Medusa

This violation of the sanctity of her temple provoked Athena, and she changed the beautiful locks of Medusa, which had inspired the love of Poseidon, into ghastly and living serpents, as a punishment for the desecration of that sanctuary, where only worship and incense should have been offered.

 

Medusa, by Caravaggio (1595)

   “Stheno, this is a tragedy that has consequences beyond these deaths. Poseidon’s head priest of his Athenian temple has been killed on his own feast day. Rape or not, no priestess of Athena can have ever been with a man, or even a god. You must leave as quickly as you can."

~Excerpt from Medusa

Pegasus

Pegasus at the spring, Apulian red-figure vase
C4th B.C., Tampa Museum of Art

Pegasus is one of the best known mythological creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing when his mother was decapitated by Perseus. Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance to Zeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus.

The winged horse Pegasos bursts forth in birth, from the decapitated neck of the Gorgon Medusa. The hero Perseus wings away with her head tucked inside his kibisis sack.
Metropolitan Museum, New York City, USA 

PERSEUS, MEDUSA & THE GORGONS

From Medusa's dead body the giant Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus, her son by Poseidon, sprang forth.  Chrysaor was often depicted as a young man

The hero Perseus flees from the scene of the decapitated Gorgon Medousa. He is depicted as a hero armed with two hunting spears, wearing winged boots, a cap, and the kibisis bag containing the head of Medousa. A second almost identical figure (with chlamys cloak) is the god Hermes. Behind the pair follows Athene with her aigis cloak outstretched. The scene shows all three Gorgones, winged maidens with a pair of serpents sprouting from their waists. The middle sister is the decapitated Medousa, from whom is born the boy Chrysaor and the winged foal Pegasus. 

Athena and the Aegis

Medusa was killed by the hero Perseus with the help of Athena and Hermes. He killed her by cutting of her head and gave it to Athena, who placed it in the center of her Aegis, which she wore over her breastplate.

The Aegis is a protective device that was originally associated with Zeus, but also, and later solely, with Athena. It is variously considered to be a bright-edged thundercloud (because when Zeus used it lightning flashed and thunder sounded) fashioned by Hephaestus, or the skin of the divine goat Amaltheia. It is represented as a sort of cloak, sometimes covered with scales and fringed with serpents, and with the head of Medusa fastened in the middle. The Aegis could also serve as a shield and in that fashion Athena wears it upon her breastplate. 

This statue of Athena from the old Parthenon, now in the Acropolis Museum, shows her snaky aegis well. 

Medusa and Poseidon

 

Poseidon on an Attic kalyx krater (detail), first half of the 5th century BC.

Poseidon desecrated the temple of Athena by seducing the young and beautiful Medusa within the sacred chambers. The goddess found this behavior so deplorable that she punished the maiden by changing her into a hideous monster. Just one look into her abhorrent face would instantly turn any observer into stone.

Poseidon moves towards the Gorgon Medousa holding a trident in his hand. The Gorgon has a crown and belt of snakes. Beside her a double Medousa lies beheaded. The winged horse Pegasos springs forth from her neck.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

 The quiet was unnatural in this temple that had so recently heard the clash of bronze, the cries of fear, and the groans of the dying. Now, silence was more alien than the blood splattered walls.

    She walked down the corridor, careful to avoid slipping in a puddle of blood too fresh to have congealed. A snaking tendril of sunshine illuminated a passage, and she paused to observe the sole occupant: A priest stood frozen, mouth open in a silent shout, arm raised and holding a sword. He would hold that pose until he was buried or burned, like so many others.

     She continued her walk, ignoring other frozen men until she reached the center sanctum. There, towering above, was the statue of Poseidon, his thrusting trident held above his head. Marble eyes flashed aquamarine for a moment, illuminating the scowling visage. Dimly, she registered the bloody, torn bodies of two priests tossed in the corner like a child's rag doll.

