Episode 27: Medousa and the Gorgons
Hello again! In this episode we will discuss in detail the concept of the Gorgo (“The Grim One,” “Grotesque Woman”) and the most famous member of that group, Medousa (Medusa). Below we provide some cool images from the ancient world and a few from the Renaissance. In addition, our show tile is an original creation by our fantastic student here at UNH, Ben Lesser-Brunori, who reimagines Bernini’s bust (just below) of Medusa in the middle of transformation. Bonus treat! Below the images we provide a review by an outstanding student at UNH (Ella DiMeco) of the adaptation of the Medusa myth, Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes!
Bernini’s virtuoso depiction of Medusa transforming from young woman to the serpent-monster we all know (executed around 1650, now housed in the Capitoline Museum in Rome).
One of the more common uses of the gorgon’s head is the so-called gorgoneion, which was meant to scare off or drive away anyone with ill will toward you. That’s why they are found on shields and buildings (see the giant version in Corfu below). Here is a gorgoneion from a terracotta (baked earth) antefix on a Greek temple in Tarentum in southern Italy, followed by a version on Athena’s breastplate or aigis.
Horrifying! Don’t come near! A gorgoneion from Tarentum in southern Italy now housed in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (about 540 BC)
Athena wearing the aigis (protective cloak) featuring the gorgon head. The aigis, like later Medusa, is often seen as featuring serpents and is likewise used to scare off people. See Apollodorus 3.12.3, “The story told about the Palladium is as follows. They say that when Athena was born she was brought up by Triton, who had a daughter Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war, but that once on a time they fell out; and when Pallas was about to strike a blow, Zeus in fear interposed the aegis, and Pallas, being startled, looked up, and so fell wounded by Athena.
Perseus, looking away, prepared to decapitate the gorgon, who is represented as a centaur! Perseus is identified with the hat, bag, and emerging wings on the sandals. (Pithos, around 650 BC, currently in the Louvre).
Perseus, supported by the goddess Athena on the left, moves to behead the gorgon, who holds the flying horse Pegasos, which normally emerges from her neck after Perseus decapitates her (metope from Temple C in Selinunte (Sicily), now in the National Archaeological Museum in Palermo, around 520 BC).
Image of the gorgon, with serpents around waist as belt (compare the account in the Hesiodic Shield of Achilles) on the pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corcyra (modern Corfu, housed in the archaeological museum on the island, around 580 BC).
Credits:
Written and Narrated: R. Scott Smith
Voice Actor: Emory Stevens
Music: Jared Sims
Original Artwork: Ben Lesser-Brunori
Review of Natalie Haynes’ Stone Blind by Ella DiMeco
One of the most interesting, yet variable myths is that of the monstrous Medusa and her slaying at the hands of Perseus. Her reptilian hair, as well as her abilities to turn men to stone by sight alone, makes her infamous in ancient myth and modern culture alike. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book four, it is said that she “was once extremely beautiful” and that “of all her features, none was lovelier than her hair” (Ovid, Met. 4.1182–5). However, after “Neptune who rules the sea, attacked her sexually in Minerva’s temple,” she is cursed by the warrior goddess who blamed her for violating her sacred cult site (Ovid 4.1186-1188). Later, hero Perseus is tasked by King Polydectes to slay the mortal gorgon Medusa and to bring him her severed head, or else the King would force Danae, Perseus’ mother, into marriage. The myth brings us to pity Perseus as he begins on a cruel, dangerous mission to save his mother from a terrible fate. Medusa was a feared monster, after all, and the Olympians (specifically Hermes and Athena) were there to assist Perseus’ feat.
The ancient myth’s theme of heroism is flipped on its head through Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, a feminist retelling published only two years ago. While the old myths portray Medusa as a monster to fear, Haynes represents her as a victim of isolation, rape, and ultimately, murder at the hands of one viewed as a hero. It’s a story of feminine rage and a survivor's fate, and it is such a unique mythological retelling. Haynes uses the story of Medusa’s origination from Metamorphoses, but the novel takes off from there.
In Stone Blind, Haynes writes that Medusa’s life was misunderstood from the beginning. Her own sisters, the other two immortal gorgons Stheno and Euryale, did not understand their mortal sister, saying “who knows why mortals do anything?” (Haynes, 2). Medusa was also thought by her sisters to be “a freak whose birth had horrified both parents” (Haynes, 5). Immediately, we see the theme of isolation, and we pity the young girl who’s so alone. The feeling of pity and horror becomes intensifies when, as Ovid wrote as well, she is raped by Poseidon in Athenas temple as Medusa saved Nereid Amphitrite from the same fate. Haynes’ writing of this scene was so powerful and awed me, especially when I was a first-time reader. You wonder how it can possibly get worse for this young woman, who’s already alone, yet you know the troubles that lie ahead for her are far worse.
The novel continues to follow the same plot as Metamorphoses, right up until Perseus is tasked with her murder. This is when we begin to see the most important perspective change of the novel, as compared to the original myth—the view of Perseus as a rather misogynistic, pathetic villain, almost against the wishes of the Olympians themselves. Haynes writes of Perseus’ claims, of him calling Medusa a monster who could never be loved even by her own sisters. Hermes, the messenger God, takes a different position from when he assisted with the killing in Metamorphoses: he questions Perseus, asking him who he was to decide who was worthy of love. My favorite part of the entire novel is when Haynes wrote that “sometimes—not always, but sometimes—he [the hero] is monstrous,” and the monster is “what happens when she cannot be saved.” Perseus’ villainous arc is further exemplified through Haynes’ writing of the “hero’s” ruthless killings with Medusa’s newly severed head, as well as the lack of remorse he felt for leaving the Graeae “blind and hungry” after stealing their singular tooth and eye.
All in all, Stone Blind’s retelling of Medusa’s story is one meant to represent the story of sexual assault survivors and other struggling women, and the cruelty they face only to become vilified and feared. It takes a famous hero and exposes them as the underlying villain of the man. It’s a fascinating modern take on a tale from a time where women are often written in such an inhuman way. It is also interesting to see the head of Medusa emerge as a symbol of awareness and survivorship in modern culture, especially after the publication of this novel. I cannot recommend Stone Blind enough, as there is so much more to dive into in terms of this extraordinary role reversal plot arc.