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Earliest depicition of Medusa using her beauty as a symbol of feminine sexuality.

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[270] And again, Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean [275] in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired Onein a soft meadow amid spring flowers. [280] And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springsof Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden bladein his hands. Now Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, [285] and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew [290] in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy , and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean. [300] And in a hollow cave she bore another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, [305] a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.

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[270] And again, Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean [275] in the frontier land towards Ni…

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Ovid. "Metamorphoses." The Medusa Reader, translated by Rolfe Humphries, edited by Marjorie Garber and Nancy J. Vickers, Routledge, 2003, pp. 30-39.
- The paiting was heavily influenced by Ovid's version of Medusa's origin

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Alice Pike Barney, Medusa (Laura Dreyfus Barney), 1892, pastel on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney, 1951.14.64

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This site mainly talks about Perseus' quest rather than Medusa herself. It mentions little about Medusa's origin and more about Perseus.

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Medusa is a figure from Greek mythology, the only mortal of the three Gorgons, along with her immortal sisters, Stheno and Euryale. The three Gorgons were born to the sea god of the dangers of the hidden deep, Phorcys, and the goddess of sea monsters and the dangers of the sea, Ceto.

According to Hesiod in his , Medusa and her sisters were the sisters of the Graeae and lived "beyond framed Oceanus at the world's hard edge by Night, where the clear-voiced Hesperides are" ( Theogony, 270). The three sisters are often mentioned together, but it is Medusa who is commonly depicted in both ancient Greek literature and art. The name Gorgon comes from the ancient Greek word γοργός, meaning "grim," "fierce," and "terrible," and Medusa's name derives from the ancient Greek verb μέδω meaning "to guard" or "to protect," which is very fitting given the apotropaic quality of the face of the Gorgon, known as the Gorgoneion.

Medusa is best known from the story of her death, brought upon her by the hero Perseus who decapitated her with the help of the gods Hermes and Athena. The earliest version of Medusa's death is from Hesiod's Theogony, which details her decapitation and describes her children Pegasus, the winged horse, and the great Chrysaor, who sprung from her neck. Mentions of the head of the Gorgon in Homer's and , which were originally part of the Greek oral tradition before being committed to writing sometime in the 8th century BCE, hint at a long history of the story of the complex character of the Gorgon Medusa.

Perseus & Medusa

Earlier poets depicted Medusa as a monster from birth, but later writers say she was turned into a monster by Athena or Minerva.

Over time, Medusa's tale changed between the myriad ancient writers and poets who wrote about her story. She is best known for her hair of snakes and her ability to turn people to stone with a single look. The 8th-century BCE poet Hesiod describes how Poseidon had sex with Medusa in a soft spring meadow, and Ovid (43 BCE to 17 CE), the Roman poet some 700 years later, relates how Medusa was violated in a shrine to Minerva (the Roman equivalent of Athena) by Neptune (the Roman equivalent of Poseidon), and how, in retaliation for desecrating her shrine, Minerva turned Medusa's lovely hair into snakes. Generally speaking, earlier poets depicted Medusa as a monster from birth, alongside her immortal sisters, but later writers say she began as a beautiful maiden but was turned into a monster by Athena or Minerva.

Medusa is best known for her death at the hands of Perseus, and Pseudo-Apollodorus relates the story in the greatest detail. According to him, Perseus was the son of Zeus, who took the form of a shower of gold), and Danaë, who had been locked up by her father Acrisius after he was told by an oracle that he would be killed by Danaë's son. When Acrisius learned that Perseus had been born and was the son of the king of the gods, he put both Danaë and her son Perseus into a chest and hurled it into the sea. The chest eventually came ashore at the island of Seriphos, and Perseus was raised by Dictys, the brother of Polydectes, the king of Seriphos. Polydectes fell in love with Danaë, but Perseus was quite protective of his mother, and so the king made a plan to trick Perseus. He gathered his people to a banquet under the ruse of collecting contributions for the marriage of Hippodamia, who tamed horses. When Perseus arrived without horses for a gift as was requested by Polydectes, Polydectes instead asked Perseus to retrieve for him the head of Medusa, the only mortal Gorgon, in the hopes that he would not succeed.

