Μέδουσα

A non-linear exploration of the Medusa myth, with the occasional non sequitur thrown in for shits & giggles.

Permalink I know. Wordpress is for jerks. But I can’t help it. Μέδουσα has a new(ish) home!
Permalink Greek mythology in modern context: Argus Panoptes. - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - & set a watcher upon her, great & strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. & the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.Excerpt: Hesiod, Fragments, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, (Online Medieval & Classical Library, 1914), Fragment #5 - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Argus Filch, ever-watchful (but mildly incompetent) caretaker of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry in J.K. Rowling’s seven-volumed Harry Potter series. A constant & devoted employee to Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Argus is what is referred to as a ‘squib’ in Rowling’s universe: borne of a witch & wizard, but possessing no magical skills himself; he is regarded as developmentally challenged. Argus guards Hogwarts with militant earnestness & devotion, but is constantly bested by more powerful wizards & monsters. - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Argus Panoptes, ‘all seeing’ primordial servant of the goddess Hera. Famously (& fatally) employed to watch over one of Zeus’s conquests, Io, whom he had transformed into a heifer in order to hide her from Hera’s jealous eyes. At least he didn’t have to hand out detention points & clean after toilet-detonated Weasley’s Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Cover art conceptualised by M.S. Corley.
Permalink : /
Permalink

girlsack:

i just lost the game

Never, ever say this in a pub.

Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § I: Introduction. You are looking at one of two seventeenth century wooden door panels of the historic Hôtel Caron de Beaumarchais, carved by Thomas Regnaudin. It is located at Nº 47, rue Vieille du Temple in the 4th arrondissement, Marais & was placed on the market in March of 2009, valued at roughly €35 million or US $45.3 million. 1
Permalink : /
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § III: Lost in translation. To illustrate, Herodotus of Halicarnassus reports on the procurement of cinnamon: They cannot say where it comes from & what land produces it originally, except that some of them try to argue from probability that it sprouts in the lands where Dionysos grew up. At any rate, it is said that huge birds carry the stalks, which we have learned from the Phœnicians to call cinnamon, to nests of clay that they have built hanging from steep mountains completely inaccessible to men. But the Arabians have surmounted this problem rather cleverly. They cut up the limbs of dead cattle, donkeys & other beasts of burden into pieces as large as they can carry, scatter them in the area under the nests & then move out of the way. The birds swoop down for the limbs of the beasts & take them back to their nests, but the nests cannot bear the weight & so crash to the ground, where the men then collect the cinnamon that comes down along with them. That is how they obtain the cinnamon which eventually reaches other lands. 2 You can see how the story might have gotten lost in translation & embellished, just a bit! Prehistoric cultures that relied on oral tradition employed common methods of memorisation: more often than not the reciter would draw figures in the sand; verbal cues included alliteration & onomatopoeia.
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § IV: Evolution of mythology. Prior to the eighteenth century, Western scholars dismissed the idea that Greek mythology possessed any true historical context. 3 German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann altered that common perception when he unearthed what is widely considered to be the ancient citadel of Mycenæ, founded by Perseus & governed by Agamemnon, whose tragic history has been dramatised by Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides & Co. Art historian Sir John Boardman states that ‘the most impressive sights in the experience of early man (& early woman) were natural: the landscapes, the climate, the other animals.’ 4 He further posits that the wild Greek landscape, bones of prehistoric animals (including dinosaurs) & natural elements helped mould mythology. Mt. Sipylos in ancient Lydia (Manisa, Turkey), or Niobe weeping for her children.
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § V: Maps. According to the Latin poet Marcus Annæus Lucanus, the story of Medusa spans from Mycenæ to the farthest reaches of ancient Libya. Ancient ‘place names often have to be interpreted in terms of the context in which they appear … The confidence with which we locate, say, “Ethiopia” today can lead to misunderstanding.’ 5 Note the proximity of Mycenæ to what the ancient Greeks regarded as Libya, just south of the isle of Crete. Mycenæ was a thalassocracy, an empire governed by the sea, & ancient civilisations tended to be syncretic, absorbing customs & religious practises of neighbouring kingdoms.
Permalink
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § VI: Sex. Consider the catalyst of this story, Poseidon, who is nearly always referred to as ‘black-maned’ 6 or The Dark-Haired One: It is easy to visualise seaweed as an anthropomorphic representation of this god, wherein it appears black from the surface of deep bodies of water & flows in currents like locks of hair. As ‘earth shaker’ & god of the sea, Poseidon can be seen not only as aggressive, but virile: Sea spume, sperm of the gods, is comprised of protein & fat molecules of decomposing phæocystis. These microscopic organisms form large colonies, referred to as ‘a bloom,’ & the foam manifests when powerful gusts of wind whip up the decaying remains of these colonies & deposit them ashore. 7 In one version of the Medusa myth, droplets of her blood splash into the sea spume (i.e. Poseidon’s sperm) & Pegasos is born.
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § VII: Virility. Depending on the interpretation, Poseidon adopts the guise of a stallion & either seduces or rapes Medusa on the floor of the Temple of Athena. Note that he vied for patron status of Athens.
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § VIII: Psychoanalysis. This is a detail of Elihu Vedder’s 1896 mosaic, entitled Minerva of Peace, housed in the Library of Congress. Psychoanalysts have interpreted the Medusa myth as a violent manifestation of Athena’s suppressed sexuality: Athena Parthenos (literally ‘maiden’ or virgin), ‘always depicted with the face of Medusa on her [aegis], is two-faced. The fearsome split-off & repudiated face of female sexual power, denied as being her own attribute, is displaced but still carried by Athena.’ 8 ‘Athena’s rejection of her powerful, instinctual femininity & sexuality is part of her denial of the depths of her nature. When these are disowned, Athena becomes all head, & the darkness of this is there for all to see in the terrifying image of Medusa’s head that the goddess wears on her breast – a head so horrible that those who see Medusa or are seen by her are turned to stone.’ 9
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § IX: With a little help from his immortal friends. Perseus Eurymedon, great-grandfather of Herakles, is referred to as ‘the boaster.’ 10 He is depicted in sculpture by Theodor Charles Gruyere, (Ujazdów Park, Warsaw, Poland); the photographer is Adam Gut. Perseus is abetted by a cast of deities & provided with supernatural reinforcement: ● Hermes offers to him a silver version of his golden talaria, or winged sandals; ● Hephaistos, a curved adamantine scimitar – adamantine being a mythical, indestructible metal; ● Hades’ own aidos kyneê, a leather war-cap of invisibility; ● & from Athena herself, ‘a shining shield of yellow bronze’ – a reflective tool to behead the Gorgon – & a kibisis, or satchel, to safely convey Medusa’s head. 11
Permalink DIES SOLIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCXXV A.U.C. § X: A rose is a rose by any other name. The name Medusa appertains to the sea & means ‘ruleress.’ 12 Poseidon, invoked as ‘halos medon, pontomedon, or ereumedon’ is ‘the masculine form of the name Médousa.’ 13 Perseus ‘was named by his mother Eurymedon, as if he were a ‘ruler of the sea’ & Médousa’s husband.’ 14 ‘Gorgides & Gorgades were names for sea goddesses. One cannot believe that “Gorgo” meant only something ugly & terrible; for the same name used to be given to little girls [in Greek culture] whose parents certainly did not expect them to turn into terrifying creatures.’ 15 Furthermore, Greek youth initiation rites involve ‘a mask mirrored by a silver vessel.’ 16