‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Finally Acknowledges Medusa’s True Backstory

The latest episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians finally does Medusa’s story right. In a departure from the book, the show subtly acknowledges Medusa’s true backstory.

Like many of the characters in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson universe, Medusa, played here by Jessica Parker Kennedy, is directly taken from Greek mythology. Medusa is one of the most well-known women in Greek mythology due to her unique abilities and appearance. She is a Gorgon, a woman with snakes for hair who can turn others into stone with a mere stare. Given her unique abilities and appearance, she makes quite an excellent monstrous villain for most media. From the Percy Jackson books to Clash of the Titans to RPGs like D&D, Medusa is rarely portrayed with complexity. She’s just a monster waiting to be beheaded in line with the myth in which Perseus removes her head and presents it to the goddess Athena.

However, the truth of Medusa is a lot more complicated. The original myth holds that Medusa was a beautiful maiden until a sexual encounter with Poseidon within Athena’s temple sparked Athena’s wrath. As punishment, Athena transformed Medusa into a Gorgon. Later, with help and blessings from the gods, Perseus killed Medusa and presented her head to Athena, who placed it on her shield. Today, scholars disagree on whether the sexual encounter with Poseidon was consensual. Many interpret the story as Medusa being a victim of rape and subsequently being punished in an instance of victim blaming that is rampant in Greek mythology and sadly remains very relevant in modern times.

While most media glosses over this aspect of Medusa’s story, Percy Jackson and the Olympians doesn’t shy away from it.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fixes the book’s depiction of Medusa

While Medusa appears in the Percy Jackson books, there are no hints of her backstory. This is understandable, considering that the books are told from the perspective of Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy who can’t really be expected to grasp the weight of Medusa’s past with his father and Athena. However, Percy Jackson and the Olympians had another chance to tackle Medusa, and it wasn’t confined to Percy’s perspective.

Of course, it’s quite a heavy topic for a show that is still primarily directed at young viewers. Fortunately, the show finds a subtle way to do justice to Medusa’s story. Medusa tells her story in the episode, saying:

Athena was everything to me. I worshipped her; I prayed to her; I made offerings. She never answered, not even an omen to suggest she appreciated my love … I would have worshipped her that way for a lifetime: in silence. But then one day, another god came, and he broke that silence … The sea god told me that he loved me. I felt as though he saw me in a way I had never felt seen before. But then Athena declared that I had embarrassed her and I needed to be punished. Not him. Me. She decided that I would never be seen again by anyone who would live to tell the tale.

Adult audiences familiar with the mythology will know what Medusa refers to, but the scene will likely go over young viewers’ heads. Although subtle, it highlights the victim-blaming, as Medusa explained that she was punished instead of Poseidon. Meanwhile, her punishment isn’t, as it’s often depicted in media, that she was turned into a monster. As Riordan told Variety, “The real curse wasn’t making her ugly. It was making her invisible.” It’s that she was silenced and made invisible by the gods, preventing her from ever telling her truth to anyone. Viewers quickly realize that she’s not a villain just for the sake of being evil—it’s simply the only way she knows how to cope. Turning others into stone is how she feels seen and how she hides the immense trauma she has experienced.

Again, it’s not a massive change from the books, but as Riordan’s wife Rebecca advocated, it tells the story without “a patriarchal lens.” Like the myth, it leaves what truly happened ambiguous. However, it still manages to show that, regardless of the interpretation, Medusa was punished horrifically and had the gods turn on her, while Poseidon faced no consequences for his actions. It is a powerful allegory for modern times, in which victim-blaming is far too common, and women are often shamed into silence.

Every time a new film or TV show glosses over Medusa’s backstory, it reflects society’s complicity in silencing women and the media’s eagerness to use women’s trauma for entertainment without doing justice to their stories. Percy Jackson and the Olympians ensures Medusa is finally seen and heard for a change.

(feautred image: Disney+)