Cultural depictions of Medusa and Gorgons Cultural depictions of Medusa and Gorgons The mythological monster Medusa, her sisters, and the other Gorgons, have been featured in art and culture from the days of ancient Greece to present day. Medusa has been variously portrayed as a monster, a protective symbol, a rallying symbol for liberty, and a sympathetic victim of rape and/or a curse. She is perhaps best recognized by her hair of living snakes and ability to turn living creatures to stone. Medusa is an ancient icon that remains one of the most popular and enduring figures of Greek mythology. She continues to be recreated in
Ino (Greek mythology) at Magnesia (Burkert 1992:44). Ino (Greek mythology) In Greek mythology Ino (; Ancient Greek: Ἰνώ, ) was a mortal queen of Boeotia, who after her death and transfiguration was worshiped as a goddess under her epithet Leucothea, the "white goddess." Alcman called her "Queen of the Sea" (), which, if not hyperbole, would make her a doublet of Amphitrite. Ino was the second wife of the Minyan king Athamas, mother of Learches and Melicertes and stepmother of Phrixus and Helle. She was the second daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia and one of the three sisters of Semele, the mortal woman