Medusa in the Rick Riordan books
Rick Riordan was the first to introduce me to the wonders of Greek mythology. And now that I’ve finished the Percy Jackson series, I thought I would write a blog comparing his rendition of the ancient myths and the originals. Rick Riordan takes advantage of the bountiful Greek myths at his disposal and cleverly inserts them into the 21st century. Rick Riordan’s take on the myths within his Percy Jackson series compared to the ancient Greek myths from thousands of years ago can be almost be called humorous, yet he also finds a way to make the characters and the problems they face very serious.
Rick Riordan’s unique take on Medusa finds her as a sculptor and a business owner. In the first book “The Lightning Thief,” the group of heroes encounter her, disguised with a piece of fabric wrapped around her head, as “Aunt Em” who offers them food and rest at her “Stone Emporium,” she then tries to trick them into looking at her face by saying she wants to take a photo of them. She is eventually killed by Percy using a metal sphere’s reflective surface, being able to see what she was doing but not actually looking at her face. (for anyone unaware of the myth, Medusa has a curse to where if any living thing looks at her face they will be instantly turned to stone)
Compared to how Medusa is depicted in ancient Greek myths Rick Riordan did an incredible job explaining her physical appearance along with how her powers work. Some things he changed included, Medusa owning Statue Emporium, she used to live in a cave along with her gorgon sisters. Another thing he changed was her wearing a type of veil to stop people from gazing at her face, she didn’t care if others looked at her face and turned to stone, other than her sisters that is. Although Rick Riordan changed a lot of the original myth, I most definitely loved and will keep reading his books. If I had to guess why he tried to make the myths more on the whimsical side of things I would imagine he was trying to introduce young minds to mythology in an easy way, I am very glad he chose to do this, and I feel like its easier to digest the story.
My Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Medusa-Greek-mythology
https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Medusa
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/percy-jackson-lightning-thief/medusa
