Medusa Was Pregnant

[Reef Badlaw]

...when Perseus beheaded her. I woke-up thinking about it. Pegasus was born-of her blood and its twin-brother who was not its twin; Chrysaor, was born-from her severed neck. Ya gotta love ancient offworld shape-changers and the elaborate soap-dramas they got involved in. The times when it was a winged-horse, Pegasus flew-around kicking rocks-into-muse-fountains, like Hippocrene. Chrysaor was sometimes a winged-boar, who basically was content to be the King of ancient Iberia. Their father was Poseidon, who slept with Medusa one time, in Athena's temple. They should've slept in a woodcutter's hut.

[calliope]

...when Perseus beheaded her. I woke-up thinking about it. Pegasus was born-of her blood and its twin-brother who was not its twin; Chrysaor, was born-from her severed neck. Ya gotta love ancient offworld shape-changers and the elaborate soap-dramas they got involved in. The times when it was a winged-horse, Pegasus flew-around kicking rocks-into-muse-fountains, like Hippocrene. Chrysaor was sometimes a winged-boar, who basically was content to be the King of ancient Iberia. Their father was Poseidon, who slept with Medusa one time, in Athena's temple. They should've slept in a woodcutter's hut.

Actually, Poseidon raped Medusa....so she didn't actually have a choice about where he forced her to have sex with him....temple or hut, it was nonetheless rape. I'm sure the location made no difference.

The story of Medusa is just another in a long line of myths illustrative of the misogyny that is continually perpetrated in order to keep the contempt, degradation and control over women a constant.


The figures of Medusa and Medea are chiefly thought of as villains, as women horrifying to men, but what is often forgotten is that both were visionaries and victims too. Acording to Ovid, Medusa had once been beautiful but her face was made ugly and her hair was turned into snakes after she was raped by the sea god Poseidon. She was feared by men because it was said that one look from her could turn them to stone, but Perseus managed to kill her when he struck off her head without looking at her. Like the myths of Persephone and Philomela, the story of Medusa is a record of male violence against women, but may also be interpreted as celebrating female strengths. Joan Coldwell (1985) has pointed out...that the figure of Medusa represented primitive Greek matriarchal religions. The Medusa mask was worn by the women priests of a female cult to frighten men away from their ceremonies. Coldwell argues that the myth of Perseus cutting the head off a gorgon was propagated to celebrate the arrival of the patriarchal Hellenes, who tore down goddess shrines and tore masks off the priests, symbolizing the end of goddess worship and arrival of male gods and heroes. (Coldwell, 1985: 423)

From Languages of theatre shaped by women
written by Jane De Gay, Lizbeth Goodman

[tahn1000]

nothing about rape "celebrates" feimale strengths. i find it pathetic that two women would write such a comment.

[calliope]

I think that a woman who has been raped can continue to celebrate what strength she finds in being female. I think it was Athena, in one recount, who re-organized Medusa's face and hair, in deference to the male sovereignty of Poseidon. Misogyny is propagated by women as much or more so as by men.

If a female were raped, and then were to find strength in newly discovered female power and wisdom, perhaps even as a result of her trauma, then i would find this commendable. If this strength were to become a source of fear for those who would oppress her through further misogynistic brutality, then perhaps her strength is well founded, and can serve as a source of strength for other women as well.

I would never disrespect or discount a female for being raped, and deny her an opportunity to find strength, rather than victimisation, through the experience. Raped women do not deserve to be belittled and dis-empowered due to such an experience, although there are many who would profess only distaste and contempt for a raped woman. I would much prefer to see such a person become empowered to the point of being a role model for the empowerment of female strengths for other women. Perhaps this is the source of Medusa's centrality to goddess cults. it also could be in the role of the crone mother, representing female wisdom (as snakes are traditionally representative of female wisdom, and were killed off in tandem with female priests who honored them as sacred) of the triple goddess....another of the aspects of Athena.

All in all, being raped is no reason not celebrate female strengths. In fact, it would seem rather a reason to begin to do so.

