Medusa

Medusa's full changing-portrait cycle made for the Haunted Mansion and formerly used in Phantom Manor

### Relatives

Phorcys (father)
Ceto (mother)
Euryale (sister)
Stheno (sister)

### Associated attraction

Haunted Mansion
Mystic Manor
Phantom Manor (formerly)

## Biographical information

### Occupation

Priestess of Athena (formerly)

**Medusa** is a character from hellenistic mythology who makes appearances in Mystic Manor the Haunted Mansion, and formerly Phantom Manor.

## History

### Mythology

#### Hellenic Variant

Medusa was one of several children born to the primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto. She along with her sisters Euryale and Stheno were gorgons, monsters with snakes for hair, tusks, scales, and faces so hideous that anyone who looked upon them turned to stone and died. Of the three gorgons, Medusa was the most powerful but also the only one to not be immortal.

Medusa was eventually hunted down and murdered by Perseus, the demigod son of Zeus who needed her severed head to pay a ransom to his mother's captor. He used several gifts including the winged sandals of Hermes, Hades' helm of invisibility and a mirror-like sword from Athena to infiltrate the home of the Gorgons and decapitate Medusa.

#### Greco-Roman Variant

In the more popular revision of the story, Medusa was a mortal or demigod priestess to Athena in the ancient city of Athens. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman who was loyal to Athena but who was frequently admired by worshipers over Athena, spurning the goddess' spite.

Eventually, Athena's rival-god Poseidon attempted to force his advances on Medusa within the temple of Athena. Seeing an opportunity to punish Medusa for being a victim of the sea god, Athena cast her out and transformed her into a hideous Gorgon. She later fled to an unidentified island where as in the original story she was hunted down and murdered by the demigod Perseus. Perseus later gifted Medusa's severed head to Athena as a trophy which the war-goddess mounted on her shield.

Many retellings of the story choose to re-characterize Athena as having transformed Medusa into a gorgon to, "Protect her from men" and sometimes choose to likewise change Medusa to having loved Poseidon to make it seem as if she deserved her punishment. It should be noted here that the war-goddess Athena was the matron-goddess of Athens, a famously misogynistic city of which Athena would have shared the values of and that the Greco-Roman story's morals used the Olympian gods to represent those corrupted by power.

### Disney Parks

Medusa is one of the spirits who came to move into the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. She presumably did this through the Ghost Relations Department.

## Connections

### The Haunted Mansion

Medusa's portrait appears in a corridor of the Haunted Mansion where it initially portrays Medusa as a young and beautiful maiden. When lightning flashes from the windows across her portrait, she changes into a hideous gorgon.

### Mystic Point/Mystic Manor

Lord Henry Mystic's Mediterranean Hall collection includes a large mosaic of Medusa as a young woman. After his pet monkey Albert opens the cursed Balinese Music Box, this mosaic transforms into a gorgon and attempts to attack guests.

### Phantom Manor

Up until its removal in 2018, Medusa's painting was in the portrait corridor of Ravenswood Manor. Here it was in the possession of the Ravenswood family of Thunder Mesa, the former owners of the Big Thunder Mining Company.

### Disney Kingdoms

Medusa's portrait makes a brief appearance in Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted mansion.

## Trivia

* Medusa is the oldest identified spirit in the Haunted Mansion as while her story originates from Hellenic Greece (323 BC-31 BC) it was originally set eras earlier, around 1000 BC.
* In concept-art for Mystic Manor, Medusa would have been represented by a marble-bust with snake hair.
* Greek mythological figures related to Medusa have appeared in other Disney attractions. This includes a statue of Zeus in the Adventurers Club which was known as, "Zeus goes fishing", an amphora portraying a battle between Heracles and the Nemean Lion in Mystic Manor, Hades serving as main-antagonist in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, the nymph Calypso's affiliation with Pirates of the Caribbean, and a statue head of Poseidon in Mystic Point.