The story of Medusa, is told wrong.

[RandomThoughts]

It is told from war perspective. Someone treated wrongly, then cast aside and ridiculed, mostly for the protection of those that do wrong, using smear to try and make someone look bad to hide the fault of those doing wrong, by then saying it was something that they did to themselves, or that they deserved. Also how some say the poor are suppose to be poor, or that those in hardship are under some punishment.

That is why I have always believed in protecting Medusa, and know she was not in the wrong. People have been telling stories with many biases wrong for years.

And she has flowers in her hair.


Constantine - Bring me to life (Evanescence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8d3K_hngw




Going to California by Led Zeppelin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpVLlnQ08OA

Jessica Alba - Sin City Bar Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfpKjRitYdE

[bluerum]

1. Agreed. Medusa was abused. Her anger is a rightous anger.

[RandomThoughts]

2. And there are many ways to see things.

[patrice]

3. Perseus overcame her by being tricky; guile is a quality admired in Greeks, e.g. Odysseus.

Perseus didn't even actually confront Medusa; he used his shield to reflect her image, so he didn't overcome her but, rather, depended upon an advantage which Medusa did not share, his shield. Not a fair fight.

[patrice]

4. P.S. RandomThoughts, love your startling line, "And she has flowers in her hair."

[RandomThoughts]

9. nope, that is the war side telling.

It was by using his shield, as a mirror and seeing what he was told as being snakes, as flowers. Things are reversed in a mirror.

And from that they did not turn him to stone. And he was able to see her beauty, not what he was told that she was.

You don't actually know the story. It is in books from war perspective.

And it is about healing, taking her back to the temple.


Constantine - Bring me to life (Evanescence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8d3K_hngw

It even says in the poem, not like the war version of the story.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome;
her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"




Meet Medusa, do you see the flowers or the snakes?

Mother of Exiles.




Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5JkHBC5lDs

Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Cu6GYqxo

Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=407128

Dire Straits - Walk of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZxVC0GB838

[WhiteTara]

11. Then Constantinople cut the Gordian Knot

rather than taking the complex actions of untying it to solve the problem. Might than became Right.

They had to be tricky and vicious to get what they wanted.

[ejpoeta]

5. since i really don't know much about medusa I asked my 12 year old who is really

knowledgeable about this stuff. she told me that medusa and poseidon were kanoodling in athena's temple and that athena got mad and turned medusa into a gorgon. Not sure why she needed to do that but since Poseidon was a god and Athena's uncle she couldn't do anything to him. I don't know what happened to Medusa after that as far as how she was treated by others.

Emily insists Medusa had no control over people being turned to stone if they looked directly at her. Emily doesn't understand why people would think Medusa was abused or deserves sympathy. I tried to explain to her that perhaps Medusa might be justified in being pissed off that some God would ruin her life by turning her into something that turns people into stone when she was just a normal person before.

But I guess we have that.... Emily..... hey, they insulted Athena by fooling around in her temple. Well then, I guess that makes it ok then. Honestly, I don't know what else might have transpired for Medusa.... I imagine she would have had a lot of things going on. Emily lacks the perspective to think in those terms. Maybe if I explained it to her like her own stigma of ADHD and problems at school... No friends and years of getting in trouble just based on the word of other kids in the class based on her history and nothing else. Maybe that would help her get some perspective.

[Mojorabbit]

7. Interesting writeup

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/medusamyth.htm

I have a beautiful medusa plaque carved from stone by my front door. She has always
been intriguing to me and a woman of power in her own way

[scarletwoman]

8. Actually, it's much worse than "kanoodling" - not that your 12 year would know that.

The version of the Medusa myth your daughter knows about originated with Ovid, and it differs considerably from its earlier Hellenic origins.

In Ovid, Poseiden actually pursued and raped Medusa in Athena's temple. By Ovid's time, patriarchal cultural standards were ascendent, so it was accepted that a woman be punished for having been raped.

Earlier Hellenic versions of the myth had no such back story -- it seems clear that Ovid was taking literary liberties in order to shape the story of Medusa to fit the theme of his chef-d'oeuvre: Metamorphoses.

In the original references, Medusa is simply one of those class of semi-monstrous or monstrous non-humans who populated the archaic world in the ancient imagination.

Alot of what has come down to us as Greek mythology are stories that have many layers, some of which leave enticing clues to distinct pre-Hellenic origins. For example, Medusa could very well have been an important and benevolent demi-goddess (or "aspect" of a major goddess) for the aboriginal people of what is now Greece. As the early inhabitants were replaced by invading groups, the old dieties were either subsumed, or co-opted, or transformed into malevolent forces.

This could have happened to Medusa. For all we know, her most ancient iconography may have shown rays of power radiating out from her head that others later on recreated as serpents. Demonize that which is sacred to those you are oppressing, it's a pretty standard m.o.

sw
(edited to remove a stray comma)

[ejpoeta]

10. ah.... emily said they were in love. so whatever version she gets her info from

does not have what you speak of. but i hear you. stories tend to evolve don't they. and we can see today there are places where a woman being raped would deserve punishment.... even in our own society we blame the victim to a lesser degree than in other countries. but it makes sense that this would be a good way to demonize something someone sees as sacred also.

thanks for this information btw. i honestly have never heard much about medusa beyond the snakes for hair and that. it is very interesting actually.

[PufPuf23]

6. Subtle and great post about Medusa.

Myths and archtypes may be woo to some but also are deep wisdom.

I perceive your post to be expansive on scapegoats and reality, true to the now.

Sadly. Have the tea-shirt.