     Delicate fingers reached to the cowl of her robe and let it fall. Golden hair cascaded around her shoulders, framing a striking face. As her green eyes locked with Poseidon's, her hair seemed to rise, hissing and writhing, golden serpents replacing her tresses.

     "Greetings, Lord Poseidon" she whispered. "Remember me?"

~ Excerpt from Medusa

Perseus pursued by Gorgons by "The Gorgon Painter" 580 BC

The handsome bowl atop this fancy stand in the Louvre (F874) is a dinos, a punch bowl that was filled with wine mixed with water and set out to serve the guests at a banquet or dinner party and into which they could dip their wine cups. We wonder, however, whether this one was ever put to such a use, its stand being so elaborate as to suggest it was created mainly as an ostentatious showpiece. It was made in Athens about 580 BC and painted by a painter who didn't sign it but is known today as "The Gorgon Painter," after this famous vase.

Most of the vase and its stand are painted in a series of bands or "friezes" with abstract geometric designs or rows of animals in the older "Geometric" and "Corintian" styles. Only the top band or frieze is given over to story-telling involving mythic heroes and their gods. The hero here is Perseus, who, backed by Athena and Hermes, set out to behead the mortal Gorgon Medusa and bring her head back to Athena. On the vase we see Hermes and Athena standing by to protect Perseus right after he beheaded Medusa and now flees from her two immortal sister Gorgons.



Hermes and Athena abet the murder of Medusa, who falls headless, as her sister Gorgons chase after Perseus. The Louvre notes that "In place of her severed head, the painter has drawn a series of hatched strokes." I think he meant them as spurting streams of blood. Note, below the geometric palm frieze in the band below them, in the same "kneeling/running" pose as the three Gorgons, the Mistress of the Beasts between a lion and a lioness.



Medusa's two sister Gorgons chasing Perseus. Like Medusa, all three figures here wear winged ankle-boots, signs of speed as well as flight, and all four of them are drawn in the "kneeling-running" pose that prevailed in the Archaic period. Also, unlike Perseus, all three Gorgons have Archaic wings curved like scythes, and they are twisted from the waist up to face and frighten the viewer and ward off evils or whatever. 


Reposted from Ancient Worlds

Perseus and the Graiae

At the beginning of his quest for the head of Medusa, Perseus receives help from the goddess Athena, although at first he spurns her words of advice. She gives him a sword and a mirror to protect him from the Gorgon, whose glance turns men to stone. He next proceeds to the three Graiae, who collectively share a single tooth and a single eye, which Perseus snatches from them in order to gain information about where he can find the sea nymphs. 

After he discovers the cave of the nymphs, they bestow on him the winged sandals of Hermes, the helmet of invisibility and a bag in which to carry Medusa's head.

Edward Burne-Jones - Perseus and the Graiae

The Gorgon Sisters' Sisters

The Graeae were two, or some say three, ancient sea-daimones (spirits) who personified the white foam of the sea. They were grey from birth, and shared among themselves a single detatchable eye and tooth.

Perseus & Graea, Athenian red-figure krater
C5th B.C., Archaeological Museum of Delos

The graeae guarded the passage that led to where their sisters were. When Perseus was searching for Medusa, he stole their one eye and one tooth which they shared, forcing them to help him find and kill Medusa. 

Their names suggest rather dire monsters--Deino "the terrible." Enyo "the warlike" and Persis "the destoyer."

The Graiai were usually depicted as old crones. However according to Aeschylus they were Seiren-shaped monsters with the head and arms of old women and the bodies of swans.

Perseus Returning the Eye of the Graiai, Henry Fuseli.

Euryale

Euryale was the second eldest one of the Gorgons, three vicious sisters with brass hands, sharp fangs, and hair of living, venomous snakes.

Euryale's name is translated to mean "far-roaming." She was known for her bellowing cries. Her cries were projected from her due to her mourning for her sister. It is said that Athena invented the flute to try and copy the cries of Euryale.