Perseus was guided by the god Hermes and the goddess Athena on his journey. It is said that Athena helped in the killing of Medusa because the girl had been willing to have her beauty compared to Athena. By some nymphs, the hero was given winged sandals, a sack known as a kibisis to store the head of the Gorgon, and the invisibility cap of Hades. Additionally, Hermes had given him an adamantine sickle. Perseus arrived at the home of the Gorgons while they slept. As he stood over the sleeping creatures, Athena guided Perseus' hand while he looked into the reflection of a bronze shield so as not to be turned to stone by the gaze of the Gorgons if they awoke, and he cut off the head of Medusa with the sickle. From her severed head sprang Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor. Perseus placed the head of Medusa in his kibisis, but as he was leaving, the remaining two Gorgons woke up and tried to pursue him, but since he was wearing the invisible cap, they could not see him.

Medusa's Head

After slaying Medusa, Perseus uses her head multiple times. Some versions of the tale of Ariadne, Theseus, and Dionysus say that Ariadne was killed by Artemis, and others say that she was accidentally turned to stone by Perseus after Dionysus made war on Perseus. Another use of Medusa's head was to save Andromeda, who had been tied to a rock as an offering to the sea monster Ketos. Her mother had claimed she was more beautiful than the Nereids, who flew into a rage upon hearing this and had Poseidon, the god of the sea, on their side. The only way to stop the sea god's floods and the sea monster was to give up Andromeda. Perseus fell in love with her the moment he saw her; he slew the sea monster and set her free. The only issue was that Andromeda was already engaged to be married to her uncle Phineus. Perseus made short work of Phineus by turning him to stone with the head of Medusa. When Perseus returned to the Island of Seriphos, he turned Polydectes and his people to stone with the Gorgon's head and made Dictys the king. Then he gave the head of Medusa to Athena, who placed it in the centre of her shield, known as the aegis, to terrify her enemies.

The Transformation of Medusa in Literature & Art

There was no uniform description of Medusa and her fellow Gorgons, and her characteristics transformed across writers and regions. Hesiod, in his Theogony, does not mention any physical features of the Gorgons, but Homer, in his Odyssey, mentions "the monsters head, the Gorgon" (11.636), and in the Iliad, he describes the Gorgoneion on Athena's aegis as "the head of the grim gigantic Gorgon, a thing of fear and horror" (5.741-742). Aeschylus, the 6th/5th century BCE tragedian, describes the women in his Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound as the "three winged sisters, loathed enemies of humankind, the snake-haired Gorgons, whom no man can see and live" (798-799). Then there is Pindar, who, in his Twelfth Pythian Ode, mentions the "fierce Gorgon's deathly dirge," the "snaky heads of the maidens" and the head of the "beautiful-cheeked Medusa" (12.7-16). Pindar also tells us of Athena's invention of the aulos in order to recreate "with instruments the echoing wail that was forced from the gnashing jaws of Euryale" (12.20-21) as Medusa's immortal sisters pursued her killer.

Later in the Roman period, we have the Greek writer Pseudo-Apollodorus, who described them with "heads with scaly serpents coiled around them, and large tusks like those of swine, and hands of bronze, and wings of gold which gave them the power of flight; and they turned all who beheld them to stone" (11.4). According to Ovid in his Metamorphoses, which is the main source for the beautiful-maiden-turned-monster narrative, it was only Medusa of the three Gorgons who had snakes for hair. He tells the story of how Medusa, who had an enviable head of hair, was pursued by many suitors until she was raped by Neptune inside a shrine to Minerva, after which the goddess punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into snakes. As Perseus moved towards the home of the Gorgons, he passed many statues - men and beasts turned to stone by Medusa - before he cut off her head while she slept.

