Medusa

Forms

Medūsa f sg (genitive Medūsae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa),^[2][3][1] which Wiktionary derives from μέδω (médō, “to rule over”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ovid, as the name of one of the Gorgons, whose gaze turned to stone all who met it.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short and Georges tell her story from Ovid: the daughter of Phorcus, she was the mother of Pegasus by Neptune;^[2][3] Minerva turned her hair into serpents, and Perseus cut off her head.^[2][3] Lucan also tells of the serpents that sprang from her blood.^[2][3]

The poets made from her name the adjective Medūsaeus: Ovid calls Pegasus the Medusaeus equus and the spring Hippocrene the Medusaeus fons.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid names the Gorgon Medusa and tells her story in the Metamorphoses.^[2][3][4]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan tells of the serpents born from her blood.^[2][3][4]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. (Greek mythology) Medusa, one of the Gorgons, whose gaze turned people to stone.^[5][2][1]

Word family

• Medūsaeus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press