DID POSEIDON RAPE MEDUSA HOW TO

In a way, as I finished the myth, I realized that I’m monstrous for not listening to Medusa’s story all these years. But most of all, it’s the people who actively choose to not look further into a victim’s story. But in reality, the real monsters are rapists like Poseidon, abusers like Perseus and victim-blamers like Athena and Ovid. How many times have you heard the news call a victim an instigator? We turn the people who need our help the most into monsters.

Instead, people turn them into something or someone they’re not. We don’t listen to victims now, much less hundreds of years ago. It’s even more tragic that history remembers Medusa as a monster and not the victim that she was. She had no agency over her body and lived in a continuous cycle of abuse through being passed on from man to man. Medusa, in life, lived the same way that she had in death. Then he decides that killing Medusa isn’t enough, but he has to keep her body as some sort of trophy. As mentioned earlier, he does this completely invisible, without warning or a hint of fairness. But to be turned into a literal monster by the woman who you worshipped after you were raped? It’s a fate worse than death. It’s hard to feel comfortable, much less beautiful, in a rape victim’s body. Then she is turned into a monster and essentially stripped of her identity. First, she was sexually abused and punished for it by a woman who had the power to help her. It’s a story so powerful and relevant to today’s society, I couldn’t help but cry for Medusa. The scary part of the myth of Medusa is that she’s a rape victim with no support system. The reader can deduce that she’s still with some hero waiting to be used as a weapon again. There’s no other conclusion to Medusa’s story. Throughout many myths, Medusa is used as a weapon by other male heroes.

Instead, he takes Medusa’s head and uses her as a weapon to turn others to stone. But taking Medusa’s life isn’t enough for Perseus. Perseus cloaks himself in an invisibility cap and slays her without warning or a fair fight. After many years, the Greek hero Perseus is sent to look for Medusa and kill her. This is where almost all stories of Medusa merge together. Because if a woman is raped, the first question is, “What was she doing to put herself into danger?” I could almost see Athena’s thought process: “What is Medusa wearing? What does Medusa look like? Why was she alone in that temple? Of course she deserves to be punished.” It’d be a tragedy to not mention that Ovid writes that this was a punishment well-earned by Medusa. However, instead of being upset with the Poseidon, she blamed the victim, a choice that is soberingly relevant to today’s society.Īs punishment, Athena cursed Medusa to have an appearance so ugly it would cause people to turn to stone if they looked at her. Athena heard about this and was upset about the situation. Instead of taking no for an answer, Poseidon brutally attacked and raped Medusa inside of Athena’s temple. There was a problem though Medusa had taken an oath of chastity in order to serve the virgin goddess Athena in her temple. In fact, she was gorgeous and attracted the attention of the sea god Poseidon. Relatable, right?īut in Ovid’s version (a famed poet who wrote myths), Medusa was born a woman. In the version of the myth I’m familiar with, Medusa was born a gorgon and hated life until she had stopped living. It wasn’t until I heard a group of friends analyze Medusa did I realize how wrong I was. In a world where people can turn to trees and goddesses are birthed from heads, this was low on the excitement scale. Then she was the crazy snake lady who turned people into stone because Perseus told her to. She was the crazy snake lady who turned people into stone until she was stopped by Perseus. One of my least favorite stories was Medusa because it was a little too black and white for me.

DID POSEIDON RAPE MEDUSA HOW TO

I loved the stories of gods who acted more like humans and how people in the past learned how to make sense of the world. When I was younger, I found myself enchanted with myths. However, this is misrepresentation, as she was a victim and not the monster of her story. Medusa is often pictured as a monster in art, such as in this piece by Caravaggio.

Did poseidon rape medusa