Medusa in Greek Mythology

Hesiod’s Theogony

The earliest known record about the story of Medusa and the Gorgons can be found in Hesiod’s Theogony. According to Hesiod, Gaia (Earth) gave birth to Pontus (sea). Together, they produced Medusa’s parents, Phorkys and Keto (sea monsters or large sea animals). In turn, they had three daughters known as the Gorgons, but only Medusa was mortal.

“[270] And again, Ceto bare to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old.

With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands.” [read more…]

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

“One of the most important sources of Roman mythology is Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This narrative poem was composed during the reign of Augustus and is considered to be one of the most influential works of literature in Western civilization. In addition, the myths in this work, which number at over 250, are regarded to be the canonical version of the Greek myths…chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the time of Julius Caesar and contains numerous myths that mirror those of the Greeks.” [read more…]

Why Was Medusa Cursed?

Although Hesiod gives an account of Medusa’s origins and the death of Medusa at the hands of Perseus, he does not say more about her. By contrast, a more comprehensive account of Perseus and Medusa can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this work, Ovid describes Medusa as originally being a beautiful maiden. Her beauty caught the eye of Poseidon, who desired her and proceeded to ravage her in Athena’s shrine. When Athena discovered the sea god had ravaged Medusa in her shrine she sought vengeance by transforming Medusa’s hair into snakes, so that anyone who gazed at her directly would be turned into stone.” [read more…]

What Happened Between Poseidon (Neptune) and Medusa?

“Neptune is said to have violated her…” Upon close reading, Ovid’s text certainly does not say that Medusa allowed the god to violate her.

Ovid leaves unsaid what role Medusa might have played in fateful relations with Neptune. Ovid’s tacit ambivalence comes at the mid-point of his lengthy Perseus narrative in Metamorphoses Perseus, at this mid-point is regaling the wedding feast, Cepheus’ guests, with the tale of how he had come to rescue Andromeda. He ends his story abruptly (ante expectatum tacuit). One of the guests eggs him on to tell how Medusa alone of her sisters had come to have those snakey tresses. Perseus tells that Medusa once had had many suitors and the most glorious hair. “The sea-god is said to have violated her in the temple of Minerva; Jupiter’s daughter averted her eyes and covered her chaste face with her aegis; then, so as to prevent this act from going unpunished, the goddess changed the Gorgon’s hair into poisonous snakes. Even now, she wears those snakes, which she created, on the front of her chest, so as to devastate her foes with dread.”

     The Latin I translate, for the record, goes like this:

   ante expectatum tacuit tamen; excipit unus / ex numero procerum quaerens, cur sola sororum

   gesserit alternos inmixtos crinibus angues. / hospes ait: ‘quoniam scitaris digna relatu,

   accipe quaesiti causam. Clarissima forma / multorumque fuit spes invidiosa procorum

   illa, neque in tota conspectior ulla capillis / pars fuit; inveni, qui se vidisse referret.

   hanc pelagi rector templo vitiasse Minervae / dicitur: aversa est et castos aegide vultus

   nata Iovis texit, neve hoc inpune fuisset, / Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutavit in hydros.  [angues.

   Nunc quoque, ut attonitos formidine terreat hostes, / pectore in adverso, quos fecit, sustinet

Ovid fails in this passage to specify that Medusa might have shared some of the blame. But he doesn’t exonerate her either. I guess I had always been reading the nuance into the passage. Whether Medusa had enticed Neptune, yielded willingly to advances, or succumbed to the sea-god’s lust, Ovid leaves for the reader to infer. Clearly, though, the girl alone takes the brunt of all the goddess’ ashamed raged, and no punishment is directed at Neptune. In a mytho-theology where condign punishment is rarely measured, Ovid’s readers may likely be justified in reading Neptune’s guilt and Medusa’s innocence between these lines.” [read more…]

Ovid and Emperor Augustus

“Unlike the predominantly romantic notions of love that were “invented” in the Middle Ages, however, Ovid viewed love more as a dangerous, destabilizing force than a positive one, and demonstrates how love has power over everyone, mortals and gods alike.

During the reign of Augustus, the Roman emperor during Ovid’s time, major attempts were made to regulate morality by creating legal and illegal forms of love, by encouraging marriage and legitimate heirs, and by punishing adultery with exile from Rome. Ovid’s representations of love and its power to damage lives and societies may be seen as support for Augustus’ reforms, although the constant suggestion of the futility of controlling erotic impulses may also be seen as a criticism of Augustus’ attempt to regulate love…

It is notable that the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated and made ridiculous by fate and by Cupid in the stories, particularly Apollo, the god of pure reason, who is often confounded by irrational love. The work as a whole inverts the accepted order to a large extent, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods (and their own somewhat petty desires and conquests) the objects of low humour, often portraying the gods as self-absorbed and vengeful. Having said that, though, the power of the gods remains a distinct recurrent theme throughout the poem.” [read more…]