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Course: The J. Paul Getty Museum > Unit 2
Lesson 1: For kids- Bored angel and twin
- Snake-haired monster
- Blue gangster demon
- Ferocious but cute sea monster
- Pair of chests, attributed to Antonio Maffei
- "A Hare in the Forest," Hans Hoffmann
- "An Allegory of Passion," Hans Holbein the Younger
- "The Adoration of the Magi with Saint Anthony Abbott," Franco-Flemish master
- Sad angels
- Mighty mover angel
- Tongue-tied baby dragon
- St. Michael the archangel, sassy devil and crew
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Snake-haired monster
Benjamin and Riley talk about Vincenzo Gemito's Medusa, 1911: This is from an imaginative tour at the Getty Center: The Supernatural in Art. Created by Getty Museum.
Want to join the conversation?
- Who was the warrior that cut off her head?(6 votes)
- I believe it was Perseus. The person Percy Jackson is based on.(9 votes)
- At around0:30, Riley said She transformed. Who cursed her?(1 vote)
- This is what happened. Medusa was a pretty woman before. Then Zeus was in love with her. When Hera saw that, she got mad, and transformed her into that snake haired monster. Whenever someone looked at her head, that person who looked turns into stone. Later Perseus got help from gods, and cut off Medusa's head.(3 votes)
- How did the hair become snakes? (From Tanner)(2 votes)
- Do u think that it is fair for Athena to change a beautiful innocent women into Gorgons? Do u think Medusa deserves it?(1 vote)
- not really, it was Poseidons idea. she didn't know any better.(1 vote)
- why have we never had evidence that god or things like that are real(1 vote)
- It is all part of the wonderful world of mythology !(1 vote)
Video transcript
(Middle Eastern music) - [Benjamin] It's just, like,
crazy for someone to have snakes for hair. Hi, I'm Benjamin. - [Riley] Hi, I'm Riley. Medusa is a woman who has hair like snakes and fangs and glowing eyes. Every person who would
look at her would be turned to stone. It looks like she's
transforming into Medusa, and you can see a little
bit of fear in her face, like she doesn't know what's going on. - It looks almost like a
Spiderman transformation meets werewolf. It catches your eye, and it's like, what's she going through? I feel sorry for her at this stage because she just wants
to be the beautiful woman that she was before she got cursed. Someone named Perseus defeated her by looking at her through
the reflection of his shield so he wouldn't get turned to stone. Then he cut her head off. Even when she died, it
could still petrify people. - [Benjamin] Medusa's
head, after it got cut off, it's just lying around, and pretty much not doing anything. The snakes are still alive, and it's still slithering around. She's sad that her head got cut off. And she's desperate for
any reason to get it back onto her body. (Riley hisses) - [Riley] That would
be like a sound effect that she would make,
'cause I think that she may have morphed with the snakes a bit.