Today, I would like to share with you the most inspiring myth in series of greek myths involving Athena – the story of Medusa, which is closely linked to the shadowy side of Athena’s alliance with heroes and which can help us understand the transformative, healing, and creative power of our anger.
Medusa is that scary monster that has snakes sticking out of her head. That part of the female psyche that is furious and that turns men into stone with a single glance. But did you know why on earth was she so mad?
She was not always so scary. The goddess Athena herself and her vengeance are to blame for her transformation from a beautiful girl into a “crazy and mad woman”. Medusa as a young beauty was raped one day by the god of the sea Poseidon in the holy temple of Athena.
Athena, on the other hand, punished Medusa instead of Poseidon for desecrating the sanctuary, by turning her into a monster.
Therefore, this myth is also a symbol for that part of the female psyche that protects patriarchy and judges women who, with their beauty and attractiveness, provoke the male “id” to take a woman by force. In short, these are the women who tell rape victims that they are to blame, because they provoked something themselves. With a dress, with a look or with too quiet and vague “no”.
How about you, do you remember the last time you turned someone’s heart into a stone with just a glance and what drove you into such a strong reaction?
To continue the story…
After the transformation, Medusa then becomes a symbol of representing fear and trembling to men until Athena helps the warrior Jason to defeat her. She borrows him her shield, in which he can see Medusa’s reflection and avoid her gaze. And when Jason finally cuts off Medusa’s head, a lovely winged horse Pegasus, the eternal inspirer and protector of artists, is miraculously born from her body.
What a magical symbolism … a child of rape is therefore a magic being, send to the from the heavens. A horse that represents the power of the free spirit and that can even fly, is therefore connected to the earth and the sky at the same time. It is almost as the myth itself is promoting rape and violence as the allowed means to bring magic on earth, but on other side we can perceive it as a good story that teaches us how to creatively transform brutal experiences into beautiful creations.
@photocredit: Anja D. Sesek