Medusa, Gorgon of Greek Mythology

Our favorite snake-haired femme fatale...

The Myth of Medusa

Medusa was once a beautiful young woman, the only mortal born among the three Gorgon sisters, until she incurred the wrath of the goddess Athena.

She was seduced by the sea god Poseidon in a temple of Athena, who punished the sacrilege by turning Medusa’s long hair into writhing snakes, the very sight of which turned men to stone.

While clearly a punishment, it’s interesting how the curse also turned Medusa into a powerful weapon against the male gaze, ensuring the original crime against her could never be repeated.

Medusa’s End

The hero Perseus was tasked with slaying Medusa as one of his quests. With the help of divine gifts from the gods, including a reflective shield from Athena, Perseus was able to approach Medusa without directly meeting her petrifying gaze, beheading her while she slept.

Medusa’s terrifying likeness was immortalized as a symbol in ancient Greek art and later in Western culture. Her severed head adorned Athena’s shield (maybe as a gesture of recompense?) and the tale of her transformation from beautiful woman to fearsome monster have an enduring fascination that continues into the modern era.

Moral of the Story

Seen in a certain light, the myth of Medusa doesn’t exactly age well into the post-MeToo era, or the self-proclaimed era of Badass Goddess feminism for that matter. We may feel compelled to rail against the ancient patriarchy, or demand to know why Athena would punish a poor innocent girl rather than rapey Poseidon, but that misses the point of the myths.

The gods were never meant to be models of good behavior. Athena may be the goddess of wisdom, but she can be every bit as capricious and narcissistic as the next god when it comes to taking personally a slight against her divine domain.

Just ask poor Arachne, the mortal woman whose only crime was weaving beautiful tapestries, a skill for which her only worthy competitor was Athena… and no one competes with the gods and gets away without paying a price.

Arachne was transformed into a spider for her hubris, and let that be a lesson to us all about the dangers inherent in being too good at a thing.

Garden of Delights

This is the time of year when I strive to be good at many things, one of which is performing in Melody Mangler’s annual Dionysian celebration of spring, Garden of Delights. If you’re planning to be in Vancouver on April 17, come check it out!

This will be my third year of dancing in the group performance that opens the show. Last year, we were sun worshipers beckoning a solar deity to bring back the light, appropriately enough, staged to “Waiting for the Sun” by The Doors. You can read all about that and see pictures here.

You can watch the video here:

This is also to say that the next few weeks are going to be a little crazy for me. In addition to rehearsing every Saturday in preparation for the show, I’ve been interviewing people for the Starzology podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Music and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also listen right on the Starzology website, where Alison posts her blog every week with charts and supporting information about every episode. My interviews will be posted on Wednesdays starting March 25 with a musician named Mark Winters, who reached out to us after our episode on music in the birth chart.

Spring Break

And, if all that weren’t enough, I’m taking a trip to Mexico next week! I’m so excited to experience several days sun and warmth in the middle of what has been a relentlessly rainy, cold winter in Vancouver.

So next week’s post might be a little short. :)