{"id":357,"date":"2020-01-18T12:27:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T19:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/?p=357"},"modified":"2021-07-09T18:09:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T00:09:34","slug":"myth-of-medusa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/myth-of-medusa\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Myth of Medusa"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ah, Medusa! One of my favorite Greek Myths. She is feared. And she is misunderstood. But very few people understand the truth behind the myth of Medusa. The truth behind the myth of Medusa doesn\u2019t start with Perseus. It doesn\u2019t even start with Medusa being cursed by Athena. It begins before that \u2013 in a history that isn\u2019t written down.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cMedusa head sculpture in gray color\u201d by OpenClipart Public Domain CC0 1.0<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Myth of Medusa<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Medusa was a priestess to Athena. Athens is the goddess of war and wisdom.\u00a0 She is also the only virgin goddess.\u00a0 Part of the requirements of being a priestess to Athena would have included Medusa promising to remain chaste while in service.<\/span><\/p>

Then imagine this \u2013 one day you are gathering water for service in the temple and here comes Poseidon and sees her.\u00a0 Medusa was rumored to be incredibly beautiful.\u00a0 So, as what happens in all the myths, Poseidon sees her, wants her, and takes her.\u00a0 It is said that she ran to the Temple of Athena seeking protection.<\/span><\/p>

Now, this makes sense.\u00a0 Why?<\/span><\/p>

  1. Who better to protect Medusa than Athena, her patron god.<\/span><\/li>
  2. Who better to protect a woman\u2019s virtue than Athena, one of three virgin goddesses.<\/span><\/li>
  3. Who better to protect Medusa against Poseidon than Athena, an enemy to Poseidon.<\/span><\/li><\/ol>

    But that isn\u2019t what happens.\u00a0 Poseidon rapes Medusa on the floor of the Temple of Athena.<\/span><\/p>

    Athena comes and sees that her temple has been defiled.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t blame her fellow god; she blames the human \u2013 Medusa.\u00a0 Medusa\u2019s sisters come to her defense and thus suffer part of the punishment.\u00a0 Athena curses Medusa with a head full of snakes, eternal life, and that any man who looks at her will be turned to stone.\u00a0 This punishment turns Medusa into a monster that is isolated from the world of men \u2013 thus she can never be near another man again.<\/span><\/p>

    And then we come to the myth of Perseus, which we will save for another day.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClick here to get my Greek Gods Family Tree for FREE<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    The Moral of Medusa<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    It saddens me because she is always depicted in these horrific ways \u2013 a true monster, the Gorgon.\u00a0 But the myth of Medusa ignores that none of this is her fault.\u00a0 She does nothing wrong, and she is punished by the gods anyways.<\/span><\/p>

    This myth is actually a warning to mortals.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe yourself to be equal to the gods.\u00a0 Who was Medusa to reject the advances of Poseidon?\u00a0 A mortal should never do this.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    A Roman cameo of Medusa\u2019s head from the 2nd or 3rd century. (Sailko\/ CC BY SA 3.0 )<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    But what is interesting is that the gorgon shows up in other cultures.\u00a0 People would carve her image over their doors to ward off evil and protect their homes. Medusa\u2019s name in ancient Greek means \u201cto guard and protect.\u201d\u00a0 They recently discovered an amulet with the head of Medusa on it carried by a Roman soldier to England.\u00a0 Anthropologists believe that Roman soldiers would carry her image with them in their travels as protection.<\/span><\/p>

    If you want to learn more \u2013 check out the <\/span>History Channel\u2019s series The Clash of the Gods<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Want to show this in your class?\u00a0 Here is a <\/span>study guide<\/span><\/a> I made for my students.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Additional Facts<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Wonder what happened to the head of Medusa?\u00a0 Perseus gives the head to Athena, who in turn places it on her shield, protecting her as she goes into battle.<\/span><\/p>

    Oh and PS \u2013 because every time the gods have sex they have a child \u2013 the child of Medusa and Poseidon? Pegasus.\u00a0 He emerges from her body when Perseus cuts her head off.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Disney wanted to include that little tidbit in their movie <\/span>Hercules<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ah, Medusa! One of my favorite Greek Myths. She is feared. And she is misunderstood. But very few people understand the truth behind the myth of Medusa. The truth behind the myth of Medusa doesn\u2019t start with Perseus. It doesn\u2019t even start with Medusa being cursed by Athena. It begins before that \u2013 in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,21],"tags":[31,23],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mythology","category-greek-mythology","tag-greek-mythology","tag-mythology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1480,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/1480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}