Medusa part of their religion. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the "Gorgoneion". The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or "Phorkys") and his sister Ceto (or "Keto"), chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae, as in
Euryale ferox offerings to the deities during Yajna, Pujana, and festivals. In day-to-day life it is used in cooking, specially to make a porridge/pudding called Kheer of makhana or 'makhaanak kheer' or 'makhaanak payasam' and Makhane Ka Rayta (Makhana Yougurt Blend). Makhhaan along with Paan (betel leaf) and Maachch (fish) is symbolic to Maithil culture. Evidence from archaeobotany indicates that "Euryale ferox" was a frequently collected wild food source during the Neolithic period in the Yangtze region, with large numbers of finds coming from the sites of Kuahuqiao, Hemudu, and Tianluoshan. The earliest recorded use of "E. ferox" was found in Gesher