Medusa in Greek Mythology

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Although this is one of the most popular myths in Greek Mythology, the story of the woman turned into a monster with snakes for her hair who later gets slain by the hero Perseus. It's really not one of my favorites because I always felt that Medusa was the real victim seeing as Poseidon raped her and Athena blamed her for the rape and transformed her into the infamous monster she became.

However I always felt that this story was a good metaphor for how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder works. Medusa was essentially a victim turned victimizer because of the cruel way she was treated by the gods themselves.

Also even in astrology there is a star connected to her called Algol which appears on one of the eyes of Medusa's head being carried by Perseus. This fixed star is dubbed "The Demon Star" and is linked to things like criminal behavior, violent deaths, alcoholism and drug abuse, etc.

I once watched an astrology video by a black woman who claimed her own father was born with Algol prominently on his natal chart and he came home with severe PTSD having been drafted and forced tp serve in the Vietnam War and then he was kicked out of the house by his own mother and turned to alcohol which eventually killed him. She pointed out that just like with Medusa what happened to her father wasnt actuallt his fault.

And I can see a lot of Medusa's situation in my own mom too who also suffers from PTSD. She had a very horrible upbringing herself and was raped by the man who later murdered her sister, this rape happened when my mom waa only 13. My mom was raised by a very abusive mother and nobody in the family believed her. She was also married 4 times and most of her husbands were abusive, her fourth husband was the absolute worst and even tried to kill her once which is the reason why she owns a handgun.

Anyways what do you guys think of the idea of Medusa being a symbol for PTSD?

Your report of your horrendous upbringing kinda...upstages the question you're asking.

Takes a moment to regain one's composure before ...even remembering the question.

OK...to answer the question:

a) Thats actually an interesting interpretation of Medusa. Makes sense to me.

b) If it helps you, as an individual, cope with life then go with that notion.

About all that I can say.

Yes... my mom had it very rough but always did the best she could with her children. I often have to remind myself of that.


Anyways that's what I love about Greek Mythology. They touched on things in a very human way that resonates even with modern times. I feel like the Ancient Greeks had a better understanding of human nature than we do.

Here's a cool wooden handcarved statue of Medusa made and shipped from Ukraine.

Awesome.

Makes me wonder whether or not Taylor Swift was referencing Medusa in the vid of ...this strange song. At about one minute in, and after there is lots of snake imagery.


Taylor Swift

Last edited by naturalplastic on 03 Dec 2022, 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I noticed a recurring theme of snakes being connected to women in ancient times. From Medusa to Lamia to Echidna, to Lilith disguising as the serpent in The Garden of Eden, there's even a Celtic Goddess connected to snakes known as Corchen.

Perhaps its because an umbilical cord sorta resembles a snake?

https://youtu.be/m-TDKpl6Kls

Dont forget the snake handling Minoan goddesses.

She also had a cat on her head (never knew that til now).


https://youtu.be/5JdhbyAZ94c

Snakes could be phallic symbols. Symbolize sexual arousel. And that Minoan lady is nothing if not arousing to look at.

Your umbilical chord hypothesis is also possible (never heard it before though).

Some say that snakes and dragons (which are basically snakes with legs)were associated with the prehistoric mother goddess, and that tales of heroes slaying snake like monsters represent the triumph of male gods over the female deities. The Mesopotamians had a tale of a warrior slaying a snake monster- and Christians have St. George slaying the dragon.

For most of my life all I saw whenever seeing Medusa in cartoons and movies was "creepy cool lady with snakes for hair that turns people to stone". I have have a very low IQ, so I don't analyze everything I see.

Of course, someone else's analyzing had to ruin Medusa for me by saying if she has snakes for hair on her head she must have tiny little snakes for hair in her more "private regions". Maybe that's why in a lot of modern artwork of Medusa the lower half of her body is like a snake.

Yeah just like the Mesopotamian Goddess Tiamet who was originally a mother goddess of creation but later transformed into a giant serpent or dragon and after being slain by one of their male heroes she gave birth to various creatures from her body including humans (I think, this was based on what I remember from briefly googling her a while back).

Anyways the idea of snakes being phalic symbols to represent sexual arousal is interesting, but also when I think of the umbilical cord connection it's like how in ancient times a snake could both destroy life with its venomous bite but also help give life by having its poison turned into medicine. Kinda like the ancient symbol of ouroboros, the snake or dragon devouring its own tail, destroying and renewing itself at the same time.

There might be some connection between this and the way ancient people viewed their creation goddesses like Gaia or Tiamet? Gaia was so powerful that not only did she give birth to all of creation but she could also destroy her own creations too, and she even tried to destroy the gods themselves for overthrowing the titans who were her other children by giving birth to monsterous giants like Typhon.

And this snake symbolism is like something I think speaks to the role women played in actual childbirth. They could give a new life either through birth or they could lose a life through stillbirth, sometimes losing their own lives in the process. And of course there's also abortion which has been practiced for thousands of years in places like Ancient Egypt for example...

Childbirth was probably a very mysterious thing to a lot of ancient humans back in the day I'm sure.

So yeah, snakes seem perfect as both phalic symbols and as symbols for childbirth.