Rise and shine, pornies! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Right now it's the total opposite of Midnight here at home, but let's play pretend. Yesterday, after a stress crisis, I was reading about some figures and entities from mythology, and there's one I've always been interested in, a monster from Ancient Greece that I've been fascinated with since I was a kid: Medusa.
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| Medusa, by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1618). Source. |
Portrayed as a monster, found guilty by a crime she didn't commit, executed by abusers, and then kept as a trophy, Medusa's story spoke to me before I understood why. She was mistreated and abused by everyone around her, and depending on which version you read, she was either a mortal turned into a monster or a creature born from the sea.
I believe the most popular version of her myth, and the one I got to know first when I was a child, was that of her being a human priestess devoted to Athena, so beautiful and so pure Poseidon raped her in the temple she served. Athena, however, far from punishing the abuser and standing with her priestess, she transformed her into the monster we all know today. Exiled, she is persecuted and hunted by many, until Perseus kills her to save princess Andromeda, princess of Aethiopia, who was to be offered as sacrifice after her mother says she's more beautiful than the Nereids, thus enraging Poseidon who in turns sends the sea monster Cetus as a punishment
However, I then learned that in the original version she was the daughter of primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto, and had two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. This would make them sisters to monsters and creatures such as Echidna, the Graeae, Ladon, the Hesperides, and possibly Thoosa. The depths of the sea seem to be the source of many monsters and dangers, and Medusa could be the less dangerous of them all, maybe not as evil as she was portrayed:
There also a video re-examining the meaning behind some version of her myth and I find it quite curious because it could lead you to think Medusa is also a guardian of purity and beauty:
What do you think about it? For me, Medusa is a symbol of self-defense and protection, and since the figure of the gorgon was also seen as protectors of oracles, she could definitely help with divination sessions (does anyone know about Medusa tarot/oracle cards?) Also, I cannot help but see that her story has a lot to do with beauty: she was either the most beautiful of the gorgons, so beautiful Poseidon abused her, so beautiful Athena feared for her and others taking advantage of Medusa, or as a weapon to save a beautiful princess.
This last thing makes me think: if both Medusa and Andromeda we beautiful, why was one condemned and the other was saved? One thing to wonder for the next post, hehe, but meanwhile, what do you think about Medusa? Does she represent something for you?
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