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The three Gorgon sisters-Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa-are mythological monsters who have been featured in art and culture spanning from the days of ancient Greece to present day. Medusa is the most well-known Gorgon, having been variously portrayed as a monster, a protective symbol, a rallying symbol for liberty, and a sympathetic victim of rape and/or a curse. The Gorgons are best known by their hair of living venomous snakes and ability to turn living creatures to stone. Medusa herself is an ancient icon that remains one of the most popular and enduring figures of Greek mythology. She continues to be recreated in pop culture and art, surpassing the popularity of many other mythological characters. Her likeness has been immortalized by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Caravaggio, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and Benvenuto Cellini. Ancient times to the Renaissance The Gorgoneion, or Gorgon head, was used in the ancient world as a protective apotropaic symbol. Among the ancient Greeks, it was the most widely used symbol to avert evil. Medusa's head with its goggling eyes, fangs, and protruding tongue was depicted on the shield of Athena herself. Its use in this fashion was depicted in the Alexander Mosaic, a Roman mosaic (ca. 200 BC) in Pompeii. In some cruder representations, the blood flowing under the head can be mistaken for a beard. By the Renaissance, artists depicted Medusa's head held aloft to represent the realistic human form of the triumphant hero Perseus (such as in the 1554 bronze statue Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini). Medusa's head was also depicted to evoke horror by making the detached head the main subject (as demonstrated by the 1597 painting Medusa by Baroque painter Caravaggio). 19th century After the French Revolution, Medusa was used as a popular emblem of Jacobinism and was often displayed as a figure of "French Liberty." This was in opposition to "English Liberty," which was personified by Athena (whose shield bore Medusa's head). "To radicals like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Medusa was an 'abject hero,' a victim of tyranny whose weakness, disfiguration, and monstrous mutilation [had] become, in themselves, a kind of revolutionary power." Shelley's 1819 poem, On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery was published posthumously by his wife Mary Shelley in 1824. Octave Mirbeau's use of Medusa during his time has also been examined. Modern use The image of Medusa's severed head has become one of the most-recognized images from Greek mythology. A representation of Perseus carrying this head has been featured on the cover of a number of paperback editions of Edith Hamilton's Mythology and several editions of Bulfinch's Mythology. Medusa also became a very popular icon in designer fashion, as the logo of the Italian luxury clothing brand Versace portrays a Gorgon head. Luciano Garbati's 2008 sculpture, Medusa with the Head of Perseus, portrays her clutching the severed head of Perseus, later becoming a feminist avatar for the MeToo movement. Comics Since 1964, Medusa has been appearing in issues of Wonder Woman, and has battled against Diana herself many times. In one volume of Lumberjanes, the Gorgons are depicted as approachable women who blindfold themselves with their snakes to avoid accidentally petrifying mortals who want to speak with them. When a series of petrifactions occur around the campsite, the Gorgons are the prime suspects, only for the true culprits to be revealed as a flock of basilisks unleashed by an evil goddess whom the snake-haired women originally turned to stone by the Olympians' command. Upon being freed, the vengeful deity has plotted to frame the Gorgons to get back at them for imprisoning her. In the climax, the Gorgons and the Lumberjanes team up to round up the basilisks and defeat the goddess using them. Screen The myth of Perseus and Medusa was adapted into a 1925 silent short film titled The Gorgon's Head. In 2020, The Gorgon's Head is among the films uploaded on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's official YouTube channel to celebrate the exhibition's 150th anniversary. Medusa is portrayed as a wandering tree creature with a single glowing eye in Medusa Against the Son of Hercules (Perseus the Invincible), a 1962 film starring Richard Harrison. The creature effects were created by Carlo Rambaldi who later worked on Alien and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Medusa is a character in the 1964 film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. The myth of the Gorgon was the basis for the 1964 Hammer horror film, The Gorgon, which "abandoned the traditional myth entirely and tried to tell a new story". Medusa appears in two DC Comics-based animated TV series. The first is the Challenge of the Superfriends episode Battle of the Gods, where she is voiced by Shannon Farnon; in the climax, she accidentally petrifies herself by looking at her reflection in Wonder Woman's bracelet. The second is the Justice League Unlimited episode This Little Piggy, where she is voiced by Laraine Newman; imprisoned in Tartarus, she has her sentence reduced for helping Batman and Zatanna locate her escaped cellmate Circe. Medusa is a character in the 1981 film, Clash of the Titans. Special-effects creator Ray Harryhausen used stop motion animation to depict the battle with Medusa. Although "the essential story sticks closer to its sources than any other interpretation", the film takes creative liberties as Medusa's biology differs from "any previous representations, ancient or modern", with the lower body of a snake rather than legs. Medusa is also featured in the 2010 remake of the film, with a more human face that contorts when she turns her victims to stone. Duzer is a Gorgon in the 1990 animated series Gravedale High. The myth of Medusa is central to the Tales from the Cryptkeeper episode segment, Myth Conceptions. A greedy archaeologist is in Greece, searching for Medusa's temple. He tells a local village girl named Zola that contrary to popular belief, Perseus had failed to slay Medusa, and that he is after the demigod's polished gold shield. After digging for a number of days and nights, the archaeologist finds Medusa's temple, which is full of her petrified victims including Perseus, still clutching his gold shield. Ignoring Zola's warning, the archaeologist steals the shield, but gets lost while looking for an exit and gets petrified by Medusa herself. Standing in front of the now petrified archaeologist, Zola tells him that Medusa has actually been protecting her temple from the likes of him and Perseus. In a twist ending, Zola picks up the shield and laughs, her snake-haired reflection revealing her true identity as Medusa, changing her form to keep plunderers out of her temple and petrifying them when they trespass. In The Powerpuff Girls, one of the villains is Sedusa, a greedy woman with prehensile locks of hair. In Pixar's Monsters, Inc., Mike Wazowski's one-eyed girlfriend, Celia Mae (voic.... Discover the Claude Herzfeld popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Claude Herzfeld books.