Medusa

Medusa
Season(s)	9, 14
Species	Gorgon
Status	Deceased
Portrayed by	None (mentioned only)

Medusa is a mythological gorgon that existed at some point in the past.

The Medusa portrait by Peter Paul Rubens seen in Cuthbert Sinclair's house

Power and Abilities

• Paralyzing Poison - Gorgons possess a powerful paralyzing poison, the source of the myth about Medusa and gorgons in general being able to turn people into stone. This poison is so potent that it can even affect a Seraphim.
• Super Strength - Gorgons possess an incredible degree of strength, able to overpower humans with ease.
• Snake Communication - Gorgons can understand and communicate with snakes, in Medusa's case, her snake-hair as well.
• Immortality - Being a race of demigods, they can potentially live forever.

Weaknesses

• Decapitation with a Silver Blade - The only known way to kill a gorgon is cut their head off with a silver blade.

Appearances

• Season 9
  • Blade Runners (portrait)
• Season 14
  • Ouroboros (mentioned only)

Lore

In Greek mythology, Medusa ("guardian, protectress") was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed upon her face would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene.

The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or "Phorkys") and his sister Ceto (or "Keto"), chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae, as in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, which places both trinities of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain".

Trivia

• The portrait shown in Blade Runners is Medusa a c.1618 painting by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, showing the severed head of Medusa. The snakes in the painting have been attributed to Frans Snyders. It is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museumin Vienna. Another copy is held in Moravian Gallery in Brno.
• In Ouroboros it is revealed that Medusa (and other gorgons as well) didn't really had the ability to turn people into stone, but could generate a poison that paralyzes her victims rather than petrify.