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this is the hollywood version of medusa
from the 1981 film clash of the titans
a rather effective but nonetheless
cliched monster who reduces men to
life-sized action figures with her gaze
and this dashing young fellow who's
about to make a trophy out of her head
is the famous greek hero perseus
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but did you know that she wasn't always
a monster
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she was once a beautiful priestess
before she was cursed into becoming a
monster according to some versions of
her story
so was medusa really the villain
hollywood films over the last several
decades have made her out to be
or was she really the tragic victim all
this time
we're all used to being told medusa's
story from the hero's perspective
the male protagonist who rids the world
of an evil threat nobody else seems to
want to confront
sort of like when children ask their
parents if they can banish the monster
hiding beneath the bed that waits to
devour them the precise moment they shut
their eyes
i looked up the word monster and got
this definition
a large ugly and frightening imaginary
creature
but another definition is a person who's
considered immoral because they deviate
from normal or acceptable behavior
and finally the word is defined more
abstractly as a threatening force
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so does medusa fit the bill for the
standard definition of a monster
well it all depends on which part of
medusa's life you're talking about and
of course which version of her myth you
choose to follow
i focused on a version of her myth by
the poet ovid because it's by far the
most detailed story of medusa that
survived from the ancient world
he was a roman poet but he based his
work on the greeks who came before him
often with a very generous dose of
artistic license
here's how he tells the story
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beyond all others medusa was famed for
her beauty and was the envious hope of
many suitors
words would fail to tell the glory of
her hair most wonderful of all her
charms
now this part's important he says
the sovereign of the sea attained her
love at chaste minerva's temple
sovereign of the sea is a reference to
neptune by the way the roman name for
poseidon who was god of the sea and
earthquakes
minerva is the roman name for athena
virgin goddess of wisdom and war but
we'll stick to the greek names for the
sake of clarity from here on out
then ovid goes on to say
athena punished that great crime and
changed medusa's splendid hair to
serpent's horrible
the great crime he refers to is the
sexual act that occurred between medusa
and poseidon
after all athena is a virgin goddess and
a sexual act of any kind in her temple
would have been considered sacrilege of
the highest order
it's important to mention a few things
here
some translations of avid's account say
that medusa was violated by poseidon
while others are far more ambiguous
the translation i read from says that he
attained her love
just for comparison the much earlier
greek poet hessied simply says that
poseidon lay with medusa in a soft
meadow amid spring flowers
ambiguity aside the struggle to escape
from sexual pursuit is one of the most
common motifs of classical mythology
with women often only able to escape
through metamorphosis or death
both occur in medusa's story
at any rate after her transformation
medusa appears to leave the human world
behind and hide herself in a very remote
corner of earth until she's finally
hunted down and killed by perseus
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he brags about it in ovid's account
saying
when medusa was helpless in the power of
sleep and even her serpent hair was
slumber bound i struck and took her head
sheer from the neck
in this classical greek vase painting it
appears that athena is an accomplice to
the killing
though oddly it also looks like she's
about to drive her spear into perseus
leg
we're most familiar with medusa as a
fierce hybrid of woman and beast and the
greeks often depicted her like this with
giant wings
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and this extraordinary example from the
classical period however medusa appears
almost entirely human except for her
large wings
she resembles our idea of an angel much
more than she does a monster
the blade perseus holds is relatively
small and barely noticeable allowing the
artist to shift the focus away from
violence and onto medusa as an almost
ordinary woman taking a nap
but back to our story
after its removal from her body medusa's
head is then weaponized by perseus
throughout his subsequent adventures as
her eyes continue to retain their
petrifying power
when he's done using it perseus presents
it as a votive offering to athena who
magically merges the head with her own
armor to strike fear in the heart of
anyone who dares to oppose her
this appears to be medusa's final
transformation
a decorative amulet worn by athena
sometimes as a cloak around her chest or
emblazoned upon her polished shield
it was called the aegis and in the iliad
it was said to produce a dreadful sound
as if from many roaring dragons
the connection of the woman to the
serpent and other wild animals stretches
far back in time to the pre-classical
bronze age cultures
when the snake was regarded as a very
positive symbol of the life force
fertility and transformation
joseph campbell said that it represented
the power of life in the field of time
to throw off death
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over the course of history however the
snake priestess as a life-affirming
symbol was inverted to become a wicked
temptress who corrupts men with her
dangerous sexuality
but if we can only drop the last couple
thousand years worth of propaganda we
can look at a woman like this and simply
see a positive symbol of empowerment
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you may have already noticed but medusa
doesn't often conform to classical
beauty standards and neither does nature
both can be absolutely terrifying at
times but that doesn't mean they're evil
as a figure strongly associated with
nature and transformation
she's featured at the very center of
this pediment from a greek temple
dedicated to the goddess artemis
many might find her face frightening
here but she's in fact a guardian symbol
with an apotropaic function
meaning that her gaze was believed to
avert evil
etymology really holds the key to
understanding medusa's original
significance
speaking of which did you know that her
name means guardian and comes from a
greek word meaning to protect
sounds to me like the exact opposite of
a monster
the name perseus on the other hand
derives from a word meaning to waste
ravage sack or destroy
and yet he's the hero
in greek mythology we only get a
fleeting glimpse of medusa's tragic
story
she's collateral damage a means to an
end within a much larger power struggle
and so she fades quietly into the
background as the shining hero takes
center stage
and this is precisely why i'd like to
share with you a new twist on this old
myth
this time from a woman's perspective
in a recent retelling of the myth by
nikita gill
athena offers medusa a choice after
she's violated by poseidon she says to
medusa
i'll make you a trade your beauty for
stone
your sea beloved tresses for
venom-filled snakes
your innocent doe eyes for frigid gaze
the sea is in the habit of ravishing
what does not belong to him taking
without consideration
but
sweet girl i promise you i will not
allow this to be a ruin
you are sacred one of my own and no
cruel chaos will devour you again
choose terror over maiden
relinquish your human
and i will turn you into a goddess in
your own right
a deity of monsters a myth that will
scare men for all the years and their
seasons
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and finally here's an excerpt from
maidens myths and monsters also by the
writer nikita gill
sometimes i think of you medusa
inside your temple mournful surrounded
by a hundred stone statues
the men who came to kill you and never
left were named lost heroes warriors
demigods whilst you were called monster
gorgon terror
because the stories were always written
by men
but this was never a story about a
monster it was always about a woman
burned for a sea god's sin
upon in an ancient game the fates would
never let her win
but your story was always written by men
and then one day whilst you slept a son
of zeus came and killed you before you
could even look his way
and he too was named hero because the
stories were always written by men
someone once said words cut deeper than
a knife that history is told by the
victors that he who tells the story is
the one who controls the world
women did not get to write your story
medusa because if we did a very
different tale would be told
and in our tale you would not be a
monster
but priestess goddess
a maiden who once had a heart of gold
although there's a lot more i want to
say about medusa i'm going to save it
for a future video
so
what are your thoughts on medusa i look
forward to reading and responding to
your feedback
thank you by the way for making it all
the way to the end of this episode to
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