[tahn1000]

"the story of Medusa is a record of male violence against women, but may also be interpreted as celebrating female strengths..."

it's a very fine line to say that women should "celebrate" the strength they are forced to find from within themselves as a consequence of being raped - and i still don't believe the use of the word appropriate - and saying that a tale of mythical rape should be seen as some morphic justificaton of the act once done, or that the woman's survival somehow reduces the horror she was subjected to.

since the very act should be seen as wrong by any social, moral or ethical consideration, anything including historical or romanticised references which detracts from that degrades that ethical basis and negates the severity with which the crime should be viewed by society.

[calliope]

I suppose it's how you choose to interpret the text. In my view, the text is not stating "Due to the fact that Medusa was raped, women decided to celebrate her rape as an event highlighting female strengths." That would make her rape the central and single defining factor of the celebration of her female strengths. That does not appear to be argument that the authors are making, in context.

It appears that the authors are making two separate statements. One, that the myth of Medusa is illustrative of the glorification of male violence toward women in the development of modern civilization.

Yet, from a completely separate angle, according to an external source, that they reference as an utterly unrelated interpretation, there is another facet to the Medusa myth, not related to the incident of rape. A facet of her persona that celebrates her status as being representative of female strength, due to the fear that her female powers incite in protecting goddess cults. Medusa is seen in other circles also as representative of one part of the goddess trinity, as well as being representative of the female wisdom of Athena, that also is feared by men, and protective of the goddess cults.

So I suppose that if you read the text as stating that goddess cults celebrated Medusa's female strengths, directly in relation to the fact that she was raped, that would seem diminishing to the trauma and social phenomenon of rape. But in context, it appears that the authors are simply exploring several different facets of the Medusa persona, and her historical role, in different arenas of scholarship.

[lazserus]

Are we really doing this, discussing ancient mythology as if fact? I suppose there's no other forum here for it. Why or how a pregnancy could be related stumps the rational man. Congratulations, Reef Badlaw, you're the creepiest person I've ever known.

The Medusa tale is dynamic, it changes over years, centuries, millennia, but today we adhere to the Roman version. A tale of vanity and how it van destroy you. But if you look at the numerous Greek versions (before the Empire controlled Greece), you find there's no humping or sperminating or even divine conception. Medusa was a Gorgon and she was slain by Perseus in all tales. She wasn't preggers, she wasn't expecting, she didn't have sex before-hand. She's fiction! It's like trying to discuss Frodo's puberty.

Again, are we really going here?

[tahn1000]

it's MYTHOLOGY mate. if you're not interested, why butt in?

[calliope]

One of our most primary sources for Greek mythology is Ovid. Ovid was a Roman poet, who wrote his chronicles of the gods in an epic poem.

Technically, a discussion revolving around poetry and mythology would belong in the literary forum, rather than the history forum, as mythology and literature do not factually comprise what we consider historical scholarship.

Laz's area of expertise is history, much like science is Cartesian's. They both can be rather a stickler about what is appropriate for their beloved forums.

[Reef Badlaw]

Are we really doing this, discussing ancient mythology as if fact? I suppose there's no other forum here for it. Why or how a pregnancy could be related stumps the rational man. Congratulations, Reef Badlaw, you're the creepiest person I've ever known.

You're welcome. Oh, there are molecules of truth in Mythology. I believe there was more written material on this particular cast-of-characters that hasn't survived. Back then, it was today's definition of religion. So parts were left out... or obscured to the point of conjecture, which is what I was doing.

Is Hippocrene (horse's fountain), the most well-known muse-fountain 'mythology'? If Pegasus didn't 'kick a rock' by which the rock became the fountain, then somebody sculpted it. Would that somebody then keep quiet about it, and let 'rumours about how it was created' become popular?

Athena's parents; Zeus and Metis 'laid together'. But Z recalled a prophecy that M would give birth to a child that was more powerful than he was. So he swallowed her. And his skull gave-birth to A. The point is, pregnancy in most mythologies is virtually non-existent. Why?

[Astroboy]

This remind me of a game called God of War
:orc:

[Bob]

That Herman Cain REALLY gets around doesn't he.

[Rockytrawn]

In a male dominated society pregnancy was rather a taboo subject, perhaps because there was insecurity about the father of the child.

Medusa may be a left over from a female society, and all parts of her are fertile. Or it was the equivalent of a "your momma" insult. Enemies obviously arose from monsters that had the qualities you most dispised like bad hair. And what guy doesn't shudder when an older, dangerous woman gives him the hairy yellow eyeball.