Medusa was once a powerful feminine symbol, with control over the natural cycle and in harmony with the worlds of earth and sky. This matches well with Greek views on women as a whole. In classical Greek culture, the snake is also a wily and deceptive creature, intelligent but to be distrusted in all things. The snake also has an intimate connection with the earth, as it must slither across its belly, embracing the ground. This cycle is paralleled with women's natural cycle of menstruation, which was believed to be synchronized with the cycles of the moon and tide. Snakes are used due to their shedding of skin, and their rebirth to a new skin.
#Pictures of medusa skin
Her hair of snakes and reptilian skin are symbolic of the natural cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Medusa could have been a very prototypical goddess of a matriarchal society. In the western culture, historically, the powerful women have been imagined as the threat of male conquest and control, and medusa herself has long been the target of those who try to demonize the authority of women. Her meaning changes with time and culture.
The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. Those who gazed upon her face would turn to stone. The final story of Metamorphoses Book XII is about the death of Achilles.In Greek mythology, Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Their story is commemorated on Parthenon marble metopes housed at the British Museum. With the help of the Athenian hero Theseus, the Lapiths won the battle. Nestor then tells the story of the Centauromachy, which was fought at the wedding of the Lapith king Perithous (Peirithoos) and Hippodameia after the Centaurs, unused to alcohol, became intoxicated and tried to abduct the bride - abduction being a common theme in Metamorphoses, as well. Cyncnus turned into a bird upon being killed. The next story is about Achilles's killing of Cyncnus, who had once been a beautiful woman named Caenis.
As well as being about war, like the rest of the Metamorphoses, Book XII is about transformations and changes, so Ovid mentions that the sacrificial victim may have been spirited away and exchanged with a hind. The twelfth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses has martial themes, beginning with the sacrifice at Aulis of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia to ensure favorable winds, so the Greeks could get to Troy to fight the Trojans for the release of King Menelaus's wife Helen. Famous Elgin Marble metopes from the Parthenon depict this event. "Centauromachy" refers to the battle between the related Centaurs and Lapiths of Thessaly. These arrows had also been dipped in the blood of the Lernaean hydra.īattle of the Lapiths and Centaurs (Not the Elgin Marbles) The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, by Piero di Cosimo (1500-1515). He gave the man who helped him die, Philoctetes, his arrows as reward. When Hercules put the tunic on, it burned so badly he wanted to die, which he eventually accomplished. Deianeira believed the dying half-human creature and when she thought Hercules was straying, infused his clothing with Nessus's blood. Mortally wounded, Nessus told Deianeira that his blood, which was contaminated with Lernaean hydra blood from the arrow with which Hercules shot him, could be used as a potent love potion should Hercules ever stray.
While mid-stream with Deianeira, Nessus tried to rape her, but Hercules answered her screams with a well-aimed arrow. In their travels they faced the Evenus River, which the centaur Nessus offered to ferry them across. The great Greek and Roman hero Hercules (aka Heracles) and Deianeira had recently been married. Dying, Nessus persuaded her to take his blood. The centaur Nessus abducted Deianeira, but Hercules killed him. Deianeira and Nessus Abduction of Deianira, by Guido Reni, 1620-21.ĭeianeira was Hercules's last mortal wife.
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