Medusa: From Monster to Muse

Trigger Warning - Sexual Assault.

In this episode, we delve into the captivating legend of Medusa, one of mythology's most misunderstood figures. Join me as we explore her origins, from her transformation into a Gorgon to a symbol of feminine rage.

We'll unravel the layers of her story, examining how Medusa has been portrayed in ancient myths, art and modern culture. Was she truly a monstrous villain, or a tragic victim?

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Some of the cool stuff mentioned in this episode:

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/medu/hd_medu.htm

https://pharos.vassarspaces.net/2018/01/18/antiquity-in-support-of-violent-misogyny-in-anti-clinton-apparel/

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Transcript

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In the dim light of a forgotten temple, you step cautiously. Dust dances in the thin beams of moonlight that filter in through cracks in the ceiling. You'd heard stories of this temple, a place of mystery and danger, said to be the home of an ancient cursed being and you couldn't resist the chance to uncover the truth.

Ahead, a faint hissing sound slithers through the Sending shivers down your spine, you grip your torch tighter, the light creating dancing shadows on the walls. The hissing grows louder as you venture further, but your curiosity outweighs your fear as you reach the inner chamber of the temple, and you see her.

In the centre of the room stands a figure cloaked in shadow. Her once beautiful face now framed with writhing serpents, each one hissing and snapping at the air. Her eyes, hidden behind the veil of darkness, glow faintly with an eerie light. You can feel their power even without meeting her gaze directly.

You step back, eyes drawn to the serpents despite your fear. You can't look away, but she moves so quickly you don't even stand a chance as her eyes lock onto you. In that moment of stillness, you see, not a monster, a being, trapped by her own curse. A victim of divine cruelty. Cold spreads through your limbs as your body stiffens, muscles turning to stone.

Panic surges through you but you can't move, can't even cry out. She watches, her gaze softening as the last vestiges of warmth leave your body. Your thoughts slow, crystallizing into a final, silent plea. As you become a statue. Your face forever etched in a mixture of curiosity and fear. Medusa turns away, her serpents calming.

The temple falls silent once more, and the stone figure of you joins the countless others who had dared to explore the cursed Gorgon's domain. In the stillness, Medusa resumes her eternal vigil, a solitary guardian of her own tragic fate.

Welcome to Ladies of Lore, the podcast where we unravel stories of mythological women from all over the world and take a look at the many ways they are woven into the very fabric of our culture. I'm your host, India, and today, if you hadn't guessed it already, we are diving into the fascinating tale of Medusa, a figure whose story has slithered, if you will, through history, transforming from ancient myth to a modern feminist symbol, really, Now this is my very first podcast, so a gigantic thank you first of all for being here.

I really appreciate you listening and I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed creating it. Go gentle on me though because this is my first time. I really do promise you things will only get better over time as I make more of these for you and just sort of figure out my rhythm really. The subject of today's episode was suggested by my lovely friend Katie, so thank you so much Katie, and thank you for the, uh, list that you sent me of the most wonderful mythological women.

I will cover them all, I promise. So let's buckle up and explore the origins of Medusa, her impact, and how interpretations of this very enigmatic figure have changed over time. A little aside before we start. One of the most wonderful things about myths is their ability to just transform over time. They often morph to fit the narratives of new places and new cultures and time periods.

And for this reason, the version of the myth that I tell you today might not be one that you are familiar with. But isn't that kind of cool? This episode does also come with a trigger warning. So there are varying versions of this myth and of Medusa herself. Some cast her as a horrific Gorgon, always an evil and disgusting being, and others as a beautiful maiden who was a tragic victim, a bit more like the sexy snake lady that we're more used to in modern times.

The earliest reference to a gorgon is an ancient Aegean ceramic mask which dates back to around 5300 BC and I'll put a link to that in the show notes because it is fantastic. It's so interesting to look at and it really is not what we as a modern audience would recognize as Medusa at all. It's wonderful to look at so please do check that out in the show notes.

The face of the Gorgon is so striking, it has these bulging eyes and bangs and tusks and tongues sticking out menacingly. And one of the most interesting things to note is that while many other figures are depicted facing sideways, Gorgons are almost always depicted facing forwards. And that was largely due to the belief that Gorgons could ward off evil with their sort of intense fourth wall breaking stare.

And if I'm honest, I can see why, because they really, really aren't very good to look at. For any version of Medusa's story, we first journey back to ancient Greece, where Hesiod, who was a poet, believed to have lived around the same time as Homer, so 8th century BC, was renowned for his works Theogony and Work and Days.

Theogony offers a genealogical account of all of the Greek gods and it details their origins and their relationships. It's kind of like an ancient Greek Wikipedia for all of the Greek gods. And it's here where we find the original myth of Medusa. Hesiod emphasises Medusa's deadly appearance, a kind of like that Gorgon mask that we talked about earlier.

