Metamorphoses IV Lore Books

Description

The fourth book of the Roman poet Ovid, in which the hero Perseus tells how he beheaded the mythical Gorgon Medusa, who had poisonous snakes for hair and whose terrible gaze turned her opponents to stone.

Text

Metamorphoses IV
Publius Ovidius Naso

Thus begins the tale of Medusa, daughter of the sea god Phorcys, who was transformed by the goddess Minerva for her pride.
On the Ethiopian coast, where sharp rocks jut out and waves crash against the shore, the youth Perseus killed the terrible monster Ceto, which Poseidon had sent for Princess Andromeda, and turned her to stone. Near the city of Joppa, he first wounded her with his sword and then turned her to stone. For this brave deed, he immediately married the princess, and when a cow was sacrificed to Minerva, Hermes received a calf, and a bull was offered to Zeus. King Cepheus asked the brave young man how he had accomplished all this.
After partaking of the exquisite dishes, Perseus finally spoke of his journey beyond the cold Ocean for the head of Medusa. He told of a safe place beyond the sea, where in the rocks the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys, dreadful witches, had their abode. Only Medusa among them was mortal, but her gaze was so terrifying that it turned anyone who looked at her to stone. Many such unfortunate souls stood there as stones along the hidden paths for eternity.
And then, before the Ethiopian king, Perseus recalled how the goddess Pallas Athena had given him a magical sickle, a helmet, and wise advice to look at Medusa’s face only through its reflection on his shield to evade her dreadful curse. Moreover, wearing his magical helmet, he was invisible to the Gorgon, so she searched for him in vain, trying to kill him by sound alone. Perseus quickly beheaded her from an ambush, took her head, and escaped the remaining two immortal sisters on Hermes’ winged sandals.
At the feast, a nobleman asked the young man why the monster had venomous snakes woven into her hair. To this, Perseus replied that he had heard that the Gorgon was originally a fair maiden with beautiful hair, but she shamefully sinned with the god Neptune in Minerva’s temple, and thus the scorned goddess turned her hair into snakes.