In 

Greek mythology, Medusa (/mɪˈdjuːzə, -sə/; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress")

[1]
 also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged
human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes
would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto,[2] although the
author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto.[3]
Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its
ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon[4] until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on
her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting
device known as the Gorgoneion.
According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere
near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya,
where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.

Source: Medusa - Wikipedia