Medusa, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the monster figures known as Gorgons. Medusa is widely known as a monstrous creature with snakes in her hair whose gaze turns men to stone. Stephen Wilk, author of Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, questioned Medusa's enduring status among the feminist movement. "[22], Medusa's visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a feminist journal called Women: A Journal of Liberation in their issue one, volume six for 1978. Inspired by the #metoo movement, contemporary figurative artist Judy Takács returns Medusa's beauty along with a hashtag stigmata in her portrait, #Me(dusa)too. In Greek mythology, Medusa (/ mɪˈdjuːzə, - sə /; Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Send us feedback. Classic Medusa, in contrast, is an Oedipal/libidinous symptom. Archetypal literary criticism continues to find psychoanalysis useful. [citation needed]. The only mortal gorgon, whom Perseus killed by cutting off her head. "[31], Medusa has sometimes appeared as representing notions of scientific determinism and nihilism, especially in contrast with romantic idealism. "The Laugh of the Medusa" is largely a call to arms, urging women to reclaim their identity through writing as she rejects the patriarchal society of Western culture. “Medusa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medusa. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. "Medusa has since haunted Western imagination, materializing whenever male authority feels threatened by female agency," writes Johnston. ", "The Timeless Myth of Medusa, a Rape Victim Turned Into a Monster", Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Online version at Harvard University Press, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Medusa in Myth and Literary History" – English.uiuc.edu, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Medusa&oldid=988535557, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 November 2020, at 19:40. In particular, the designer Versace's symbol is reflected through the Medusa-head symbol. Beth Seelig analyzes Medusa's punishment from the aspect of the crime of having been raped rather than having willingly consented in Athena's temple as an outcome of the goddess' unresolved conflicts with her own father, Zeus. Through many of her iterations, Medusa pushes back against a story that seeks to place the male, Perseus, at its center, blameless and heroic. 1 capitalized [Latin, from Greek Medousa] : a mortal Gorgon who is slain when decapitated by Perseus. There are no recorded instances of Medusa turning a woman to stone. As well has having snakes for hair, she was given a serpent-like body and rattlesnake-like tail. In one interview after another we were told that Medusa is 'the most horrific woman in the world' ... [though] none of the women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth. The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or "Phorkys") and his sister Ceto (or "Keto"), chthonic monsters from an archaic world. She remained a priestess to Athena after her death and was risen with fresh hair. Last edited on 13 November 2020, at 19:40, Cultural depictions of Medusa and Gorgons, "Bulfinch Mythology – Age of Fable – Stories of Gods & Heroes", Frank Justus Miller translation, as revised by G. P. Goold, "The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena: Aspects of Triangulation", "Endless the Medusa: a feminist reading of Medusan imagery and the myth of the hero in Eudora Welty's novels. "[15] In this perspective the "ravishingly beautiful" Medusa (see above) is the mother remembered in innocence; before the mythic truth of castration dawns on the subject. Jane Ellen Harrison argues that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended... the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help. 14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae, as in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, which places both trinities of sisters far off "on Kisthene's dreadful plain": Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged Author Sibylle Baumbach described Medusa as a “multimodal image of intoxication, petrifaction, and luring attractiveness," citing her seductive contemporary representation, as well as her dimensionality, as the reason for her longevity.[25]. [30] "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her," writes Cixous. Medusa has been featured in several works of fiction, including video games, movies, cartoons and books. 1Zoology A free-swimming sexual form of a coelenterate such as a jellyfish, typically having an umbrella-shaped body with stinging tentacles around the edge. The cover featured the image of the Gorgon Medusa by Froggi Lupton, which the editors on the inside cover explained "can be a map to guide us through our terrors, through the depths of our anger into the sources of our power as women. Through the lens of theology, film, art, and feminist literature, my students and I map how her meaning has shifted over time and across cultures. Here Are Our Top English Tips, The Best Articles To Improve Your English Language Usage, The Most Common English Language Questions, one can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. Delivered to your inbox! Learn a new word every day. ‘A medusa, or jellyfish, is part of the life cycle of just one major group of animals, the cnidarians.’. "Only the Gorgon has the savage, threatening appearance to serve as an immediately recognized symbol of rage and a protector of women's secrets," wrote Wilk. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. Medusa has been depicted in several works of art, including: Medusa remained a common theme in art in the nineteenth century, when her myth was retold in Thomas Bulfinch's Mythology. These Foreign Words And Phrases Are Now Used In English. The most influential depiction of Medusa in film is arguably the stop motion animation created by Ray Harryhausen for Clash of the Titans (1981). Then Perseus gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the Aegis.[10]. "[29] Cixous wants to destroy the phallogocentric system, and to empower women's bodies and language. In most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry Perseus's mother. Noted by Marjorie J. Milne in discussing a, WoRMS Editorial Board (2017). In 1940, Sigmund Freud's "Das Medusenhaupt (Medusa's Head)" was published posthumously. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? [9] In a similar manner, the corals of the Red Sea were said to have been formed of Medusa's blood spilled onto seaweed when Perseus laid down the petrifying head beside the shore during his short stay in Ethiopia where he saved and wed his future wife, the lovely princess Andromeda who was the most beautiful woman in the world at that time. In some species, medusae are a phase in the life cycle which alternates with a polypoid phase. "From Gorgon and Ceto, Sthenno, Euryale, Medusa". These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'medusa.' "[22] Griselda Pollock analyses the passage from horrorism to compassion in the figure of the Medusa through Adriana Cavarero's philosophy and Bracha Ettinger's art and Matrixial theory. According to Ovid, in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas, who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed him into stone when he tried to attack him. [23], Elana Dykewomon's 1976 collection of lesbian stories and poems, They Will Know Me by My Teeth, features a drawing of a Gorgon on its cover. Edward Burne-Jones' Perseus Cycle of paintings and a drawing by Aubrey Beardsley gave way to the twentieth century works of Paul Klee, John Singer Sargent, Pablo Picasso, Pierre et Gilles, and Auguste Rodin's bronze sculpture The Gates of Hell.[36]. [32][33] In this interpretation of Medusa, attempts to avoid looking into her eyes represent avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality that the universe is meaningless.