As Medusa was described differently in literature, from a hideous beast to a beautiful maiden, so she was depicted differently in ancient Greek art. The head or face of Medusa was a common feature of Greek pottery, art, and architecture, and is known as a Gorgoneion. What was so unique about her depiction is that more often than not she was depicted facing front. This is quite uncommon compared to most other ancient Greek art, where faces were depicted in profile. In the Archaic Period, from the 8th to the early 5th centuries BCE, the Gorgoneion could be found on temple pediments and antefixes, in statues, and in pottery. She was depicted with a large round face, a beard, fangs or tusks, wings, and often with an open mouth and stretched tongue.

Medusa continued to be depicted on vessels and pottery, and even on shields and breastplates, facing front with wild hair, but her features became more feminine and human-like over time. Medusa can be found all over ancient Greek, Hellenistic and Roman art, and as she became more human-like primarily on ancient Greek pottery, she often still retained the wings, especially if her whole body was depicted. The image of Medusa's face and, in particular, her death became not only a popular image but also the Gorgoneion became an apotropaic device, meaning that the image was believed to be able to ward off evil.

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Medusa is a figure from Greek mythology, the only mortal of the three Gorgons, along with her immortal sisters, Stheno and Euryale. The three Gorgons were born to the sea god of the dangers of the hidden...

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Artist is unknown but it was first thought to be made by Leonardo da Vinci so people assocciate it with him.

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painting by Leonardo da Vinci (Museum: Uffizi). Medusa is an artwork on USEUM. It was created by Leonardo da Vinci in 1600. Log in to USEUM to download unlimited free images, send e-cards and interact with thousands of famous paintings, drawings and illustrations.

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Redeeming the Medusa: An Archetypal Examination of Ted Hughes’ the Iron Woman

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Redeeming the Medusa: An Archetypal Examination of Ted Hughes’ the Iron Woman

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El Nouhy, Eman. “Redeeming the Medusa: An Archetypal Examination of Ted Hughes’ the Iron Woman.” Children's Literature in Education : An International Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 2019, pp. 347–363., doi:10.1007/s10583-017-9327-5.

This article talks about how the image of Medusa is redeemed through Ted Hughes' work but is not about what Medusa symbolizes to women.

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Stephen R. Wilk. Medusa : Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon. Oxford University Press, 1999. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.nvcproxy.alamo.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=41702&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

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Though it does mention Medusa's relation to women, it is about myths and how their power have been used to repress women.

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In the original story, the Medusa was a beautiful woman who held a very positive role. Tragedy fell upon her when she was confronted with endless hardships brought upon by male actions. Medusa was a beautiful woman who was raped, killed and beheaded by various gods. However even in the face of tragedy and disgrace, the Medusa was portrayed as meaningful. Following the moment her head was removed, a Pegasus flew out of her body, representing the birth of beauty.

Just as the Medusa was powerless to fight against the repressive actions forced upon her, so too was she powerless against the continual metamorphosing of the myth which resulted in the more popular Medusa myth commonly known today. In this popular version the Medusa is a monster with hair of a thousand snakes. She is under a curse which causes everything she looks at to turn to stone. Cixous explains that this monstrous image of the Medusa exists only because it has been directly determined by the male gaze. Once Cixous establishes that the myth of the Medusa is nothing more than a facade, she begins to question if the Medusa does in fact have the ability to turn things into stone or if her fearful imagery comes merely from our perception of her, a perception that has manifested itself from male warnings.

The metamorphosis of Medusa into a monster is similar to the change women underwent, going from sexually whole to sexually incomplete. Both transformations occurred as the result of a myth, a myth introduced by men and believed by women. In "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," Koedt explains that men have created a myth which causes women to feel inadequate and incomplete. These feelings of inadequacy result from their inability to achieve a vaginal orgasm. Koedt and Cixous each express the belief that the power of a myth lies in the degree to which the myth is believed. In actuality, men do not have the power to repress women. Instead, it is women who give men this power by believing their repressive attempts. If women stop believing in these myths, they will as a result dismantle the myths, voiding them of all credibility and power.

