MEDUSA One of the three Gorgons, Medusa was the youngest, and orginally very beautiful. But she had loved the god Poseidon, and appeared in his temple, for which profanity the god took away her beauty, and replaced her hair with hissing, writhing snakes. She lived, with her two sisters, in a cave at the entrance to Tartaros. With Poseidon she had sired the wonder horse, Pegasus.It was the Greek hero Perseus who finally slew her, using the shield of polished brass that Athene had given him, to protect him against the Gorgon's stare, which could turn a man to stone instantly. Creeping up on her, Perseus cut off her head, and from her trunk sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryoneus.