What is Mythology? What is it all about? What is the importance of mythology for us to study it further? These are few of the many questions that bother the minds of us students. We, Team Hercules of 10-2 wrote this essay to clear things up.

As we all know, Mythology is the study of Myths - Myths are traditional stories about gods and heroes;a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered. According to Joseph Campbell, “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.” Mythology is important to us because it gives present for living and explain the unexplainable. Each story that we’ve read has a morral lesson in the end.

For our first grading project, Mrs. Sy decided to give us a project stating that we, her students need to make an essay about Mythology and this shall be done in pairs. Martin and I chose the story of Gorgon’s Head by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Medusa as our main subject.

In Greek and Roman Mythology, when it comes to heroes, the good ones always prevail. Heroes and Warriors were their entertainment, and people loved hearing and reading or maybe watching stories of evil creatures or beast being slayed or defeated by the tough, good looking and powerful warrior. Perseus killing Medusa prevented more people from being turned into stone. We should also note that Medusa wasn't always the way we know her-- with snakes in her hair and her stone gazing eyes.She was raped by Poseidon while worshipping in Athena's temple. By the power of Athena, she did not take pity in Medusa and cursed her and Medusa's sisters, so no man will never look at her anymore. Medusa is one of the famous and powerful goddesses in Greek Mythology. Medusa is powerful because she has many abilities like having venomous snakes in her hair, gaze that can make any observer turn into a statue and Medusa has a dangerous blood (called ruby) because when her blood spilled or dropped into sand it will turn into a venomous snake. Medusa once a lovely and beautiful woman but when the curse of Athena took place, the lovely woman turned into a scary creature and a powerful beast. Athena cursed Medusa because Athena found out that Medusa and Poseidon is having an affair.  This resulted into Medusa turning into an evil creature that cursed any warrior or person that attempted and tried to oppose her.

Did you know that after Medusa is was raped she became pregnant? She gave birth to two namely, Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the hero of the golden sword. Medusa also had powerful parents who were god Phorcys and goddess Ceto of the sea. Phorcys and Ceto are the children of Gaea (the great goddess of the early Greeks) and Oceanus (the Titan god or Protogenos of the great earth-encircling river Okeanos).

Medusa’s father, Phorcys (Phorkys’)  was an ancient sea-god who presided over the hidden dangers of the deep. He and his wife Ceto were also the gods of all the large creatures which inhabited the depths of the sea. Ceto's (Keto)  name means the "whale" or "sea-monster" and Phorkys' was probably associated with seals (phokes in Greek). Their children were dangerous sea-monsters : Skylla (the crab) a monster who devoured passing sailors, Thoosa (the swift) mother of the rock-tossing cyclops Polyphemos, Ladon (strong flowing) a hundred-headed sea-serpent, Ekhidna (viper) a she-dragon, the Graiai (grey ones) spirits of the sea-foam, and the Gorgones (terrifying ones) whose petrifying gaze probably created the dangerous rocks and reefs of the sea.