She is mentioned in the works of Hesiod and poet Pindar, while her head is depicted in countless forms of art, ranging from pottery, sculptures, mosaics, amulets, and jewelry (Glennon, 2017)! The other interesting information we extract from the artifacts of this era is that the head of Medusa always seems to be presented as a means of protection of sacred places and people. The first information that we extract from our historical sources is that by the time of early Archaic Greece (800–600 BCE) Medusa was already a very popular figure. It is first mentioned in Homer’s epic poems, which were written down around the 8th century BCE, but she is much older than that, probably dating to the time of the Myceneans, the civilization that inhabited Greece during the Bronze Age (around 3.300–1200 BCE).
Medusa is a really old being of Greek mythology, whose origins are unknown. This is how the ancient Greeks originally imagined Medusa, in their attempts to dehumanize women and connect the female gender with monstrous elements (image source: Wikimedia Commons, ). I truly hope that this article will raise awareness about the terrible sexual crimes that women face today and give courage to the ones that have fallen victims to this abominable act… Medusa “the Guardian”Ī painted representation of a “Gorgoneion”. In particular, I dedicate this article to Caroline Crouch (murdered on by her abusing husband), Ioanna Paliospyrou (sprayed with vitriol on by a woman), and Garyfallia Psarakou (murdered on July 2021 by her boyfriend, whose first statement regarding his crime, was that her murder was an “unfortunate moment”). So, I would like to dedicate this article to all the Greek women (and all the women in general), who have fallen victims to these hideous crimes. Since the pandemic, domestic violence, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders of women have been increased at an alarming rate and are becoming a daily event in many parts of the country… Each day new victims are added to a long and shameful black list of crimes against the female gender.
The last and most important element in the tale, and simultaneously one of the most heinous events in Greek mythology, is no other than the rape of Medusa by Poseidon, something which I will discuss later in further detail.īut, before we continue, please allow me to make an important statement:īy the time I am writing this article, things are not going well for women in Greece. And these are only some of the tropes, which are explored from many different points of view. It adapts to the needs of our society, with its main characters being interpreted differently, having different roles with each adaptation, and possessing new traits! It features some old favorite, classic concepts such as the duality of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, justice and punishment, which are all must-have elements of any great story. To start with, it is one of the few ancient myths that remains relevant today and keeps evolving as time passes! Even today, thousands of years later, the tragic fate of Medusa is retold by modern storytellers. Medusa’s story is a very interesting mythological topic because it possesses several remarkable traits, that are not found in any other myth. Where is Medusa - the former chief priestess of Athena - who was brutally raped by Poseidon and was then cursed to transform into a hideous monster, who petrified its victims with one gaze of her eyes? However, this is not the tale you probably have heard of. That is all we were ever taught as kids in school about the famous monster. She was the main antagonist of Perseus, who eventually managed to kill her by brutally severing her head from its body. Many heroes tried to gain her head as a trophy, but failed and ended up as statues in the abandoned island of Sarpedon, which the monster called “home”. Her appearance is recognizable by anyone, having live snakes on her head instead of hair, the upper body of a woman, the lower body of a serpent, and eyes that could turn any man into stone just by one look.
It is quite interesting to notice that for the ancient Greek male-leading societies, female beauty was often associated with great danger, and therefore it was seen as necessary to be isolated or exterminated from the world (image source: Wikimedia Commons, ). Monster and woman, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, victim and villain, Medusa’s head gathers all the above contradicting aspects into a single creature. Her face is the perfect representation of the duality of nature. The above painting was inspired by the newer adaptations of Medusa’s myth, on which she acquired both a monstrous and a human side.
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