Particularly, her hair of living snakes and her ability to turn anyone who gazes directly at her into stone, and that is something as a modern audience we definitely recognise. In his version, Medusa was always a monstrous Gorgon. However, perhaps the most well known version of Medusa's story was written by the Roman poet Ovid, and that was actually about 700 years after Hesiod wrote the Theogony.

So when we read this story and we think we're reading ancient Greek mythology, a lot of the time we're actually reading a Roman retelling of a Greek myth. In Ovid's telling, the description of Medusa changes quite significantly. And what I'll do is I'll read you a little extract and you can see if you can tell the differences.

I don't think it's going to be hard for you to tell the difference, but I will read it to you nonetheless. Medusa once had charms. To gain her love, a rival crowd of envious lovers strove. They who have seen her own. They never did trace more moving features. And a sweeter face. Yet above all her length of hair they own in golden ringlets, waved and graceful.

Shown. Doesn't really sound like a gorgon does it? doesn't really sound at all like what Hesiod had said in the Theogony and in any real ancient Greek depictions of Medusa or of Gorgon's. So this version completely changes the way that the audience perceives Medusa. And in doing so, it does really alter how we perceive the whole myth itself, which is kind of cool.

Like I said earlier, myths change and that's rock and roll. So I'm going to focus on Ovid's version of the myth today. And he establishes her as one of three Gorgon sisters, all daughters of the sea deities Phocis and Ceto. Now, unlike her immortal sisters, Medusa was mortal. And while her sisters were monstrous with terrifying faces and those typical Gorgon features, Medusa was a bit of an anomaly really.

And instead, a very beautiful maiden famous for this luxurious hair. So like I say, that's the version I'm rolling with today. Medusa was devoted to the goddess Athena, and in time she actually became a priestess of Athena. And priestesses of Athena were a reflection of the goddess herself, and subsequently, Medusa remained pure.

Now let me tell you, Medusa was the perfect priestess. She slayed it in the temple, to the point where people would actually gather. outside the temple to see her perform rituals and were often maybe a little bit more interested in Medusa than Athena, especially the gentleman. But obviously being a priestess, being so devoted to Athena, Medusa, she didn't pay them any mind.

She just got on with her rituals, got on with her worshipping and didn't really pay attention to that. But, if there's one thing we know about Greek gods and goddesses, it's that they are some of the most vain and petty individuals you'll ever come across in any mythology, in any literature, ever. And Medusa was kinda stealing the limelight, and it wasn't something that Athena looked down on with any kind of glee or positive feelings, and her annoyance with Medusa was noticed actually by Poseidon, who Athena had a really long standing rivalry with.

Now, he saw Medusa as an opportunity, an opportunity to gain advantage over Athena. And this is kind of one of the first examples we see of Medusa being used. as a tool, really, for somebody else, whether that be a god, or a man, or a goddess. This was the first instance of that in the myth. And however the tale is told, Medusa gaining Poseidon's attention is where her downfall begins.

Poseidon saw Medusa as the perfect opportunity to serve up the coldest revenge he possibly could on Athena. So he waited for Medusa to walk along the shore, and he rose up from the water, a bit like Daniel Craig in James Bond. Medusa did not like this, and she upheld her devotion to Athena, and she said, Absolutely not.

Not interested, mate. Go away. Poseidon hated this. This was his chance to really annoy Athena, and he did not take no for an answer. And we know this feeling far too well. Medusa said no, and he did not listen. He didn't respect her. He wanted what he wanted, and he was gonna get it. So Medusa fled to the one place she felt safest.

The Temple of Athena. However, Poseidon, being Poseidon, pursued her to the temple, where he forcefully assaulted her. In doing so, he not only corrupted Medusa, but he also corrupted the Temple of Athena, which held purity and abstinence in the highest of regards. And this is where it gets worse for Medusa, really.

Rather than seek vengeance on Poseidon, who was literally right there, and had just done that, Athena instead blamed Medusa. And this is a thing that we know so very well from society even now, it's this culture of victim blaming. And Poseidon got away with it. In her rage at the desecration of her temple, Athena cursed Medusa, turning her once beautiful hair into a nest of snakes.

and cursed her to turn everyone that looked into her eyes to stone. Does seem a little extreme to punish her so fiercely when like I said Poseidon was right there. But this story highlights a really big reoccurring theme in Greek mythology which is the victim of a god's wrath being further punished by another deity and it happens quite a lot throughout Greek mythology.

Medusa's curse and transformation can be seen as a symbol of this unjust punishment and the fickle nature of the gods which pops up in let's be honest, nearly every mythological tale there's some kind of unjust curse or punishment or the gods changing their minds or having a little petty argument and Medusa is a prime example of this.

