The original bad hair day

by Steve Cunningham< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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THE tale is familiar: a beautiful young woman is spurned by her contemporaries because she becomes an unmarried mum-to-be.

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Then it gets more unusual. Her hair is turned into serpents and she gives birth to a winged horse and a giant.

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Oh yes, and her dreaded rival was born when someone split her dad's skull open.

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You guessed it - this is one of the Greek myths, the tale of Medusa. She was a gorgon and her gaze could turn whoever she looked upon to stone.

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Medusa was a beautiful maiden, but she desecrated Athena's temple by having sex there with Poseidon, god of the sea.

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Outraged, Athena (who was Poseidon's niece) turned Medusa's hair into living snakes.�

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Now Athena's life was also a mite unconventional.

Goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill, she was the favorite child of Zeus.

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Zeus was the supreme Greek god - you know, the one who hurled thunderbolts all over the place.

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Athena's mother was Metis, goddess of wisdom and Zeus's first wife.

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Zeus feared that Metis would bear a son mightier than he, so he swallowed his wife. She, presumably from inside Zeus's tum, began to make a robe and helmet for her daughter.

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The hammering of the helmet caused Zeus great headaches and he cried out in agony. Zeus's son Hephaestus ran to his father and split his skull open�- and from it emerged Athena, fully grown and wearing her mother's robe and helmet.

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She later gave her name to a Greek city. She and uncle Poseidon loved this city and each wanted to own it. It was decided that the one that could give the finest gift should have the city.

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Poseidon struck the side of the cliff with his trident and a spring welled up. But the water was as salty as Poseidon's sea and no good to drink. Athena gave an olive tree, which gave the people food, oil and wood. Athena won the city and called it Athens.

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Meanwhile, back to the tale of Medusa. Athena, still smarting from Medusa's temple romp, sets her half-brother Perseus on her trail. He eventually kills her and cuts off her head, which he gives to Athena.

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From Medusa's dead body springs the giant Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus, her son by Poseidon.

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All in all, the everyday tale of immortal folk.����

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