I always wondered about the raging of Medusa…..
And I always wondered why no one spoke of Poseidon…..
From my expertise-knowledge about trauma and abuse I know that raped women rage, particularly when they are made responsible for something that isn’t their’s…..
Doesn’t Medusa’s story reflect the still commonly held prejudice about women that they carry the blame for being raped and harassed? And isn’t that what happened to Medusa? In my interpretation it is.
Medusa, like so many women still, became double traumatised: by the rape and by the judgement in courts and society. Rape is the deepest violation a human can experience, in my opinion. Is it a wonder that we need to rage, when no one listens…..?
I see Medusa raging in her pain of being raped and being judged, with her perpetrator going scot-free. Medusa is held captive in her rage, like in a cage. Her rage turns others away. When Perseus arrives, she has to face her own reflection. Her old raging self dies and she gives birth to 2 beautiful creatures:
Chrysor the brave warrior and Pegasus the winged horse, transforming the rage about injustice and unbearable hurt into beautiful strong life in the heavens and on earth.
Next time , when you hear a woman rage., I hope you will remember my Medusa.
Mat: Glass, glass beads, copperfoils, solder, steel frame
Size: 80 cm x & 70cm x 5 cm incl. frame. Glass only: 70cm x 70cm x 4cm.
This piece was made on the theme of ‘Myths’ for the yearly
Inis Cealtra Art exhibition in Mount-Shannon, Co. Clare, Irl.
Price: £1250.00
2007
Medusa, while being beheaded, giving birth to Chrysor and Pegasus‘
Ovid tells us the story of ‘Medusa, a ravishingly beautiful maiden, the jealous aspiration of many suitors’.
However, when she was caught in Athena’s temple, after intercourse with the Lord of the Sea Poseidon, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair into serpents and made her face so terrible to behold, that the sight of it would turn onlookers into stone; banned she was, to live at the end of the world with the monstrous gorgon sisters.
In Ovid’s telling, Medusa’s punishmentis described as well earned. And Medusa went into history as a metaphore for a raging, mad woman, who had brought it all on to herself….