She and her sister Stheno, were immortal, where as Medusa was mortal. In some versions of mythology, Euryale also had the ability to turn anyone to stone with her gaze. They were daughters of primordial sea god and goddess Phorcys and Ceto, who personified the dangers of the sea. In many stories, Euryale is noted for her bellowing cries, particularly in the tale of Medusa's death at Perseus' hands.

Museum of Nabeul Athena tossing away the flutes she had just invented. She did so after she realized (by seeing her image in a river) that playing them disfigured her face (from Kelibia)

Stheno

Stheno in Greek mythology, was the eldest of the Gorgons, vicious female monsters with brass hands, sharp fangs and "hair" made of living venomous snakes. Her name can be translated as “forceful” or “mighty.” She and her sister Euryale were both immortal, and the third sister, Medusa, was mortal until she was immortalized in her hideousness by Athena.

Of the three Gorgons, she was known to be the most independent and ferocious, having killed more men than both of her sisters combined. In Greek mythology, she was transformed into a Gorgon because of standing with her sister Medusa, who was raped by the sea god Poseidon in the Temple of Athena.

Athena wears the ancient form of the Gorgon head on her aegis, as the huge serpent who guards the golden fleece regurgitates Jason; cup by Douris, Classical Greece, early fifth century BC – Vatican Museum

The Gorgons Stheno Medusa and Eryale

Before gargoyles protected the buildings of Europe, the fearsome Gorgons served a similar purpose. The Gorgons were monsters, whose faces turned those who saw them to stone. They protected Greek buildings, as carvings or mosaics, and in smaller versions, they served as protective amulets.

The three Gorgons, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, were sisters, but only two were immortal. Medusa could be killed, and was, by the hero Perseus, a son of the great god Zeus. 

All three terrible sisters had brass hands, fangs, golden wings, and sometimes serpent skin or even serpent bodies. Their hair was all snakes, or else snakes twined and hissed among their hair. Their glare, of course, was deadly.

They were born in the caverns beneath Mount Olympus (except Medusa perhaps). Their father was Phorcys, a primordial merman-seagod. Their mother was Ceto, a sea monster after whom the Cetaceans, the whales and their kin, are named. Both parents were the children of Gaia, the earth, and Pontus, the encircling sea.

A Gorgon head on the outside of each of the Vix-krater's three handles, from the grave of the Celtic Lady of Vix, 510 BC

MEDUSA

Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors."

Poseidon, the Lord of the Sea and brother to Zeus, laid eyes on the beautiful Medusa and immediately wanted to possess her.

However, Medusa was a chaste woman and wanted nothing to do with Poseidon and took refuge in the temple of Athena, hoping that the virgin goddess would protect her.

Aspecta Medusa: 1867 Dante Gabriel Rossett

My Addiction Interview

Interview - S.D. Hines – Author of the Heroines of Classical Greece - Medusa

I am always left in awe when I get the opportunity to literally connect with people on the other side of the world. The fast click ability always leaves me fascinated as I recall my initial exposure to a computer just over 15 years ago. PC’s just started coming into fashion at that stage and going on the internet was still a big -- Wow. Now here I am today, willing and able to chat to pretty much anyone I set my sites on.

            It is a great honour for me to introduce and interview S.D. Hines ( from Alaska) the newly published author of the series  -- Heroines of Classical Greece, a series I am sure many readers will grab with much interest.  

Scot thanks so much for granting M.A this interview.

As a start would you mind giving readers a bit more insight on yourself? What is it that made you decide to write?

Like most of your readers, I’m a committed bibliophile. Growing up, I was the classic nerd who would sneak a flashlight and read under the covers at night. Even now I have a couple or three novels going at any one time. When I was eventually forced to grow up, I settled into a medical career and did a great deal of teaching, often tying in my field (neurologic disease) to the humanities. I commonly used examples of medical illness that were prominent in many famous paintings and novels to make a clinical point. One of my favourite topics was mythology.

