Medusa

n. (in Greek Mythology) one of the three Gorgons that had snakes for hair and everyone who looked at them was turned to stone

n. marine animal in the shape of a jellyfish that has long thin stinging appendages

In Greek mythology, Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα, "guardian, protectress") was a monstrous chthonic female character; gazing upon her could turn onlookers to stone. She was beheaded by the human hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon until giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity and today, the image of the head of Medusa finds expression in the apotrope known as the Gorgoneion.
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Noun
1. (Greek mythology) a woman transformed into a Gorgon by Athena; she was slain by Perseus
(hypernym) Gorgon
(classification) Greek mythology

Noun
1. any of numerous usually marine and free-swimming coelenterates that constitute the sexually reproductive forms of hydrozoans and scyphozoans
(synonym) jellyfish, medusan
(hypernym) coelenterate, cnidarian
(hyponym) Aegina
(member-holonym) Cnidaria, phylum Cnidaria, Coelenterata, phylum Coelenterata
2. one of two forms that coelenterates take: is the free-swimming sexual stage in the life cycle of a coelenterate and has a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body and tentacles
(hypernym) coelenterate, cnidarian
(member-holonym) Cnidaria, phylum Cnidaria, Coelenterata, phylum Coelenterata

v. paralyse, daze, stun, stupefy

n. jellyfish, soft gelatinous marine animal with an umbrella shaped body and long trailing tentacles; Medusa, (in Greek Mythology) one of the three Gorgons that had snakes for hair and everyone who looked at them was turned to stone