It was a head-scratcher for me, when I first encountered the story, how Medusa got to be one of the Gorgons.

As a child, I read Kinglseys' version of the myth, in which he said that Medusa was a beautiful priestess of Athena who "sinned a sin from which the Sun hid his face", and was transformed as a punishment. At eight or so, the nature of the sin didn't concern me -at worst I suppose I must have thought she'd killed someone. Later, as a teen, when I read Robert Graves' version, Medusas' liaison with Poseidon was described as consensual. I didn't come across the rape story until later.

But what didn't compute was the existence of two other Gorgons, who Medusa joined. Even as a child, I'd noticed that the Greeks were fond of threes, or multiples of three. Three Furies, three Fates, three animals combined to make the Chimera, three heads of Cerberus, nine Muses, nine Hesperides, twelve Olympians and so forth. So two naturally-occurring Gorgons? Not likely.

In my simple-minded way, I assumed that there had always been three Gorgons, and that the confusion had been brought about by the errant or victimised priestess having the same name as one of them. That does happen, Greek mythology includes two men named Heracles and two Ajaxes, so why not two Medusas?

As to whether Medusa was raped or seduced, I suppose it depends on your opinion of Athene. Medusa seduced is a traitor justly punished. Medusa raped is victim unjustly punished.

In this connection, it is worth remembering that the tale of Athene being born from the head of Zeus was an early attempt to subjugate the ancient Moon Goddess to the more recent Sky-God. The unjust punishment of Medusa stands alongside Athenes' pardon of Orestes' matricide as a symbol of patriarchal victory.