I had written off and on through the years, but nothing too serious. One day, while contemplating how unfair many of the old myths were to innocent mortals, I thought “why somebody doesn’t tell the story from their standpoint of view?” Then I realized… that someone could be me.

Your first novel revolves around Medusa. In your intro you gave an intriguing piece on what led you to write the story. Could you share that with our readers?

Medusa was a pious priestess who was cursed for resisting Poseidon when he raped her in Athena’s temple. When I first read this I was mortified. How fair was that? In almost all modern media such as movies and books, Medusa is cast as an evil monster. That paradox got me thinking about how the mortal women prominent in mythology were either monsters, victimized/helpless/inept, or just plain wicked. Think of Medea (killed her kids from jealousy), Pandora (let the evils of the world into the world…similar to Eve), the Amazons (brave but always lost to men: Hercules killed a dozen, one right after the other), and of course, Medusa.

But in our daily lives, the real heroes that shape our lives are often women who persevere despite impediments put in their way by virtue of having an extra “X” chromosome. Even in the 21^st century, women have a tough time getting a fair shake. My own wife is a neurologic surgeon and despite her skills and compassion, she must work harder and better than her male counterparts for acceptance. If things are slow to change even now, imagine what it was like 3,000 years ago. What did Medusa have to endure? Ariadne?

What makes your story different from the historical facts that are known to us today?

I would argue that my story is likely to be closer to fact than the current tales that evolved through the centuries. My belief is that there were once real events that shook the ancient world and were passed down verbally to later became our myths. My stories rely more on proven science and history rather than the mystical to explain the origin of these tales. Some myths say that Poseidon destroyed Atlantis. I say that it was a shifting of tectonic plates. Was a giant an twisted creature descended from unholy deities, or was he an acromegalic shaped by an excess of growth hormone? Was the bull of Marathon a monster, or rather an ice age remnant, a prehistoric auroch? I am a firm believer that science is far more magical than shrugging off something unexplained as being the work of the gods.

In my stories, the gods are present, but they are shadowy figures with peripheral roles. The true heroes are the men and women of the stories.  Just like today.

Why focus on Classical Greek heroines?

At the risk of sounding parochial, I would argue that like it or not, and for better or worse, Western culture has permeated our world, particularly the media (print and all others). Ancient Greece shapes our politics, our science, our philosophy, or religion, our ____ (fill in the blank).

So Greek Mythology is a universal theme. It is a clear "winner" in terms of a genre with potential interest to all, if done right. Why pick the heroines instead of the heroes of Ancient Greece? Quite frankly, the heroines were more complex, more intelligent, and more...heroic.

I was fortunate enough to meet Ken Atchity (storymerchant.com and others), author of THE MESSIAH MATRIX, who patiently shepherded me through the bewildering world of publication. I later found out that in addition to his impressive literary credits, Dr. Atchity is a Fulbright Scholar and a recognized expert in classic literature.

Why is it that Medusa’s story – which according to your research was initially sympathetic towards her situation - changed at a later stage to the extent of her being condemned?

Scholars find that the most ancient version of Medusa's tale suggest that after having been horribly savaged and cursed by Poseidon, she was a sympathetic figure. There were even some shrines to Medusa, and I shudder to imagine the circumstances that would drive some to seek these sites of worship. But over time as Greece prospered, Medusa took on a role as a monster who somehow deserved the curse. Some theorize that with a more sophisticated culture and more economic opportunities, women had potential of a role other that of child-bearing and child-rearing. To stave off competition, her role changed to give a moral lesson as to the inferiority of women. As I mentioned, within this same time period almost every mortal female figure in mythology had weak morals, was evil, or failed attempting to imitate the glory of her male counterparts.

Your second novel in the series is now available on Amazon. From having released the first to now launching the second how have readers responded? 

