Episode 24 - Medusa

Before I begin I would like to thank Ash Rauch for suggesting the topic for this week’s episode. If you would like to request or suggest topics, you can find find my email and Twitter handle at the end of the episode.

This episode of Through the Veil has a content warning.

The myth this week involves rape. I only discuss it from the historical stand-point as an established part of the mythology, I do not include it in the story-telling portion nor do I dwell on the subject.

If you are uncomfortable with the subject matter, I encourage you to skip this episode of Through the Veil, and join us again next week.

You travel with a small party. Marching up from the rocky coast and into the stone-studded hills. 

Somewhere up there, hidden away in a cave, lives a monster. One of three, perhaps, or maybe it lived alone. But Perseus demanded action. Said the gods asked it of him. You weren’t sure how much you bought into that, but here you were anyway, following him. Up to the cave, up to a monster.

The way was tough, and in several places the path had fallen away in landslides. Perseus was leading the way, followed by you and the rest of your band. The climb was arduous. And soon, even Perseus was showing signs of weariness.

Then, suddenly, you crest a ridge and see Perseus stopped. And ahead of him, a massive cave.

You are here.

This is not the story of Perseus. In some tellings perhaps. In the later translations certainly, this is Perseus’ story. But I find another character in that myth far more interesting.

In some renditions, she is simply a monster to be slain. A thing to be destroyed and then weaponized so that Perseus can face ever-greater threats.

In others, she has more character. More history. And that history inspired a great many stories. And she became a powerful symbol.

She is Medusa. And her legend has left its mark for thousands of years. It has become a symbol for the feminist movement and has been used as a representation of nihilism. Something that cannot be looked directly at for fear of destruction.

She is a Gorgon, sometimes one of three, and to gaze into her eyes is to be turned to stone.

Medusa’s story is quite often only told in passing. Her most famous and common appearance comes from the myths of Perseus, and she is in that story long enough to be killed, and her head used as a weapon. She is a monster in the way of a hero.

At least in some tellings. Despite that reputation, despite that origin, Medusa has risen to an independent importance. Her figure has been analyzed by psychologists, studied by classicists, and used as a symbol of the power and defiance of women by the early feminist movement.

In many ways, her story is one of violence by men against women. She is punished for a crime committed against her, and eventually hunted and murdered in the name of a man’s goals. And so it seems right that her visage, so terrible it could turn any who looked upon it to stone, was and is still used as a symbol of feminine rage.

I am Andrew Eagle, and I am excited to speak this week about Medusa. Join me in learning about a myth that inspired centuries of representation and symbolism that lives on to this day. Join me, and pass Through the Veil.

You enter the cave with Perseus and the others. A small band, armed to the teeth. You keep your eyes low. You’d heard stories about what this Medusa could do. You weren’t sure you believed them, if you were honest. What could turn a person to stone with just a look?

Then you see the first statue. It was a man, armed and armored. Captured in perfect, living detail. Several of your companions muttered prayers.

The cave was vast, and as you press onwards, you see more of the statues. Dozens of them, more.

When one of your companions stops moving, you think nothing of it, perhaps they saw something.

Then you realized that was exactly the problem. They’d seen something alright. They’d seen her. She was here.

In the oldest versions of the myth, the gorgons were born to Phorcys and Ceto, creatures of the deep underground. Then, sometime around the 5th century BC, the story tellers began to describe Medusa as beautiful. Some versions only feature Medusa, while others say she has two sister, Stheno and Euryale.

Medusa’s story shifted over time. Eventually she was born human, and would later become one of the Gorgons. She was described as impossibly beautiful. So beautiful that suitors came from across Greece to meet her. She was a maiden of the Temple to Athena, who worked at the shrine and kept the altars clean.

Over time, word of her beauty spread and even the gods of Mount Olympus heard of her. Poseidon, in particular took an interest in her, and eventually that interest turned to violence.

Poseidon raped Medusa in Athena’s temple.

Greece had a lot of societal problems. Deeply ingrained misogyny was one. In the myth, the crime is seen as Medusa’s, for desecrating Athena’s temple. And for being the victim of an attack, Athena cursed Medusa with a monstrous visage. She cursed Medusa to become a creature so terrible that any who looked upon it would be turned to stone.

Perseus was able to kill Medusa, by way of the mirrored shield. A gift from Athena herself.

He used her reflection to fight her, and in the end he beheaded her. Her head, he wrapped in canvas and carried. It was, after all, the point of this quest.

Then, something unexpected happened. Medusa’s body moved. And from it clambered two figures.

The first, a winged horse of pure white. Pegasus, who would serve as mount to Perseus.

The second, a giant wielding a sword of gold. Chrysaor, who would serve as king of distant lands.

Some versions of the myth include three gorgons. Some theorists believe that the tripling of the Gorgon, that is, the idea that there were three gorgons rather than one, was simply a pattern that emerged in Greek myth that occurred to many of the woman members of the pantheon of gods as well.

There are some who believe the gorgons, and thereby the story of Medusa are based in a historical event. The scholars that suggest this explanation believe that something happened in the early thirteenth century BC that caused some kind of historical or societal trauma which became engrossed in the world as myth.

Whatever the source of Medusa’s myth, she became engrossed in Greek society, and continued into the mythos of Ancient Rome. Her story being told again and again, changing and evolving to this day.

By the modern day, she would become a powerful symbol.

Medusa is mainly a character in someone else’s story. That didn’t prevent her from becoming a powerful symbol. In the 20th century, the feminist movement adopted Medusa as a symbol of women’s rage. One of the earliest references to Medusa in the context of feminism was in a journal called Women: Journal of Liberation. That was in 1978. It appeared again in 1986 in Woman of Power in an article titled Gorgons: A Face for Contemporary Women’s Rage.

These articles and many more like them analyze the myth from a lens of female empowerment. Throughout the early myths, exclusively told, and written, by men. Medusa was a victim, blamed for crimes committed against her. Punished and turned into a monster only to be killed as an errand for another man.

Some theorists claim that Medusa was a woman who transformed into a monster because men feared women’s desires, power, and agency.

It is seen as a call to arms. A call for women to reclaim their identity and reject the patriarchy of Western society.

Medusa is a great example of the relevance of myths today.

After thousands of years, she still shows up in discourse. Used in articles and in stories as a symbol of fear by some. And of empowerment by others.

She always is there, ready to emerge when a patriarchal society begins to feel threatened by growing female agency. It is only right that a figure that was once a woman who became a monster after she was attacked, as punishment for crimes committed against her, transformed into a symbol of empowerment and righteous fury.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Through the Veil. I hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to subscribe to receive new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folklore, myth, and magic.

If you are enjoying the show, and have subjects you would like to hear covered, please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter, you can find me @ThroughVeil.

As always, thank you, for listening.