Myths of Man... Medusa
Welcome to the Myths of Man
In my other series Alphabet Adventures I explore the dictionary and the words we use to describe our world in this series I intend to explore the stories we have told with them in order to attempt to describe how our world works.
Todays Myth
The Gorgon Medusa
Source
Anyone that has ever read any Greek mythology will be very aware the at any turn you could find incest, bestiality, kidnapping, rape, infidelity, patricide, vanity and completely off the charts punishment and that's just the behaviour of the Gods, in fact when writing about the subject you very nearly need an NSFW tag.
The story of Medusa is no exception her story goes back as far as 490 B.C as far as the Greeks go but there are suggestions that she has origins in other cultures.
I think that it's fair to say that most of us "know" the story of Medusa snake hair , turns people into stone, head cut off by Perseus who goes on to use it as a weapon [Side note: Perseus never used it against the Kraken that's just movie bollocks the Kraken came from the Norse mythology, not Greek Perseus fought Cetus in Ethiopia instead].
Medusa's history has been fairly revisionist having gone through several versions before settling on sexy snake lady unjustly punished by the gods so let's take a look.
Version one: The Sisters Gorgon
Source
Medusa and her two Gorgon sisters Stheno, and Euryale where all born Gorgon ugly, dangerous beasts with wings and snakes for hair these creatures where the offspring of Phorcys and Ceto both ancient gods of the sea long before Poseidon came into the picture.
The three sisters are being monstrous beasts are true enemy's of mankind having a deep hatred of us so let's face it no big deal chopping one of their heads off.
Version Two: Same, same but different.
The next revision of the Medusa mythology didn't change all that much there are some that have suggested a change of parentage from Phorcys and Ceto to Gorgon and Ceto.
Perhaps the only real important change that can in this revision was a shift of how Medusa was portrayed shifting from a purely ugly beast, with boar fangs, wings, scales into something the author called fair.
The Final Revision: What they don't show you in movies.
This final revision comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses written somewhere around 8 AD.
Please, forgive me this is going to be very blunt and in full modern language.
The sad story goes that Medusa was a mere mortal in the service of Athena as a priestess, Ok she was an exquisitely stunning mortal with beautiful golden locks of hair that aroused attraction in many including the God Poseidon.
Beings a priestess she refused that advances of Poseidon and fled to Athena's temple seeking protection throwing her self at the mercy of her god, Athena turns a blind eye and Poseidon rapes Medusa right there on the temple floor.
Athena becomes furious at the sacrilege of her temple but rather than confront the rapist, set about dishing out punishment to Medusa cursing her into the form of a Gorgon, turning her golden locks into snakes, and cursing her that any man might gaze upon her would be turned to stone as a punishment for her beauty causing such desire. Medusa retreats to her dark dingy cave, the only contact she could now have with the world of men was the occasional brave soul that wanted to test his might.
Enter Perseus.
Source
Without going too much into his backstory (after all, that's a whole other myth) Perseus enters Medusa lair with the intent to kill her armed to the teeth with gifts from the Gods, Hades helm of invisibility, an adamantium sword from Zeus, the wings from Hermies, and a Polished bronze shield from Athena.
Stacked odds if ever there were, not content with her terrible curse Athena took an active part along with other gods in arming the man that would kill Medusa.
Using Athena's shield Perseus is able to see Medusa without looking at her and hence decapitate her without looking directly at her thereby avoiding being turned to stone.
As if stuff wasn't all ready messed up enough.
Once Perseus take Medusas head and her blood starts to fall, Poseidon's children of rape spring from her neck both Pegasus and a Chrysaor, a giant with a golden sword. Yeah, that's right beautiful Pegasus is the product of rape at this point let me remind you that the movies have Medusas killer riding around on her child WTF.
Source
The Final Insult.
After prancing around boasting of his prowess pretending like he didn't have the help of four Gods in his efforts and using her head as a weapon Perseus eventually gives up Medusas head to Athena who proceeds to mount it on the shield she originally gave to Perseus to use in his fight.
This may be the worst story of victim persecution I have ever read.
Previous Episodes.
Abracadabra, Beowulf, Bodhivista.
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LOL! Yeah, Greek myths are always weird and have strange backstories. The villains are not always the villains, but you cant know that unless you go deeper into the story and the origin of it, which you did and I thank you for it. I hope people who will read your post will get some new insight on this :)
I love your writing style! It is interesting and with a bit of humor. So much more fun to read than the usual mythology texts. I was always a mythology junkie and have read a lot about different Gods and cultures. Your work deserves much credit! Good job!
I missed learning about the Greek myths when in school, but hear about them all the time, The names are familiar, being still a part of western culture, but I've never known the specifics. After reading this lovely tale I'm wondering if my Greek Myth studies begin and end here!
They are a fascinating topic for sure, and I found your explanation here quite interesting.
This was an interesting write up, and more diverse than one usually encounters. There is one more interpretation that I'd like to give you, although I can't remember the exact source.
There are modern day pagans who believe that the Medusa was a high priestess and the snakes on her head were a metaphor for the priestesses in her temple. She was discredited as society evolved towards a more paternal pattern and turned into a monster.
But snakes have always been a pagan symbol for divinity. Think about the priestess at the oracle of Delphi, who bore the title of pythia. Think about how Christianity actually dislikes snakes (Saint Patrick chased them out of Ireland and a snake was the reason mankind was thrown from paradise.)
I'm not saying I know it all, but there may be more than meets the eye to this myth. ;-)
I didn't know this Greek story was this graphic and horrible. It seems like in the mythology Posidon was just a jerk and didn't get reprimanded for it. Who ever came up with this must've been on drugs or something because this story is messed up.
The Greek myths have fascinated people for millennia, pretty amazing. I had never heard all of the possible versions of the story. Thank you for your research and write up.
wow I didn't know all this facts of medusa, I always thought it was one of those mythical creatures but fail to have a background story.... too sad that stories are all this barvaric
Interesting... Do you think there was a moral to the story? Or some symbolism to learn from?
Part of me wants to say the moral is don't trust Greek Gods.
Apparently, if the old wiki is reliable Joseph Campbell came up with the theory in pre 1904ish that the story was turned into myth after a real historical event that the Gorgon where just priestesses of an ancient snake goddess that used the evils masks to scare away non-believers and that the decapitation was really just some bloke removing their mask.
I haven't included that in my post as I haven't read the book, unfortunately, it isn't available on Project Gutenberg and I can't find any other source historical or otherwise that backs up his views.
Still more plausible than the myth!
Great post, I knew good part of this, but the fact that Pegasus is child of Poseidon and Medusa is new to me.
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