ARIADNE: A Tale of the Minotaur was actually launched first, even though it was the second penned (the order of the series doesn't matter). It was shorter, and was a fast moving, exciting tale that we thought it would be a better one to get out initially. It had a potential appeal to a YA (young adult) audience as well, since it essentially is the ancient version of The Hunger Games. The book is doing very well. It has even more of modern science within, in an easily understandable way. As one reviewer said, it has more twists and turns than the Labyrinth. But when you read it...beware. All your preconceived notions of the story of Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur will be shattered.

How have critics responded towards your take on history?

So far it's been positive, but I don't doubt that I'll get some objections from some that prefer the original stories dating from thousands of years ago. But my history matches up quite accurately, and I try to take as little poetic licence as possible. Let's just say that if my stories aren't accurate portrayals of what actually happened, they should have been ;) Gregory Maguire did something similar when he took the classic tale of Baum’s THE WIZARD OF OZ and fleshed out WICKED from its literary bones. Although I try and include as much proven research in the books as possible, when you come down to it, the genre of "Mythic Fiction" is essentially "Fiction".

How many novels will you aim to cover in this series?

That’s an excellent question. Two down and one in progress (ARACHNE). So long as I have readers that love the stories, I have plenty of material available that will keep me writing. HELEN and CIRCE come to mind as future endeavours, among others. I'm open to suggestions!

Will you ultimately take this series to film or are you happy to just focus on being published?

I’d guess that the number of writers who wouldn’t love the idea of their work ending up on the big screen or stage falls somewhere between one and zero. But I’m just happy to have works out in print, and am not holding my breath. One of the classic Sci-Fi tales, Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME, is due to come out on film this fall. It was written in 1985. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) was based on a Tim Powers novel written in 1987. Computers and CGI technology make movies possible today that couldn't have been created in the past, but the books that make it to film quickly like “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” are the exception.

Since first being published up to now, how has having your work out there changed your life?

The books haven’t been out too long, but already I feel more vitalized as a published author. When I first started writing, I wrote mainly for myself and my daughter. I felt there were stories that just needed telling. But with the interest and positive feedback I am getting, I must admit that I feel more motivated to find time to write more. I love the life I have and don't want to change it, but writing opens up a whole new realm of creativity in my life.

From what I understand you work in the medical field where you provide healthcare to Alaskan natives. In this type of industry where and when do you find time to focus on writing?

I not only find writing and my medical practice compatible, but complementary as well. When my patients are reading when I enter the exam room (let’s face it...with a potential wait most bring books) I always ask them about the book and take some time to discuss literature. I often incorporate medicine into my writing. Sure I am busy, but I can always find time to type out a page or two before bed or work while I’m flying off to far northern places like Barrow, Alaska. There is a rich history of physicians who are also authors. The list is long, but includes such notables as Anton Chekhov, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Michael Crichton, and Christiaan Barnard.

Are there any other novels on the horizon?

Sure. ARACHNE is in progress. Like most of my works, I compose them in my mind first while jogging, hiking, etc. and then later write them down. But I need to be more attentive while running in Alaska: last year a friend and I almost ran into an aggressive grizzly bear while out on a road near my home (thank you, whoever was in that blue SUV and opened up his back door so we could dive inside to safety). I also have a YA Fantasy and a Sci-Fi book shelved for now that might eventually see the light of day with some polishing. But for now the Heroines of Classical Greece series takes priority.

Where can fans connect with you and your work?

Facebook page; Amazon Medusa ; Amazon Ariadne

It not only highlights the series of books, but has information regarding that time of Classical Greece. There is art, history, archaeology, and the culture of the Greeks, as well as mythologic tidbits and posts about the science and history relevant to the series. It’s interesting and a lot of fun, but I can’t take credit for the bulk of it (Thanks Chi-Li Wong).

Scot it’s been an enormous pleasure to pick your brain. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We look forward to brushing our fingers across your wonderful adventures. 

Reposted from Nadine Maritz