If women can move past their fears and change their perception of both the Medusa and the vaginal orgasm, they will subsequently remove the fearful power of these myths. The power of these myths comes from the very act of believing their validity- if women did not fear the myths, there would be nothing to fear. Once the idea has been raised that the Medusa is not a horrid monster, Cixous presents the challenge to women to explore the myth further, casting aside male warnings. If women would simply open up to one another, thereby shedding light upon the abyss, the fallacy of the myths would be exposed. Upon the realization that the myths are nothing more than a facade, women endow themselves with personal power. Cixous explains that if women do this, if they dare to "look at the Medusa straight on," female explorations will result in the discovery that the Medusa "is not deadly, she's beautiful and she's laughing."

Back to "Medusa's Orgasm" Main Page

Back to Helene Cixous' Research Page

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In the original story, the Medusa was a beautiful woman who held a very positive role. Tragedy fell upon her when she was confronted with endless hardships brought upon by male actions. Medusa was a beautiful woman who was raped, killed and beheaded by various gods.

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The Ferocious and the Erotic: "Beautiful" Medusa and the Neolithic Bird and Snake

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The Ferocious and the Erotic: "Beautiful" Medusa and the Neolithic Bird and Snake

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This is a cross analysis of Medusa and her representation in other cultures. It does nit talk about her sybolism to women.

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"The Gorgon’s face is not limited to divine armor, however, but also decorated the martial accoutrements of Greek soldiers, such as helmets, shields, and greaves (41.162.74; 1991.171.45). The presence of Medusa on armor reinforces the idea that her presence held significant power to protect the wearer against enemies" (Glennon).

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Medusa is an instantly recognizable figure from ancient Greek art. Her face, whether fierce and grotesque or feminine and composed, appears in virtually all media in varying contexts. The most common interpretation of Medusa suggests she is an apotropaic symbol used to protect from and ward off the negative, much like the modern evil eye. She represents a dangerous threat meant to deter other dangerous threats, an image of evil to repel evil. A close look at her role in Greek mythology and art reveals a nuanced and complex character with multiple iterations and implications.

Medusa is best known for having hair made of snakes and for her ability to turn anyone she looked at to stone, literally to petrify. Multiple works by ancient sources, such as Homer, the eighth-century B.C. poet Hesiod, and the fifth-century B.C. lyric poet Pindar, provide a wide-ranging and diverse picture of the fabled creature. According to Hesiod's , she was one of three Gorgon sisters born to Keto and Phorkys, primordial sea gods; Medusa was mortal, while the others, Stheno and Euryale, were immortal. The best known myth recounts her fateful encounter with the Greek hero Perseus. A dishonorable king demanded that he bring him an impossible gift: the head of Medusa. Perseus set out with the aid of the gods, who provided him with divine tools. While the Gorgons slept, the hero attacked, using Athena's polished shield to view the reflection of Medusa's awful face and avoid her petrifying gaze while he beheaded her with a , an adamantine sword. Such a violent act resulted in the birth of Medusa's children, the winged horse Pegasos and the giant Chrysaor, who sprung from her neck. The two immortal sisters pursued Perseus with fury, but the hero escaped with his prize using Hermes' winged boots and Hades' helmet of invisibility. Not even death, however, could quell Medusa's power, and Perseus had to keep her decapitated head in a special sack strong enough to contain it, called a . On his travels, he used the head to turn his enemies to stone and rescue the princess Andromeda from a sea monster ( ), before giving it to Athena for her aegis ( ).

Pindar's Twelfth Pythian Ode recounts how Stheno and Euryale's angry pursuit of their sister's killer resulted in another chapter of the Medusa myth. After hearing their anguished and furious cries, Athena was inspired to invent the flute to mimic them. When the goddess played the flute, however, she discarded it after seeing her reflection; her face distended and became ugly as she played ( ). While she purposefully and successfully mimicked the wails of the Gorgons, she also unwittingly imitated their wide and dreadful features. The snake-haired Medusa does not become widespread until the first century B.C. The Roman author Ovid describes the mortal Medusa as a beautiful maiden seduced by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. Such a sacrilege attracted the goddess' wrath, and she punished Medusa by turning her hair to snakes.

