Admin What does the Medusa represent?
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.
What does Medusa represent today?
Today Medusa, with her snake hair and stare that turns people to stone, endures as an allegorical figure of fatal beauty, or a ready image for superimposing the face of a detested woman in power.
What does Medusa symbolize to woman?
Medusa could have been a very prototypical goddess of a matriarchal society. Her hair of snakes and reptilian skin are symbolic of the natural cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
How is Medusa a feminist symbol?
From a feminist perspective, Medusa’s story seems a cautionary tale of the symbolic decapitation of women and a loss of one’s power. Medusa was one of three daughters — born with extraordinary beauty and stunning hair. She becomes a priestess to her sister Athena and vows to her sister to remain pure.
What happens when Medusa died?
Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.
What are the characteristics of Medusa?
In some variations of the myth, Medusa was born a monster like her sisters, described as girded with serpents, vibrating tongues, gnashing their teeth, having wings, brazen claws, and enormous teeth. In later myths (mainly in Ovid) Medusa was the only Gorgon to possess snake locks, because they were a punishment from Athena.
What is the real story of Medusa and the Gorgons?
The Real Story of Medusa and the Gorgons. The earliest known record about the story of Medusa and the Gorgons can be found in Hesiod’s Theogony. According to this ancient author, the three sisters, Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa were the children of Phorcys and Ceto, and lived “beyond famed Oceanus at the world’s edge hard by Night”.
How did Medusa turn into a snake?
Medusa’s famously beautiful hair was transformed into a writhing mass of snakes. Once a renowned beauty, Medusa was now so horrifying that any man who looked upon her would be turned to stone. The fairest of the three Gorgons became the most hideous of them all.
Who is medmedusa in the Odyssey?
Medusa was one of three sisters born to Phorcys and Ceto known as the Gorgons. According to Hesiod ‘s Theogony, the Gorgons were the sisters of the Graiai and lived in the utmost place towards the night by the Hesperides beyond Oceanus. Later authors such as Herodotus and Pausanias place the Gorgons’ abode in Libya.