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47-571: Méduse is the French name for Medusa , a monster in Greek mythology. Méduse also may refer to: Medusa In Greek mythology , Medusa ( / m ɪ ˈ dj uː z ə , - s ə / ; Ancient Greek : Μέδουσα , romanized :  Médousa , lit.   'guardian, protectress'), also called Gorgo ( Ancient Greek : Γοργώ ) or the Gorgon , was one of the three Gorgons . Medusa

94-423: A beauty, the name in common usage "came to mean monster." The book Female Rage: Unlocking Its Secrets, Claiming Its Power by Mary Valentis and Anne Devane notes that "When we asked women what female rage looks like to them, it was always Medusa, the snaky-haired monster of myth, who came to mind ... In one interview after another we were told that Medusa is 'the most horrific woman in the world' ... [though] none of

141-510: A common theme in art in the nineteenth century, when her myth was retold in Thomas Bulfinch 's Mythology . Edward Burne-Jones ' Perseus Cycle of paintings and a drawing by Aubrey Beardsley gave way to the twentieth-century works of Paul Klee , John Singer Sargent , Pablo Picasso , Pierre et Gilles , and Auguste Rodin 's bronze sculpture The Gates of Hell . The head of Medusa is featured on some regional symbols. One example

188-415: A horrid monster predate Ovid. In classical Greek art, the depiction of Medusa shifted from hideous beast to an attractive young woman, both aggressor and victim, a tragic figure in her death. The earliest of those depictions comes courtesy of Polygnotus , who drew Medusa as a comely woman sleeping peacefully as Perseus beheads her. As the act of killing a beautiful maiden in her sleep is rather unheroic, it

235-565: A map to guide us through our terrors, through the depths of our anger into the sources of our power as women." In issue three, Fall 1986 for the magazine Woman of Power an article called Gorgons: A Face for Contemporary Women's Rage, appeared, written by Emily Erwin Culpepper, who wrote that "The Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of our own rage." Griselda Pollock analyses

282-529: A message placing Serifos under protection of the French fleet at Milos. This effort at collective self-organisation was cut short by the refusal of the French navy to intervene, and by the arrival of a Greek warship. Speras was arrested and charged with high treason, but released a few months later when the royalist government was ousted. Grohmann was given once again the control of the mines, after granting improved working conditions and an 8-hour workday. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

329-511: A story that seeks to place the male, Perseus, at its center, blameless and heroic. Author Sibylle Baumbach described Medusa as a "multimodal image of intoxication, petrifaction, and luring attractiveness", citing her seductive contemporary representation, as well as her dimensionality, as the reason for her longevity. Elizabeth Johnston's November 2016 Atlantic essay called Medusa the original 'Nasty Woman.' Johnston goes on to say that as Medusa has been repeatedly compared to Hillary Clinton during

376-506: A sword from Hephaestus and Hades 's helm of invisibility . Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her; he did so while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon . When Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus , a winged horse, and Chrysaor , a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body. Jane Ellen Harrison argues that "her potency only begins when her head

423-633: A trio of sisters was a secondary feature in the myth: The triple form is not primitive, it is merely an instance of a general tendency... which makes of each woman goddess a trinity, which has given us the Horae , the Charites , the Semnai , and a host of other triple groups. It is immediately obvious that the Gorgons are not really three but one + two. The two unslain sisters are mere appendages due to custom;

470-520: A weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield . In classical antiquity , the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion . According to Hesiod and Aeschylus , she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene . The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya , where Herodotus had said

517-498: Is almost always mentioned with contempt on account of its poverty and insignificance and it was for this reason employed by the Roman emperors as a place of banishment for state criminals. It is curious that the ancient writers make no mention of the iron and copper mines of Serifos , which were, however, worked in antiquity, as is evident from existing traces , and which, one might have supposed, would have bestowed some prosperity upon

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564-439: Is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was turned to stone . Medusa and her Gorgon sisters Euryale and Stheno were usually described as daughters of Phorcys and Ceto ; of the three, only Medusa was mortal. Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus , who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as

