50 free Medusa trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Medusa is the Gorgon with living snakes for hair whose gaze turned anyone who met it to stone, and the only one of the three sisters who could be killed. This quiz starts with the myth as most people know it (her sisters and parents, the mirrored shield, the winged horse that leapt from her neck, the head that ended up on a goddess's shield) and then digs into the details the sources actually give: who sent Perseus, which gods equipped him, the three old women with one eye between them, and what her spilled blood is said to have created in the Red Sea and the Sahara. From there it follows Medusa through art and culture: the beautiful sleeping Medusa of Polygnotus, Ovid's story of the punished maiden, Cellini's bronze in Florence and Caravaggio's self-portrait on a shield, the upside-down heads under Istanbul, the Sicilian flag, Freud's essay, feminist reclaimings, Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion Gorgon, Uma Thurman's garden centre, and the reason jellyfish are called medusae. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Medusa, the Gorgons, Perseus and the works that depict her, and each question shows the sentence that supports it. Try our Greek mythology, Zeus and mythical creatures quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Medusa is generally described as a woman with what in place of hair?
Living snakes
Anyone who looked at her was turned to stone.
Q 02Medusa was one of three sisters known collectively as what?
The Gorgons
The other two, Stheno and Euryale, were immortal; she alone could be killed.
Q 03What were the names of Medusa's two immortal sisters?
Stheno and Euryale
Hesiod says only that the two did not grow old; Pindar makes Euryale the source of the Gorgons' shrill cry.
Q 04Medusa and her sisters were usually said to be daughters of which sea-god and his sister?
Phorcys and Ceto
The same parents produced the Graeae, which is why the Grey Sisters are also called Phorcides.
Q 05The name Medusa literally means what in Ancient Greek?
Guardian, protectress
'Gorgon' is the grim one, from an adjective for a fierce or dazzling look.
Q 06Which king of Seriphus sent Perseus to fetch Medusa's head because he wanted to marry the hero's mother?
Polydectes
Perseus later turned him to stone with the very head he had demanded.
Q 07Perseus avoided Medusa's gaze by looking at her reflection in what?
A mirrored shield
The shield came from Athena, the winged sandals from Hermes, the sword from Hephaestus and the helm of invisibility from Hades.
Q 08Which god gave Perseus a helm of invisibility for the quest?
Hades
It let him escape the two immortal Gorgons who chased him after the beheading.
Q 09Which sea-god had made Medusa pregnant by the time Perseus killed her?
Poseidon
Her two children were born at the moment of her death.
Q 10What sprang from Medusa's body when she was beheaded?
Pegasus and Chrysaor
One was a winged horse, the other a giant with a golden sword.
Q 11Chrysaor, born from Medusa's neck alongside the winged horse, was father of which three-headed giant?
Geryon
Heracles killed Geryon while stealing his cattle for his tenth labour.
Q 12Perseus finally gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on what?
Her shield, the aegis
The image of the head became the gorgoneion, an evil-averting device.
Q 13The evil-averting image of Medusa's head used in classical antiquity is called what?
A gorgoneion
It turns up on temple pediments, shields, coins and the bottoms of drinking cups.
Q 21Perseus learned where to find Medusa by seizing what from the Graeae, the Grey Sisters?
Their single shared eye
The three old women had one eye and one tooth between them and passed the eye from hand to hand.
Q 22Athena gave Perseus a kibisis to carry the head; what was it?
A knapsack
She warned that the head could still petrify even in death.
Q 23Perseus's own grandfather Acrisius died when the hero did what at funeral games?
Threw a discus that veered into him
The Delphic oracle had warned Acrisius that his grandson would kill him.
Q 14According to Ovid, whom did Perseus turn to stone with the head while flying over north-west Africa?
The Titan Atlas
Atlas, holding up the sky, tried to attack him and became a mountain.
Q 15Medusa's blood spilling onto seaweed was said to have created what in the Red Sea?
Corals
Perseus had laid the head down by the shore during his stay in Ethiopia, where he rescued Andromeda.
Q 16Drops of Medusa's blood falling on the desert were said to have produced which creatures of the Sahara?
Venomous vipers
The Argonautica, Ovid and Lucan all tell the tale; her blood also spawned the Amphisbaena.
Q 17Which ancient historian located Medusa and her sisters in Libya?
Herodotus
Hesiod and Aeschylus put Medusa's home on Sarpedon near Cisthene instead.
Q 18In an ode of 490 BC, which poet already speaks of 'fair-cheeked Medusa'?
Pindar
Fifth-century artists began to show her as beautiful as well as terrifying.
Q 19The vase-painter Polygnotus showed Medusa doing what as Perseus beheads her?
Sleeping peacefully
Killing a beautiful sleeping maiden is hardly heroic, so it is unclear whether the vase mocks Perseus.
Q 20In Ovid's late version, why did Minerva turn the beautiful Medusa's hair into snakes?
Neptune had lain with her in the goddess's temple
No earlier source tells this story, though beautiful Medusas in art predate Ovid.
Q 24Which queen's boast about her daughter's beauty led Poseidon to send Cetus against Andromeda?
Cassiopeia
Athena later placed Andromeda among the stars near Perseus and Cassiopeia.
Q 25According to Pausanias, the Greeks believed Perseus founded which city as his capital?
Mycenae
The Greeks treated Perseus as a genuine historical figure and founder of the Perseid dynasty.
Q 26The early sixth-century BC Medusa pediment comes from a temple of Artemis on which island?
Corfu
Her son Chrysaor is carved beside her, in his earliest known appearance in art.
Q 27In the Iliad, the Gorgon's head appears on Athena's aegis and on the shield of which Greek commander?
Agamemnon
Homer never names Medusa; he speaks only of 'the Gorgon', grim of aspect and glaring terribly.
Q 28Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi of which city?
Florence
Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned it, and Cellini hid a self-portrait on the back of Perseus's helmet.
Q 29Cellini's Perseus was unveiled to the public in which year?
1554
Michelangelo's David and Donatello's Judith were already standing in the same square.
Q 30Caravaggio painted his Medusa on what unusual support?
A circular wooden shield
It was commissioned by Cardinal del Monte as a gift for Ferdinando I de' Medici and hangs in the Uffizi.