While these stories sound fantastical today, to the ancient Greeks they were quasi-historical. Myths, as well as the stories recorded by Homer and Hesiod, were considered part of a lost heroic past when men and women interacted with heroes, gods, and the supernatural. Tales from this period were repeated in every medium; the evidence from Greece presents a world saturated with heroes and monsters in poetry, prose, and art. As such, Medusa was not just a fantastical beast, but part of a shared past and present in the minds of ancient viewers. She signified a historical menace-the story of Perseus vanquishing and harnessing her energy was not just a story, but a chapter in the shared allegorical and historical record of the Greeks.

Just as Medusa exists in multiple types of stories in the mythological record, she is also portrayed in multiple ways in ancient art. Her appearance changes drastically through the centuries, but she is always recognizable due to her striking frontality. It is rare in Greek art for a figure to face directly out, but in almost all representations of Medusa, despite style and medium, she stares ahead and uncompromisingly confronts the viewer.

The term refers to the head and face of Medusa, which was used often as a decorative motif. It is a prolific symbol of her particular power that appears in ) in gorgoneion architecture, vase painting, and metalwork. The gorgoneion was a pervasive image in temple decoration of the Archaic period (ca. 700-480 B.C.). Perhaps the largest example comes from Temple C (built ca. 540 B.C.) at Selinunte in southwestern Sicily-two monumental gorgoneia, one on the east and one on the west, dominated the pediments of the temple. Medusa's visage was also used to decorate smaller architectural elements. In Sicily, southern Italy, and mainland Greece, temples were decorated with numerous antefixes (ornamental terracotta roof tile covers) that bore gorgoneia ( ), a phenomenon especially prevalent during the Archaic period. During this time, Medusa is depicted as a monster; she has a round face, wide eyes, a beard, and a gaping mouth with an extended tongue and gnashing, sharp teeth ( ). Medusa remains a popular image on later architectural components, but her form is more specifically human and female. She loses the frightful teeth and beard, but is still recognizable ( Classical and Hellenistic examples with her wild hair and confrontational look ( ).

Greek vases, cups, and related terracotta objects sometimes included a decorative gorgoneion as well. In some cases it was painted at the bottom of a drinking vessel ( ) and served to surprise the drinker as he emptied his cup. Pieces from the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. are decorated with monstrous gorgoneia that can take up the entire surface ( ), similar to those on contemporary antefixes. The circular shape of many of these ceramics offers a particularly appropriate space to depict the rotund face of the . Just as in 06.1021.246a,b Archaic Gorgon; it is outrageous, with oversized features that combine the feminine (curled hair and earrings) with the masculine (beard). The trend of using Medusa's face to decorate ceramics continued into the Hellenistic period (ca. 323-31 B.C.). She is present as the central decoration on many vases ( ), as well as a repetitive ornamental motif architecture, these late fourth- and third-century B.C. Gorgons evolve from the grotesque to the feminine but retain their specific frontal quality. The fifth century B.C. saw the emergence of a new artistic emphasis on the ideal form. Perfection and beauty became the standards of this new Classical style, and Medusa, despite her role as a monster, was not exempt.

Medusa is truly ubiquitous-she is represented not only in ) include the head of Medusa on her chest. The most renowned sculpture of Athena, the gold and ivory Athena Parthenos that once stood in the Parthenon, included two gorgoneia: one on her aegis and one on her shield. The Gorgon's face is not limited to divine armor, however, but also decorated the martial accoutrements of architecture and pottery, but also in metalwork. Her head is a common ornament on the handles of bronze vessels ( ). The circular shape and protective qualities of her countenance also lend themselves to jewelry; she appears on earrings, pendants, and rings ( ). The Gorgon is also reproduced on armor. In the , her head appears on Zeus' aegis. Hesiod's Shield of Herakles describes an illustration of the myth of Perseus and the Gorgons on the hero's shield. More commonly, the gorgoneion is the central motif on the aegis of Athena. Depictions of the goddess in both vase painting ( ; ) and sculpture ( ; ). The presence of Medusa on armor reinforces the idea that her presence held significant power to protect the wearer against enemies. Greek soldiers, such as helmets, shields, and greaves (

The gorgoneion is not the only artistic representation of Medusa; she is also shown in scenes illustrating the adventures of Perseus. In many cases, the hero flees with Medusa's head as her body lies nearby, sometimes with Pegasos and Chrysaor at their mother's side ( ). A monumental example of this type is the central decoration of the early sixth-century B.C. Temple of Artemis on Corfu, though interestingly this depiction leaves out Perseus and the beheading.

