The myth:
To understand the exciting and enigmatic story that surrounds our protagonist, you must first have an understanding of what a myth is: “ Fabulous story of oral tradition that explains, through narration, the actions of beings that symbolically embody forces of nature, aspects of the human condition, etc.; It is especially applied to that which narrates the actions of the gods or heroes of Antiquity.” (DLE). Myths existed with great popularity in Greco-Roman culture because scientific reasoning and technological advances were not typical of the time. Consequently, mythological thought was the only way that man had to explain natural phenomena and the understanding of the world in itself; Another substantial point is the fact that the myths lived within the very heart of orality, causing them to have more than one version without actually presenting an official version of the events that occurred. The latter is precisely something that has not been left out in relation to the figure of Medusa and its various references.
There are versions - the most popular and popular - where it is stated without further elaboration that Medusa was the most terrible of the gorgons; whose initial appearance was that of a beautiful maiden; Being endowed with an unparalleled attractiveness, she catches the attention of Poseidon who, unable to resist his instincts, abuses her in the temple of the goddess Athena, who upon learning of that event punishes Medusa by transforming her into her famous monster form. The rest of the story tells how this creature was beheaded at the hands of Perseus, ending with him giving the head of Medusa to Athena.
However, this way of referring to the myth of Medusa leads to judgments - in my opinion - that are unfair and rooted in hatred, interpretations that I will address in the section Unfinished Interpretations.
The mythological version on which I will focus my appreciation, later developed in the section Analysis: suppressing and overthrowing dehumanization , is based on the words of Ovid (The Metamorphoses), Pindar (Odes of Pindar) and part of the myth of Perseus.
Medusa, daughter of Ceto (terrible aquatic monster, also called Cetus or Whale) and Phorcis, (primordial sea god, a kind of marine titan) progenitors of aquatic and serpentine grotesqueries; Within this blood legacy, there are the gorgons, who were said to be ruthless female abominations as well as a protective deity from the oldest religious concepts. Stheno, Euryale and Medusa were the three gorgon sisters, described as having living hair full of snakes, snake skin, sharp boar teeth, possessing a terrible petrifying gaze and immortal. However, Medusa was special: she was beautiful, human in appearance and, despite being mortal, she was the gorgon par excellence.
It is said then that Medusa, in her first “stage”, owner of beauty and enviable hair, was a priestess of the Athena temple. In those times, times of enmity between Poseidon and Athena - since Athena had been chosen as the protective goddess of Athens, a polis that still did not have a name until before competing for said designation - some report that the god was dominated by his vengeful passions and set his eyes on the most beautiful and prominent priestess of the temple: Medusa. Poseidon takes the young woman by force, staining and stupefying the values that Athena transmitted: wisdom, noble strength, purity and chastity . Faced with this situation, Athena, angry, indignant and offended by the desecration of her temple, punishes Medusa by materializing her true being: a gorgon, as horrible as her sisters; It is also said that it was Aphrodite herself, overcome with envy, who told Athena to transform Medusa's beautiful mane into snakes.
There are some versions that indicate that Athena, upon hearing the news of Medusa's pregnancy, asks Perseus to take her life; but, namely, Perseus has a separate story, which is united with that of Medusa. This, for his part, was thrown into the terrible seas while he was still in the womb of his mother Danae, both locked in a box with the purpose of meeting death - an act ordered by Acrisius, king of Argos and father of Danae.
Thanks to the protection of Zeus - father of Perseus - the box arrives safely to the island of Serifos. There they are rescued by Dictis, former king of the island, dethroned by his brother Polydectes, current king of the island. Polydectes welcomed Danae and Perseus to his court. He had fallen in love with the princess and asked her to marry him, but she rejected his proposal more than once.
Years passed and Perseus became an extraordinary and strong warrior. So much so that, although Polydectes continued to desire to possess Danae, he was incredibly afraid of his son. That's why he hatched a plan to separate him from her. He announced a false engagement to the princess of a neighboring kingdom and that he needed an exotic gift for her that would make him look rich in the eyes of others.
Polydectes sent the demigod after the head of Medusa, famous for turning anyone who looked at her into stone. He thought that Perseus would end up turned into stone, but what Polydectes did not know was that he was carrying out an order for the son of Zeus himself.
Perseus was guided by Athena and Hermes to the Grayas, ancient deities who shared a single eye and a single tooth among the three. Perseus took their eye and forced them to tell him where the nymphs were. From these, he obtained a magical pouch to store Medusa's head. He also got the winged sandals from Hermes, and from Hades the steel sickle and the helmet that had the property of turning anyone who used it invisible. The goddess Athena gave him her shield, which reflected light like a mirror.
Years after having rescued and married Andromeda and had a child with her, the couple traveled to Serifos, arriving in time to rescue Danae and Dictys from the hands of Polydectes who wanted to slit their throats, while they were taking refuge in a sanctuary. Polydectes did not want to believe that Perseus had returned with Medusa's head and treated the hero with contempt. Perseus showed him the head of the creature and Polydectes turned into a cold stone.
After this last heroic act, Perseus gives the head of Medusa to the goddess Athena and she fixes the head on her shield for life.
