medusa

name

1. (Greek)The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.

   “It will be suggested here that the myth of Perseus, involving the decapitation of Medusa, is a narrative version of ritual.”

   “But their depictions of Perseus are remarkably different and demonstrate the ambiguity of Medusa that was seeping into Victorian iconography. In later, Roman versions of the myth, for example Ovid's Metamorphoses, Perseus slays the sea monster with his sword instead of using Medusa’s head to petrify the monster.”

noun

1. A jellyfish; specifically, a non-polyp form of individual cnidarians, consisting of a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles.

   “Typically, what we think of as the jellyfish, the medusa, reproduces sexually, spawning sperm and eggs which, once fertilised, turn into sea anemone-like polyps, which attach themselves to the jellyfish’s bottom or other surfaces.”

2. Synonym of worm-star.