immortal. But medusa was extremely beautiful and mortal.

Medusa was a devotee of the goddess Athena who often visited the temple of Athena and worshiped her. Thousands of people used to visit Athena's temple just to have a glimpse of Medusa, but she was very pure and devoted all her attention to devotion. Soon the goddess Athena became jealous of Medusa because of the people who visited her temple just because of Medusa. One day on the seashore, Poseidon caught sight of Medusa and was immediately infatuated with her. Medusa rejected his proposal several times because she wanted to remain the priestess of Athena's temple and for this, it was necessary for her to be a virgin. 

One day Poseidon tried to forcefully possess Medusa and while escaping, she ran towards Athena's temple to get protection, but Athena did not save her, resulting in her being raped by Poseidon in the temple. After all was done, Athena appeared and held Medusa responsible for desecrating her sacred space. As a punishment, Athena cursed Medusa that her beautiful hair would be replaced by venomous snakes and that whoever looked into her eyes would turn to stone. Aftermath, medusa also started burning with sorrow and anger and became very heartless. Many warriors tried to behead Medusa, but they all turned to stone. 

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Now Perseus, the son of Zeus, was entrusted with the task of beheading medusa. Perseus was given a helmet so that he would become invisible in front of Medusa. Taking advantage of this, Perseus beheaded Medusa, and later, he defeated many warriors by using her head. The remaining two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, lived at the entrance of the underworld and guarded it. No one knows what happened to these two Gorgon sisters, whether they are still present in the underworld or have perished.