Another fact worth commenting on is that when Perseus killed Medusa, her blood was reserved for the gods; From his left vein his blood was the most powerful poison, and from his right vein the gift of healing and even reviving the dead was obtained; From her severed neck, her two sons were born: Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor, the warrior with the golden sword, while maintaining the power to continue petrifying despite being dead.
Unfinished interpretations :
Nowadays there are many internet pages and also evaluative judgments that remain interpretations based on superfluous ideas: accusations abound that Poseidon is a mere rapist without receiving any punishment, an example of the perpetual impunity of the aggressor. Athena is seen only as the jealous woman who punishes another woman without being empathetic towards the female gender. Perseus is yet another man who is immortalized as a hero when he is only the murderer of a victim. And Medusa is illustrated as the woman to whom society turns its back: she is the single mother, she is the one accused of provoking man to commit sin, she is the one unjustly murdered, and she is the monster without wanting to be one.
I'm not saying that this propagated thought is wrong, but I don't think it's exactly correct either. This reflection is more of the same: marking the good side from the bad. Encourage hatred for some and absolute mercy for others.
My vision is the following: all the myths coming from Greco-Roman culture are governed by a universal law, by an unbreakable spinal cord, that which was so fearsome and respected by the Greeks and Romans, and that was destiny, if not inexorable, fate or, better yet, still: fatum.
An imperceptible detail, but one that rounds off this myth in justice itself.
Analysis: suppressing and overthrowing dehumanization:
The oracle had already predicted it and the fatum had already been written: Medusa was going to die.
Let's put the pieces together, if Poseidon had not committed his crime, Athena would not have been angry, and without her anger, our beloved Medusa would not have existed with her royal formality, a true gorgon.
Whenever we are faced with a myth, something in particular will want to be explained to us, and whenever there is fatality, it will be to give us a critical teaching, a teaching that hurts and is suffered or felt.
It is true, Poseidon committed rape without any consequences.
It is indisputable, Athena unleashed all her fury on Medusa, leaving her as the culprit of everything. But let's remember that the Greek gods were passionate gods.
It is impossible to question Medusa's pain after being transformed into a monstrosity, as well as impossible not to believe that within her she harbored the darkest hatred as a result of injustice. But isn't it fair to think that only death itself could free her from the pain she suffered? Is it perhaps wrong to believe that perhaps Athena in the deepest part of her being did not have, even a hint - not externalized - of remorse for the punishment imposed? Wouldn't it be coherent to think that Poseidon's act was to provoke indignation and, when others replicated it again, they would be accused and pointed the finger? Isn't it perhaps the most selfless thing to do to sacrifice your own suffering life to save another one that is about to be in danger? Because let us remember that Danae was rescued thanks to the head of Medusa, a woman saved by another woman.
A curious detail happens: Athena fixes Medusa's head for eternity on her shield. Medusa is powerful, but she is only so thanks to her gorgon form. Athena carries her head so as not to forget Medusa, to never forget the strength and fear that a woman can impose.
I prefer not to interpret Medusa's head as a mere trophy to show off to others. Medusa on Athena's shield is the ultimate protection. Medusa's immolation ended her own suffering, saving not only Danae's life but also the lives of other innocents when Perseus used her in other endeavors for good. Athena gave him immortality through her influence as a goddess, because others began to make representations of Medusa to carry her as a protective shield.
Medusa is freedom and power in a feminine emblem. If the fatality in his life had not existed, none of his story would have happened. It was necessary for the story to be like this, for its seed trapped in pain to sprout: children and perennial recognition of its power and image.
Symbolism:
- The woman from the sea: the woman is always seen as a mysterious being, nothing more can be compared to us than the sublimity of the depth of the sea. The ineffable melancholy of the waves is what is in our own female souls. Those waves that come to be chaos, and why not, the representation of the amniotic fluid that preserves life.
- Her name: Medusa, from the Greek: Μέδουσα, means guardian and protector. Already in its very name was its destiny to symbolize protection at the moment when Athena fixed it on her shield.
- The snake: maximum symbol of wisdom, the winged serpent, the Ouroboros, the kundalini, the caduceus of Hermes Trismegistus. The snake is wealth, prudence, strength, health, convalescence, longevity, rejuvenation and immortality.
- Flashing Eyes: Medusa's eyes petrified anything that entered them. It stopped every enemy attack, causing its stagnation and impossibility of evolution. It is the eye of Horus, the Turkish eye, the pineal gland.
- His blood: Duality springs from his blood: poison and the cure for death. It is the balance of everything. The feminine and masculine; ying and yang. Day and night: the alchemical Rebis.
- The three gorgons: Medusa was not alone, together with her sisters they became the perfect triad. Medusa is the triangle, the number 3: perfection.
- His children: Pegasus, the winged horse, magnificent for flying through the air, is freedom, the indomitable. The non-human. And Chrysaor, the warrior with the golden sword, the sacrifice of life for the fight.
From psychoanalysis:
For Sigmund Freud, Medusa was the fear of castration. It was the moment when the son became aware of his mother's sexuality and this terrified him. From this point of view, the head of Medusa was the suppressed male organ, or rather: the female sexual organ.
In conclusion, Medusa is one of the great mythological women in history, comparable to Lilith or the goddess Kali. The absolute power within the feminine.
Author
Melanie F. Oróstica Donoso
