A Gorgon’s Tale: Mythographia
The story of Medusa is well known.
A beautiful maiden and priestess of Athena, Medusa is assaulted by Poseidon in the goddess’s temple. In her rage, Athena punishes Medusa for the desecration by turning her into a hideous gorgon with snakes for hair, and a gaze that turns whoever should look upon her to stone. She is a monster to be feared until Perseus, with Athena’s help, slays her and gives the goddess her head.
So wrote Ovid in Metamorphoses about Medusa and Athena’s Roman counterpart Minerva. (That’s a whole other blog).
Primordial snake goddess
The earliest mythology of Medusa, however, paints a different picture. Like Ovid, Hesiod also writes of her being cursed by Athena. But tracing the origins of Medusa even farther back suggests something more primordial and more powerful.
I’ve been following her trail as I do research for my work-in-progress, Seeking Athena.
Partly it’s out of a desire to redeem the Greek Goddess of Wisdom from her Roman counterpart’s purity-politics. Partly it’s a fascination with the symbolism and power of a chthonic Medusa in her purest form - as a Gorgon who was never human.
In ancient Greece, Medusa’s head - the Gorgoneion - was frequently used as a protective amulet. Often depicted on shields, armour, coins and buildings, it was used to ward off evil. This belief in her ability to repel negative forces positions her as a guardian. Archaic Medusa is one of three gorgons, with her sisters Stheno and Euryale, all of whom were born that way. And early depictions of Athena bearing the Gorgoneion on her shield, can be understood as a show of linked might and power, and a carry-over from Athena’s own possible links to the early Minoan Snake Goddess.
Perhaps that’s why we’re still so compelled by her. Perhaps that’s why her strength was recast as a curse rather than a gift.
Luciano Garbati’s sculpture “Medusa With the Head of Perseus”
Reclaiming the mythology
My quest to reclaim the story of Medusa from our Roman friends and return her to her proto-origins may be in vain. But as we walk through the icy halls of the Gorgon — using our mirrors to guide the way — we might yet catch a glimpse of her as she really is.
Fearsome, certainly. But offering us a vision of our own fertile power and the untameable wildness we come from.