Other scenes display the moment before the killing. The iconographic formula consists of Perseus holding his sword to Medusa's neck, looking away as he delivers the fatal cut to avoid her petrifying gaze. A metope from Temple C at Selinunte depicts such a tableau and includes Athena, who stands by the hero to guide him. In later illustrations from the fifth century B.C., Medusa is asleep while the hero approaches to attack ( ). Here is a rare instance of a nonfrontal, nonstaring Medusa; in sleep, the threat of her power is canceled. Indeed, she is portrayed as a peacefully sleeping human figure-only her wings suggest that she is a supernatural creature. Some scenes include the other Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, pursuing Perseus after he has beheaded Medusa. One example, on an early seventh-century B.C. amphora from Eleusis, depicts the two running after the hero while their headless sister's body lies behind them. The Gorgons are often represented in this running pose, known as , on pottery ( ), in architecture, and on relief sculpture ( ).

Even though Medusa's appearance changes drastically through the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, from a grotesque creature to a beautiful female, her "otherness" remains. The legends of the Gorgons cast them as foreign others living outside of the known Greek world and horrific beings to be feared and ultimately vanquished. Archaic depictions are monstrous and inexplicable-the Gorgon seems to be both male and female, both human and animal. The sixth-century B.C. antefixes, bronze handles, and vase decorations all depict a creature that is as terrible as it is distinctive. Classical and Hellenistic images of Medusa are more human, but she retains a sense of the unknown through specific supernatural details such as wings and snakes. These later images may have lost the gaping mouth, sharp teeth, and beard, but they preserve the most striking quality of the Gorgon: the piercing and unflinching outward gaze.

Alterity is at the foundation of Medusa's force, which was alive and present in the minds and memories of ancient viewers. Her very presence is foreign, dangerous, and potent, as are her specific characteristics. In the , her head was kept in Hades to drive the living from the world of the dead. The Perseus myth provides us with the phenomenon that her face and gaze could turn men to stone. Pindar preserves the tale that the Gorgon's cries were awesome and awful. Perseus and Athena were required to control such threatening forces and harness their power. This harness was taken up by ancient Greek artists, who represented the Gorgon across all periods and in all media. Medusa is a deadly and cryptic other, but she is also ubiquitous, with an undeniable energy that inspired artists to repeat her semblance and story in diverse ways across literature, lore, and art through ancient Greece, Rome, and beyond.

Glennon, Madeleine. "Medusa in Ancient Greek Art." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/medu/hd_medu.htm (March 2017)

Belson, Janer Danforth. "The Gorgoneion in Greek Architecture." PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1981.

Childs, William A. P. "The Human Animal: The Near East and Greece." In The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, edited by J. Michael Padgett, pp. 49-72. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Danner, Peter. "Westgriechische Giebeldekorationen, 1. Gorgoneia." Römische Historische Mitteilungen 42 (2000), pp. 19-105.

Frontisi-Ducroux, Françoise. "In the Mirror of the Mask." In A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece, edited by Claude Bérard et al., pp. 151-65. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Krauskopf, Ingrid. "Gorgo, Gorgones." In Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, vol. 4, pp. 285-30. Zurich: Artemis, 1988.

Mack, Rainer. "Facing Down Medusa (An Aetiology of the Gaze)." Art History 25, no. 5 (2002), pp. 571-604.

Marconi, Clemente. Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World: The Metopes of Selinus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Milne, Marjorie J. "Perseus and Medusa on an Attic Vase." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 4, no. 5 (1946), pp. 126-30.

Richter, Gisela M. A. "A Stand by Kleitias and an Athenian Jug." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 26, no. 12 (1931), pp. 289-91.

