SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium,” Episode 3 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
For fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, Medusa represents one of Percy's first great victories: after being tricked into spending time with “Aunt Em,” he decapitates the snake-haired woman and her cursed, dead eyeballs Later it was used to turn another enemy into stone.
But for those with deeper knowledge of Greek mythology and for many women, Medusa is a symbol of something darker.
In the original myth, Medusa is a human woman who takes a vow of celibacy out of devotion to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. But at some point Medusa enters into a relationship with the sea god Poseidon, which one night becomes sexual. Many interpretations assume that the encounter that took place in the Temple of Athena was non-consensual and that Poseidon raped Medusa. Athena decides to punish Medusa by stripping her of her beauty by turning her into a gorgon, which terrifies everyone she makes eye contact with. The story ends with the demigod Perseus – after whom Percy Jackson is named – beheading Medusa and giving her head to Athena.
The 2005 novel was written for a middle school audience and understandably didn't delve into that backstory. But Percy is the son of Poseidon, and Annabeth, who joins him on his quest, is the daughter of Athena, so both have strong lineages in the presence of Medusa. In the TV adaptation of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” now streaming on Disney+, the Gorgon’s relationships with the children’s parents are explored in even greater depth.
Rebecca Riordan, who is married to Rick and is an executive producer of the TV series, says that “the only reason Medusa isn't featured more fully in the books is because it was Percy's narration and we don't have her perspective.” , as the books say, written in the first person perspective. “As a 12-year-old boy in 2005, I don’t think he had the bandwidth to deconstruct the patriarchy,” Rick adds. “He looked at it as, 'This is a scary woman trying to turn me into stone.'”
But that changed when you entered the room of a television writer, where other perspectives become essential. “It was one of the first things we talked about, how not to have a patriarchal perspective,” Rebecca says.
Medusa is first mentioned in the pilot episode when Percy's (Walker Scobell) mother Sally (Virginia Kull) takes her young son (played in a flashback by Azriel Dalman) to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and presents him with Antonio Canova's statue of Antonio Early 19th century Canova shows Perseus holding the severed head of Medusa. “Not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero, and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster,” she tells Percy.
Young Percy (Azriel Dalman) sees Antonio Canova's “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” at the Met Museum Disney
Then, in Episode 3, Percy and his companions Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) finally have lunch with Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Unlike the “Lightning Thief” book, the children immediately recognize who the Gorgon is, but Percy decides to take his chances with her as she is the children's only option for refuge while being led by Alecto (Megan Mullaly), one of the Gorgons Gorgons, pursued by Furies sent by Hades to capture Percy. Annabeth and Grover reluctantly follow. Then Medusa, sensing Annabeth's anger towards her and her loyalty to Athena, tells her side of the story.
“Athena was everything to me. I adored her; I prayed to her; I made offerings. She never responded, not even an omen that indicated she appreciated my love,” Medusa says. Then, correctly assuming that Annabeth isn't as close to her mother as she'd like, she adds, “I wasn't like you, darling. I was you. I would have worshiped her like that all my life: in silence.”
“But then one day another God came and broke that silence. “Your father,” she continues, now talking to Percy. “The sea god told me he loved me. I felt like he was seeing me in a way I had never seen before. But then Athena declared that I had embarrassed her and had to be punished. Not him. Me. She decided I would never be seen again by anyone alive to tell the story.”
“Percy Jackson” co-creator and co-showrunner Jon Steinberg — who credits writer Daphne Olive with driving much of this plot — explains how the episode references the original myth while keeping it age-appropriate: “If you know, what she's talking about, you know what she's talking about. If you are too young to participate in this conversation, it won't bother you. You're currently in a scene about this woman that seems complicated. And everyone has an opinion about what happened. There is no version that is the version. If Athena and Poseidon were in this room, there would be three different versions of this story.”
And although her character never uses the language of sexual assault, Kennedy was firm in her interpretation: “Jon wrote a story of [Medusa] think that [Poseidon] was someone she could trust and he broke that trust. She felt safe, and then the situation became unsafe,” she says. “So I decided to play that she was a victim of rape and complete neglect, without understanding why Athena would turn against her.”
Rick's explanation is also simple: “There are many versions from ancient times about what happened to Medusa, Poseidon and Athena in this temple. Who's to blame? Who is the perpetrator? What is the real story? It's a work of fiction, but it's certainly important to acknowledge that there is abuse at play here. Abuse of power.”