611-453: Is not clear whether those vases are meant to elicit sympathy for Medusa's fate, or to mock the traditional hero. In most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus , who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry Perseus's mother. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help. He received a mirrored shield from Athena , sandals with gold wings from Hermes ,

658-655: Is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended... the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object , a ritual mask misunderstood." In the Odyssey xi, Homer does not specifically mention the Gorgon Medusa: Lest for my daring Persephone the dread, From Hades should send up an awful monster's grisly head. Harrison's translation states that "the Gorgon

705-526: Is that of the flag and emblem of Sicily , together with the three-legged trinacria . The inclusion of Medusa in the center implies the protection of the goddess Athena , who wore the Gorgon's likeness on her aegis , as said above. Another example is the coat of arms of Dohalice village in the Czech Republic . Medusa is honored in the following scientific names : Greek: Roman: Greek: Roman: Serifos In Greek mythology , Serifos

752-563: Is the Lie that makes him free. Animals alone are given the privilege of lifting the veil of Isis ; men dare not. The animal, awake, has no fictional escape from the Real because he has no imagination. Man, awake, is compelled to seek a perpetual escape into Hope, Belief, Fable, Art, God, Socialism, Immortality, Alcohol, Love. From Medusa-Truth he makes an appeal to Maya-Lie ." Medusa has been depicted in several works of art, including: Medusa remained

799-484: Is where Danaë and her infant son Perseus washed ashore after her father Acrisius , in response to an oracle that his own grandson would kill him, set them adrift at sea in a wooden chest. When Perseus returned to Serifos with the head of the Gorgon Medusa , he turned Polydektes , the king of Serifos, and his retainers into stone as punishment for the king's attempt to marry his mother by force. In antiquity,

846-440: Is widely known as a monstrous creature with snakes in her hair whose gaze turns men to stone. Through the lens of theology, film, art, and feminist literature, my students and I map how her meaning has shifted over time and across cultures. In so doing, we unravel a familiar narrative thread: In Western culture, strong women have historically been imagined as threats requiring male conquest and control, and Medusa herself has long been

893-527: The Amphisbaena (a horned dragon-like creature with a snake-headed tail). Perseus then flew to Seriphos, where his mother was being forced into marriage with the king, Polydectes, who was turned into stone by the head. Then Perseus gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the Aegis . Some classical references refer to three Gorgons; Harrison considered that the tripling of Medusa into

940-679: The Berbers originated her myth as part of their religion . The three Gorgons —Medusa, Stheno , and Euryale —were described by Hesiod and Apollodorus as offspring of the sea-god Phorcys and his sister Ceto ; according to Hyginus , however, their parents were "Gorgon" and Ceto. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae , as in Aeschylus 's Prometheus Bound , which places both trios of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain": Near them their sisters three,

987-424: The 2016 presidential election, she proves her merit as an icon, finding relevance even in modern politics. "Medusa has since haunted Western imagination, materializing whenever male authority feels threatened by female agency," writes Johnston. Beyond that, Medusa's story is, Johnston argues, a rape narrative. A story of victim blaming , one that she says sounds all too familiar in a current American context. Medusa

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1034-453: The 460 miners formed a union and organized a strike . Their leader was Constantinos Speras, a Serifos native educated in Egypt, who was an anarcho-syndicalist with long experience of labor struggles on the Greek mainland. In response to the strike, Grohman asked for the help of Greek authorities, who sent a 30-man gendarmerie (Χωροφυλακή) detachment from nearby Kea . After detaining Speras and

1081-669: The Archaeological Collection in Chora (open Tues.-Sun.). The most impressive ancient monument is the Aspros Pýrgos (Άσπρος Πύργος) , a Hellenistic marble watchtower (c. 300 BC ) with walls preserved to 2 m. and an interior staircase, standing on a hilltop just east of the road from Chora to Mega Livadi , near Mega Chorio . Work began in 2011 to study the fallen blocks for an eventual reconstruction . At least four other ancient towers have been located, including