Vernant, Jean-Pierre. "Death in the Eyes: Gorgo, Figure of the Other." In Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays, edited by J Froma I. Zeitlin, pp. 111-38. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

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Medusa in Ancient Greek Art | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Medusa is an instantly recognizable figure from ancient Greek art. Her face, whether fierce and grotesque or feminine and composed, appears in virtually all media in varying contexts. The most common interpretation of Medusa suggests she is an apotropaic symbol used to protect from and ward off the negative, much like the modern evil eye.

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Not only does this site end in .com but it mentions how Medusa's use in healing practices. Such as using a stone that was supposed to have come from her blood as a way to ward of illness especially in pregnant women. This site doesn't mention her symbol as a protector to SA victims.

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Claire Litt //

Medusa was once renowned for her loveliness, and roused jealous hopes in the hearts of many suitors. Of all the beauties she possessed, none was more striking than her lovely hair. [...] But, so they say, the lord of the sea robbed her of her virginity in the temple of Minerva. Jove's daughter [...] to punish the Gorgon for her deed, she changed her hair into revolting snakes. (Ovid, quoted in Seeling, 897)

Classical mythology's abundance of arcane symbolism means that it will gratify any preconceived schema scholars apply to it. Nevertheless, the Medusa myth provides an origin and rough chronological marker for the emergence of a historical theme that links blood, stones, and snakes with women's bodies. These interrelated symbols are associated with women's bodies as sites of sexual reproduction. Instances of their appearance together in Classical Greek mythology, on gemstones from Late Antiquity, and a votive altar from Byzantium, illuminate a conceptual framework in which women understood their reproductive health in pre-modern times. My own framework of interpretation for these symbols in relation to women's bodies sees blood as representative of two sides of the same coin, reproductive ability or miscarriage, and stones as protective materials. Snakes maintain their widely recognized connotation in Ancient Greek culture of wisdom or knowledge.

The Medusa myth is an archetype, making elements of it familiar even to first-time readers: the symbolic fertility of long hair, the punishment and ostracization of the victim of sexual assault, and the association of snakes with knowing things - in this case, of the loss of virginal ignorance. Like the Medusa story, snakes and blood are symbols that hold some resonance today. Snakes continue to be associated with women because the story of Eve's temptation in the Book of Genesis is central to the Christian cultural heritage of the Western world. Blood has likewise endured as a symbol because menarche signifies reproductive ability. Stones are no longer particularly associated with women, but Medusa's complicated relationship with them can help to recover a sense of their role in the symbolic material triad.

When Minerva, or Athena according to Greek mythology, turned Medusa's hair into snakes, she also made her gaze turn men into stone. Despite the traditional interpretation that Athena's curse on Medusa was a punishment, it can also be seen as a protective gift. This is alluded to in a subsequent myth, when the hero Perseus sought to defend his bride Andromeda from the advances of Phineas, who had dishonest designs on her. Perseus beheaded Medusa and held up her head to Phineas, who said, "Put it down, your Gorgon's head [...] that makes men marble" (V.220-222). While it was Medusa's curse that she could never love a man, her monstrous appearance and petrifying gaze protected her from subsequent sexual assaults and went on to protect Andromeda from a similar fate.

Yet Medusa has a more significant association with stones which underpins their use in ancient medical practice:

Absorbed the Gorgon's power at its touch

Hardened, its fronds and branches stiff and strange.

(Ovid, IV.745-747)

After Perseus beheaded Medusa, he placed her head on a bed of seaweed on the shore of the Red Sea. The blood ran into the seaweed and turned it into coral. In the 1st century CE, Pliny tried to give the stone's association with Medusa a more rational etymology. In Natural Histories he wrote "coral [...] though soft in the sea, it afterwards assumes the hardness of stone" (Pliny, 37.56). It is because of its red colour and association with the Medusa mythology that coral has been identified as a bloodstone, a group of stones worn by women in antiquity for their medically apotropaic qualities (Budge, 314). Medusa's mythological ability to turn potential assailants into stone was reinforced in practice by women wearing stones supposedly made of her blood to ward off evil.