So you might be wondering, what did Hesiod say about this? In the Theogony 700 years before. prior to this tale by Ovid. And it's really interesting because in Theogony, although it's never fully confirmed that the relationship between Medusa and Poseidon was consensual, it is heavily implied. And I'll read you what Hesiod says about this.

He says, Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with one of those Medusa, one of the Gorgons, in a soft meadow and among spring flowers. It sounds like it may very well have been a consensual relationship. And does that change things? Does that change how you look upon Athena cursing Medusa? It's definitely food for thought.

So what happened next? Did Medusa do next? If you thought the curse alone was enough, and she lived out the rest of her days without any further drama, you would be absolutely wrong. In some versions of the myth, Medusa lived a very solitary life. She was banished to an island where she stayed, vengeful, evil, turning anybody that dared venture to her domain to stone.

Which is kind of understandable, really. In other versions, her isolation was actually her own choice, and this is a really interesting way to look at it. She was scared. She was fearful of these powers that she'd been given against her will, and she was so angry at the gods that she just opted out. She opted for the isolation so she couldn't hurt anybody else.

And I think that adds an extra layer of tragedy to this tale because Medusa gave Athena everything. She gave her whole life to Athena, and she lived by Athena's values. Not gonna lie, Athena does not come across as much of a girl's girl in this tale, and who knows, perhaps we'll cover her in a bit more detail in a further episode because let me tell you there's a lot to unpack there.

However she got there, Medusa stayed isolated until her death at the hands of Perseus. Perseus was tricked by King Polydectes to obtain the head of the Gorgon Medusa, and King Polydectes really, really just wanted to marry Perseus's mother, and he thought this was a really clever way of making that happen.

I won't go into too much detail about that because we're focusing on the ladies here, but Perseus beheaded Medusa. This set Perseus up to actually become one of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, but I feel kind of funny about that, knowing what we know now about the tragic life of Medusa. Now here's something you might not have known about the story of Medusa.

When Perseus cut her head off, blood sprayed from her neck as it does when one is beheaded. And from the drops of the blood that came from her neck, appeared to offspring. One of which was the giant winged boar, Chrysoar and the other was the winged horse, Pegasus. Yep, I said Pegasus. And you might recognise him from hit movies such as Hercules and other various retellings of mythological tales.

Just when you think mythology can't get any weirder, it just, it gives you, it gives you a winged horse from someone's beheaded neck stump. You just, it's wild, this is a wild ride. You would think this would finally be the end for Medusa, but the curse afflicted upon her remained, even after death, and Medusa's head became somewhat of a weapon really, most ironically ending up mounted to the shield of Athena.

Medusa is actually present in quite a few other myths, her head used as nothing more than a weapon. Mostly by men. Again, Medusa is being used. She is being used as a weapon. She's being used as a tool for payback. She's just being used. She's not got any voice of her own. She's got Nothing, except this curse, and the curse is the only thing that gives her any kind of value to anyone else.

And I think this really does add to the tragedy of Medusa's story. She devoted her whole life to Athena, and she was assaulted in the place where she thought she was safest, and ultimately it was her that was punished for it. This is a tale that modern day audiences know only all too well. How many times

have women said no, only to be ignored, abused, assaulted and punished for it by somebody who really had the power to help them? How many women spend the rest of their lives cursed, emotionally and physically, by these types of encounters with men? We still have this culture of victim blaming, we still see it every day in the news, on social media, and it begs the question, have we really changed at all?

Are we more moral now than we were in ancient times? Are we any better than that? Big questions, but valid ones.

Now, this brings me to the final segment of today's episode, which is Medusa in the Modern culture. As I said earlier, the myth of Medusa has been told and retold and retold for centuries. While Ovid's tale of Medusa wasn't really inspired by his views on feminism, but actually by his own disdain for authority which he equated with Olympian gods.

In more recent reworks, feminist visions recast Medusa as a victim of the patriarchy and of rape culture. In a way, her agency has actually been restored to her by doing this. I didn't mention it earlier, but Medusa actually slept through her own death. She literally never had a voice. She said no, she wasn't listened to.

She was punished for what happened to her. And forced to live such an isolated life where she couldn't forge any relationships with anyone or anything. But modern ways of thinking have allowed women to reclaim the narrative and use Medusa as a symbol of strength and survival, which I think is fantastic.

Medusa has literally impacted every area of modern culture and references to her can be found everywhere. pretty much anywhere. She's influenced psychoanalysis, and although I won't go into huge detail about it, Freud theorised some very wacky things about Medusa, so I have another one of those things where I'm going to tell you to google it to have a little read about that.