1128-594: The British travellers Theodore and Mabel Bent , landing in December 1883. Bent opens his 1885 travelogue on the Cyclades with Serifos, although the couple visited Syros first. Worked blocks of island marble built into the walls of the medieval castle crowning Chora, the hilltop main town of Serifos, show that the ancient capital was there as well. Chance finds, primarily marble funerary sculpture, are displayed in

1175-468: The Gorgons, winged With snakes for hair—hatred of mortal man While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as having monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century BC began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BC, Pindar already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa". In a late version of the Medusa myth, by

1222-558: The Mystery of the Gorgon , questioned Medusa's enduring status among the feminist movement. He believes that one reason for her longevity may be her role as a protector, fearsome and enraged. "Only the Gorgon has the savage, threatening appearance to serve as an immediately recognized symbol of rage and a protector of women's secrets," wrote Wilk. Even in contemporary pop culture, Medusa has become largely synonymous with feminine rage. Through many of her iterations, Medusa pushes back against

1269-494: The Nikolaos Adoldos occurred. In the 20th century, the mines of Serifos were exploited by the mining company "Société des mines de Seriphos-Spiliazeza," under the direction of German mineralogist A. Grohmann (died 1905). In the summer of 1916, in response to low pay, excessive working hours, unsafe conditions, and the company's refusal to rehire workers who had been drafted into the Greek army and recently demobilized,

1316-645: The Roman poet Ovid , Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but when Neptune (the Roman equivalent of the Greek Poseidon ) mated with her in Minerva 's temple (Minerva being the Roman equivalent of the Greek Athena ), Minerva punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into horrible snakes. Although no earlier versions mention this, ancient depictions of Medusa as a beautiful maiden instead of

1363-440: The conscious mind. In 1940, Sigmund Freud 's "Das Medusenhaupt ( Medusa's Head )" was published posthumously. In Freud's interpretation: "To decapitate = to castrate. The terror of Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something. Numerous analyses have made us familiar with the occasion for this: it occurs when a boy, who has hitherto been unwilling to believe the threat of castration, catches sight of

1410-589: The existence of an ancient sanctuary. The fortified Monastery of the Taxiarchs, dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, was built in 1572 just outside the village of Galani . The sole monk is Archimandrite Makarios, who entered the monastery as a youth in 1958 and continues to maintain it. Serifos was colonized by Ionians from Athens , and it was one of the few islands which refused submission to Xerxes I . By subsequent writers, Serifos

1457-586: The false woman who is preventing the live one from breathing. Inscribe the breath of the whole woman." Cixous wants to destroy the phallogocentric system, and to empower women's bodies and language. "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her," writes Cixous. "And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing." Medusa has sometimes appeared as representing notions of scientific determinism and nihilism , especially in contrast with romantic idealism . In this interpretation of Medusa, attempts to avoid looking into her eyes represent avoiding

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1504-421: The female genitals, probably those of an adult, surrounded by hair, and essentially those of his mother." In this perspective the "ravishingly beautiful" Medusa (see above) is the mother remembered in innocence; before the mythic truth of castration dawns on the subject. Classic Medusa, in contrast, is an Oedipal/libidinous symptom. Looking at the forbidden mother (in her hair-covered genitals, so to speak) stiffens

1551-413: The go-to figure for those seeking to demonize female authority. The Medusa story has also been interpreted in contemporary art as a classic case of rape-victim blaming, by the goddess Athena. Inspired by the #metoo movement , contemporary figurative artist Judy Takács returns Medusa's beauty along with a hashtag stigmata in her portrait, #Me(dusa)too. Feminist theorist Hélène Cixous famously tackled

1598-433: The goddess' unresolved conflicts with her own father Zeus . In the 20th century, feminists reassessed Medusa's appearances in literature and in modern culture, including the use of Medusa as a logo by fashion company Versace . The name "Medusa" itself is often used in ways not directly connected to the mythological figure but to suggest the gorgon's abilities or to connote malevolence; despite her claimed origins as

1645-589: The island was proverbial for the alleged muteness of its frogs. During the Roman imperial period, Serifos was a place of exile. After 1204 it became a minor dependency of the Venetian dukes of the Archipelago. In the late 19th century Serifos experienced a modest economic boom from the exploitation of the island's extensive iron ore deposits. The mines closed in the 1960s, and Serifos now depends on tourism and small-scale agriculture . Among early ‘tourists’ were