The stone most commonly referred to as bloodstone, hematite, was thought to have medicinal qualities that were especially important for women. Greco-Roman hematite amulets were often engraved with an image of Medusa's head and the word hystera (womb). Historians in the early twentieth century argued for hematite's medical significance, stating that the "blood-red powder scraped off this stone was used freely as a medicine by the ancients to stop bleeding" (314). Scholars have agreed that these stones must have been used to ward off the evil eye and prevent 'wandering womb' and miscarriages. These conclusions, as well as the link between bloodstones, Medusa's blood, bleeding, the image of Medusa's decapitated head and the inscription of the word 'womb', are underscored by hematite's high iron content. Coupled with evidence that ancient people chipped and powdered the stone, it seems likely that these supernatural amulets also had a practical medicinal use. Women could have consumed parts of the high-iron stone, either because they were anemic or because they had suffered miscarriages and felt that hematite would restore their iron levels. In myth, Medusa's blood turned into stone, but in reality, perhaps stones turned into blood.

The connection between women's reproductive ability and stones is complicated by the snake symbolism. While in Christianity the snake is an evil figure, or at the very least is associated with illicit knowledge, the pre-Christian snake is representative of knowledge in a broader sense. The Chnoubis has the body of a snake and the head of a lion, and is another device to protect women's reproductive ability [Figure 1]. It is commonly found on ancient gemstones, and sometimes even on the front of stones engraved with a Medusa head on the reverse. The Chnoubis was meant to channel the healing knowledge and power of its celestial progenitor. Its head references the Leo constellation, which in ancient medical astrology reigned supreme over the kardia. This included the heart, stomach, and uterus (Pitarakis, 234). The Chnoubis's snake-body melds the Medusa snake mythology with that of the healing god Ascelpius ( March, 140), whose rod and snake remains a medical symbol today. Whereas Medusa's snakes might be interpreted as women's knowledge of sexuality, Asclepius's snakes have healing knowledge. This is attested to by artefacts such as the "Votive Alter to Asklepios", found in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum (Pitarakis, 200). It is a stone carving of a woman's stomach, which has been opened to show a snake moving through its organs to heal them.

The appearance of these interrelated symbols in various places and times attests to the concern women had for their reproductive health throughout millennia. Blood, stones, and snakes effectively created a flexible conceptual framework in which women could interpret and attempt to remedy their health concerns. It is with in this system that women understood their reproductive systems, protected themselves from evil, and engaged in healing practices.

Works Cited:

Budge, E.A. Wallis. (1930). Amulets and Superstitions. London: Oxford University Press.

March, Jennifer R. (1998). Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Cassell Reference.

Pitarakis, Bridgette. (ed.),2015. Life Is Short, Art Long - The Art of Healing in Byzantium. Istanbul Pera Museum.

Pliny the Elder. "Book 37, Chapter 56" in The Natural History. Translated by John Bostock and H.T. Riley. Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hoppertex tdoc = Perseus: text1999.01.0126 (Accessed October 12, 2018).

Ovid & Melville, A. D, ed. (1998). Metamorphoses. Oxford Oxford University Press.

Seelig, B.J. (2002). "The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena." Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 83(4): 895-911.

Amulet. Magical Gems Collection, National Museums of Liverpool. Liverpool, England. Accession number: M12604. http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/an tiquities/roman/magical-gems/item-479672.aspx.

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Blood, Stone, Snake, Woman: A Brief History of Association

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Claire Litt // Medusa was once renowned for her loveliness, and roused jealous hopes in the hearts of many suitors. Of all the beauties she possessed, none was more striking than her lovely hair. [...] But, so they say, the lord of the sea robbed her of her virginity in the temple of Minerva.

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The image of Medusa shows as a symbol of protection and is worn by survivors of sexual assult.

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What does a Medusa tattoo mean? Myth explained as TikTok videos go viral

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Various popular videos have emerged on the social media app, referencing a hidden meaning behind the popular Medusa tattoos.