Since Medusa is traditionally considered a villain – and she attempts to turn the children to stone at the end of the episode – introducing a nuanced story of abuse required some care in crafting the character. She wears a flowing beige dress with a matching hat that just barely covers her dangerous eyes, high heels, red lipstick and a gold necklace. In short, she is not monstrous. She is beautiful.
“One of the most interesting changes that has affected her appearance is that, from Medusa's perspective, the true curse was not to make her ugly. It made them invisible,” Rick says. “She chose to own that in this version. To be seen. Be elegant. She turns people into stone and uses them as art.”
As Rebecca points out, Medusa petrifies her enemies and emotionally processes Athena's curse: “She has been physically changed. She accepted herself for who she is and the power she has, but she was also traumatized,” she says.
Kennedy says she began to fully connect with this expression of Medusa when she received her costume. “She's so classy, grounded and calm, and that's a big excuse for the trauma she's trying to hide,” she says. “She does all these really terrible things and becomes a terrible person, but I wanted her to feel almost frighteningly calm and kind. I didn't want her to have a scary voice. I wanted it to feel gentle, but I also wanted to leave a layer of how we know shit is going to go bad.”
“We also showed everyone the statue of Medusa holding Perseus' head – the reverse story,” says Rick of Luciano Garbati's 2008 statue, which reinterprets and reverses Medusa's death. The piece has become a symbol of the #MeToo movement. “It's a powerful piece of art to start a conversation about who is telling the story.” Kennedy also credits this statue with helping her create her version of Medusa.
“Medusa with the Head of Perseus” by Luciano Garbati Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
This nuanced, kinder version of Medusa starts out with good intentions when she meets Percy. She realizes that, like her, he is struggling with the feeling that Poseidon has abandoned him.
“The studio executive said, 'Oh, this is going to be a story about how Percy wins his father's love and respect?' And it's like, “No, that's not the story!” He has to go through, “What did my father do?” Has he changed? How do I see myself in relation to that?'” says Rebecca. “Percy can only judge his father by the wreckage he left behind,” says Rick.
Once she has a moment alone with him, Medusa offers to help Percy save his mother from Hades, which is his real goal in the quest, although he has been instructed to prioritize recovering Zeus' stolen lightning bolt. But to save Sally, Medusa suggests, they would have to petrify Annabeth and Grover – a punishment for their loyalty to the gods. “There's a part of Medusa that really believes she can transform Percy,” Kennedy says. “She's looking for allies even though she knows, 'I have to kill these children.' But maybe I can convince them: I'm the good guy. Your mother is not a good person. Your father is not a good person. I was there for her. They weren't there for me.'”
Of course, Percy refuses to fall into her trap. In the end, he follows in his namesake's footsteps and beheads Medusa. But he does this to protect his friends, not Poseidon and Athena. Despite her demise, Medusa significantly damages Percy and Annabeth's perception of their parents.
“Where [Percy and Annabeth] “The differences between the two are most different when it comes to their upbringing,” says Steinberg, as Annabeth has been at Camp Halfblood for years, while Percy has only known that he is a demigod for a week. “Annabeth is completely steeped in the Olympian culture, the family culture of what you owe [to the gods] as a tribute and obligation.”
For the first time, Annabeth questions this culture. “She has a calcified idea of her mother that needs to change in order to get through this season and grow as a person,” Becky says. “This is the episode where you see that beginning. “Maybe my mother isn't who I think she is. 'Maybe I don't have to worship her.'”
And Percy, already resentful of his father's absence from his life, is devastated by Medusa's suggestion that his mother's relationship with Poseidon may not have been as sunny as she made it seem.
“To this subplot of Medusa, Poseidon and Sally, there is a third act that you haven’t seen yet. It comes in Episode 7, a really powerful flashback where you see Sally and Poseidon together,” says Rick.
“What interests me most [about Episode 3] “Here, Medusa is positioned in relation to Sally and the awareness that they both dated the same man and had very different experiences,” says Steinberg. “I like that the story looks at this relationship from Percy's perspective. It is not entirely clear: did they love each other? It seems like they did, but what went wrong? Did something go wrong? Is it possible that Medusa had a terrible experience with Poseidon and Sally didn’t?”
“It was important to keep this a secret but not leave it unresolved,” he concludes. “The further we get into the season, the more it will be Percy’s adventure, but raising this child is an adventure in itself. A scary thing. We wanted to tell that story too, and I don't think you can tell that story without understanding what Poseidon and Sally meant to each other. Long story short, they had a complicated relationship.”