Medusa: Crazy Snake Lady or Hot Slut

My apologies that the language in this post may be a bit more legible than my other posts as this is a re-wrok of of a real life academic  (BAHAHAHAH) that paper I did. 

Before I get into it here is the jist of Medusa's story for anyone that doesn't know. 

 Medusa is a mythological character which evolved considerably from a hideous monster of the Olympian generation to a triadic victim of metamorphosis in the Hellenistic period .  Commonly, Medusa was thought to be one of three Gorgons, terrifying woman-like creatures best identified with a nest of snakes in place of hair and a gaze that turned all to stone. Of the three Gorgons, Medusa was the only mortal. 

Ok here we go...

Mythology surrounding Medusa has varying representations, the most significant differences come from the depiction of Medusa, both her physicality and her biography. I will be asses this through the analysis of three sources accounts of Medusa: Hesiod’s, Shield of Heracles, an image found on a red-figure hydria, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. 

   The account of Medusa as told by Hesiod, writing in approximately 700 BCE, though limited to her death, is an insight into the perception of Medusa by Greek Dark-Age society . As well as the oldest, this is the least flattering description of Medusa of the sources. She is described as a “totaly butters monster (…) unapproachable and a total minger”, whereas Perseus (the jerk that cuts her head off) is glorified “ (Perseus) is like a feminist Ryan Gosling ”. There is no scene of humanity or sympathy attributed to Medusa by Hesiod, she is simply a fug bitch slain by a hero.

   The image found on a red-figure hydria  made in Attica during the fifth century BCE, shows an evolution of the perception of Medusa. Though the hydria depicts the same event as Hesiod there is a different aura to the piece. Here Perseus is shown clad in the dread cap of Hades yet he appears to be a cowardly douche bag as he hastily flees the scene. Similarly Athena’s presence does not appear to be one of assurance or righteousness, as she is getting right the fuck out of there as well. Contrasting this is Medusa, who though decapitated, is intrepidly prizing her body from the ground. Though only partially visible from inside Perseus’ kibisis, Medusa’s head is a non-grotesque women (as if there were such a thing as a non-grotesque woman!). 

Moreover there is a complete lack of snakes on her head and body- in fact the only snakes on the hydria are on Athena’s skirts - Athene is a real sneaky bitch (British Museum, 2012). Medusa seems human and vulnerable, however she still has non-human attributes. From instance the huge fucking  magnificent wings sprouting from her back, she is shown as a lager figure than Perseus and even the Goddess Athens, while her facial features still slightly resemble Janis Dickinson's . This displays that though Medusa has been humanized she is still an oddity - much like Janis Dickinson.

The final source comes from Ovid writing in the first century AD Augustan Rome, as part of his work Metamorphoses. Polar to Hesiod’s description, Ovid cultivates Medusa by not focusing on her  death but her shitty council estate style life. Ovid explains the reason why, unlike the other Gorgons, Medusa was mortal. For she was once “fit chick”, and that “the story goes that Neptune (Poseidon) (…) raped this glorious creature inside the shrine of Minerva (Athena)”. Ovid explains as punishment for this “sin” Athena transformed the maiden’s “beautiful hair to terrible snakes” - Fucken mega shitty deal! 

  All three sources are a depiction of Medusa, yet the perception conveyed varies widely. Medusa’s metamorphose from minger to fit chick is perhaps a reflection of the changing social structures and values underpinning the different cultural contexts . The Greek Dark Ages were very much a heroic society of douche bags; this became progressively less so through to Augustan Rome where greater emphasis was placed on contemporary achievements of tangible douche bags.