GREEK MYTHOLOGY: Medusa and Athena
Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, but because Poseidon had raped her in Athena’s temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid’s telling, Perseus describes Medusa’s punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned. [x]
but Medusa’s “punishment” was not a punishment at all but rather a gift from the goddess. Athena could not punish Posiden for what he’d done so she made sure Medusa would never be at the mercy of a man again