But most notably, Medusa is now a sign and a symbol of female rage and empowerment, which is awesome. One of the first publications to actually express this idea was a feminist journal called Women, a Journal of Liberation, in their issue volume 6 for 1978. And the cover featured an image of the Gorgon Medusa by Froggi Lupton, which the editors on the inside cover gave a little quote about, and they said that Medusa

can be a map to guide us through our terrors, through the depths of our anger, and into the sources of our power as women. And let me tell you, I love this quote. I think it is absolutely brilliant. And as we all know, there is nothing scarier than a powerful woman. And on the one hand, you have Medusa being used as a symbol of feminist rage and power.

But on the other side, the symbol of Medusa is used as a way to vilify women in power and to make them these scary, disgusting individuals. Much like the Gorgon in Hesiod's Tale. And this has happened to so many women in power, in arts, in politics, all over. It doesn't take long to find on the internet so many images of so many different famous women who have been photoshopped to look like Medusa.

And I'll include some links to some images in the show notes so you can have a little look at those at the end of the podcast. But maybe the wildest, the wildest example of this that I found actually comes from the 2016 presidential election in the United States and that's where Hillary Clinton's face was photoshopped onto Cellini's sculpture of Perseus in Medusa, which shows the Perseus trampling on her body as he presents her severed head.

Perseus, of course, was replaced by Donald Trump. And that is bad enough, but that image was actually then made into merch. Printed on t shirts and coffee mugs and tote bags. Now, I've seen this image and let me tell you, I don't want it on a tote bag, and I don't want it on a mug, and I don't want it on a coaster.

Not great, really not great, but it does serve as an example of how society's still day. Even though females have reclaimed the narrative of Medusa, we are still seen as such a threat if we have any modicum of power and there is still that fear of women. In visual arts and fashion, Medusa's image remains 

iconic, and we see images of her pretty much everywhere. Probably you don't even realize that you're seeing it a lot. Quite famously, uh, Versace actually adopted Medusa's head as its logo, and Versace himself explained that the reason that he chose Medusa is because she made people fall in love with her, and they had no way back.

The perfect mix of seduction and danger. Like I said, absolutely iconic. I love it. In literature, there have been many retellings of Medusa's story to fit different audiences, and it's a little bit like Ovid taking the original theogony and putting his own spin on it and looking at it through a Roman lens.

I've actually just finished reading Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, which I'm gonna be honest, I don't want to make this a book review podcast, but I'll just say it wasn't really for me. But, it might be for you if you're into mythological retellings, it's worth checking out, however I will say it's not overly focused on Medusa, you would believe that it was from the cover and the description, but it's, it focuses more on other characters.

So bear that in mind if you do pick it up. Even today, Medusa's story continues to captivate and inspire. She's everywhere. And I think my own personal most recent encounter with Medusa was actually fighting her in Assassin's Creed, uh, which is such a good game. I really would totally recommend that, but she is, she's one of the most iconic mythological characters.

And isn't it just fascinating to think about how many different facets of society she's actually touched. You can, you can look this up. There are. Quite literally thousands of references to Medusa all throughout history and these references and the way that she's viewed change so much, so dramatically depending on the time period.

Some great things about Medusa in the enlightenment period and in the renaissance period as different philosophies came in and how we viewed society and how we felt sympathy for people evolved and changed and you see that in the way Medusa is portrayed even back then, which is just so fascinating.

Medusa is fascinating. I could talk about her all day, but you don't have all day. So I will bring it to a close here.

So what version of the story do you prefer? The original, vengeful, hideous Gorgon written by the ancient Greek Hesiod. Or the Roman retelling by Ovid of the beautiful maiden who was a tragic victim of a vengeful goddess. And which one is more impactful? Is one more impactful than the other? And where will Medusa pop up next?

Whether it be art or literature or politics, she's definitely going to pop up somewhere. Medusa's story really has evolved. And it reflects changing values and perspectives. She's transformed from a monster to be feared into this multifaceted symbol of power and victimization and resilience and this enduring legacy of Medusa in mythology and in culture in general is, it speaks to her profound impact on our collective imagination, if you will.

She, she is literally everywhere. so much for listening. I really hope that you've enjoyed it. half as much as I've enjoyed researching it and creating it for you. Don't forget to subscribe. And if you've really enjoyed the podcast, the best way you can help me is to tell one person how much you enjoyed it and get them to check it out too.

So I can keep bringing you these amazing stories of these badass women. I've put some links in the show notes and over on the website so you can have a little look at some of the things I've referenced. And I'd really encourage you to do this because it does add another layer to the story. So stay tuned for the next one where we will unravel another thread in the very rich tapestry of mythology.

Until then, I'm India, and this has been Ladies of Lore.