1692-467: The island. But though the ancient writers are silent about the mines, they are careful to relate that the frogs of Serifos differ from the rest of their fraternity by being mute. Serifos was part of the Byzantine Empire until 1204 , when the island came under Venetian rule . During this time the mines reopened, after about 1,000 years of inactivity. In 1394, a strike of the miners against

1739-427: The latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane. That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued by

1786-618: The megalithic Psaros Pyrgos (Ψαρός Πύργος) or "Couch of the Cyclops" in the SW corner of the island. The so-called "Castle of the Old Lady" (Κάστρο της Γριάς) above Ganema and Koutalas preserves scant remains of a collapsed dry-stone construction in a notch below the twin rocky summits. Rough fragments of white marble and rooftile, and archaic fine-ware potsherds on the SE terraces of the hillside suggest

1833-652: The myth in her essay "The Laugh of the Medusa." She argues that men's retelling of the narrative turned Medusa into a monster because they feared female desire. "The Laugh of the Medusa" is largely a call to arms, urging women to reclaim their identity through writing as she rejects the patriarchal society of Western culture. Cixous calls writing "an act which will not only 'realize' the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasures, her organs, her immense bodily territories which have been kept under seal." She claims "we must kill

1880-596: The ostensibly depressing reality that the universe is meaningless. Jack London uses Medusa in this way in his novel The Mutiny of the Elsinore : I cannot help remembering a remark of De Casseres . It was over the wine in Mouquin's. Said he: "The profoundest instinct in man is to war against the truth; that is, against the Real. He shuns facts from his infancy. His life is a perpetual evasion. Miracle, chimera and to-morrow keep him alive. He lives on fiction and myth. It

1927-448: The passage from horrorism to compassion in the figure of the Medusa through Adriana Cavarero 's philosophy and Bracha Ettinger 's art and Matrixial theory. Elana Dykewomon 's 1976 collection of lesbian stories and poems, They Will Know Me by My Teeth , features a drawing of a Gorgon on its cover. Its purpose was to act as a guardian for female power, keeping the book solely in the hands of women. Stephen Wilk, author of Medusa: Solving

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1974-503: The real Gorgon is Medusa. Several early classics scholars interpreted the myth of Medusa as a quasi-historical – "based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, style, etc., in the past", or "sublimated" memory of an actual invasion. According to Joseph Campbell : The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that "the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines" and "stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks",

2021-576: The shore during his short stay in Ethiopia where he saved and wed his future wife, the lovely princess Andromeda , who was the most beautiful woman in the world at that time. Furthermore, the venomous vipers of the Sahara , in the Argonautica 4.1515, Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.770 and Lucan's Pharsalia 9.820, were said to have grown from spilt drops of her blood. The blood of Medusa also spawned

2068-430: The strike committee, the gendarmerie lieutenant ordered his men to fire on the workers, who had gathered at the ore loading dock at Megalo Livadi and refused to permit a cargo ship to be loaded. Four workers were killed and a dozen wounded. The workers, supported by their wives, attacked the gendarmes with stones, killing three of them and routing the others. The freed leadership took control of island institutions and sent

2115-516: The subject in illicit desire and freezes him in terror of the Father's retribution. There are no recorded instances of Medusa turning a woman to stone. Archetypal literary criticism continues to find psychoanalysis useful. Beth Seelig chooses to interpret Medusa's punishment as resulting from rape rather than the common interpretation of having willingly consented in Athena's temple, as an outcome of

2162-491: The women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth." Medusa's visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a feminist journal called Women: A Journal of Liberation in their issue one, volume six for 1978. The cover featured the image of the Gorgon Medusa by Froggi Lupton, which the editors on the inside cover explained "can be

2209-530: Was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon." According to Ovid , in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas , who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed Atlas into a stone when Atlas tried to attack him. In a similar manner, the corals of the Red Sea were said to have been formed of Medusa's blood spilled onto seaweed when Perseus laid down the petrifying head beside

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