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MEDUSA'S RULE

6/12/2017

4 Comments

 
When you hear the name medusa, the first thought that runs through your mind is of the gorgon. Well, there's more to the word, in the past and present. Medusa is a name as Greek as the myth, but the word goes back to Ancient Greek medein, "to protect" (that's, ironically, just how the name worked out). Probably through Proto-Hellenic, this traces to the Proto-Indo-European root med, which meant "to take measures", since protection requires taking measures to ensure it be so. Med is also the root of the English word mode, through Latin modus and Old French mode. Now, the word Medusa has been in English for a very long time, but a newer definition emerged when Carolus Linnaeus used it to describe a jellyfish species, and indeed the name still exists today. So two descendants of the Greek word for "protector" do exactly the opposite of protecting: one petrifies, the other stuns. Weird.
4 Comments
Krista
5/26/2020 11:36:58 am

Is not the one who petrifies and stuns protecting themselves?
Is there not more than one perspective of any given situation or story?

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Medusa's backstory is explored. After being raped, she becomes a Protector and Guardian.

"She was once most beautiful, and the jealous aspiration of many suitors. Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair: I came across a man who recalled having seen her. They say that Neptune, lord of the seas, violated her in the temple of Minerva. Jupiter’s daughter turned away, and hid her chaste eyes behind her aegis. So that it might not go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon’s hair to foul snakes. And now, to terrify her enemies, numbing them with fear, the goddess wears the snakes . . ."
(https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph4.htm#478205208)

So you see, Medusa is a Protector.
Finally we are in a time when we can name Rape Culture-- hegemonic and insidious-- that has created and framed Medusa's story for ages.

I pray that we create a world soon, where rape and exploitation do not exist.
Where beauty, consent, and respect thrive.
May this be Medusa's rule.

Sources:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D706

https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph4.htm#478205208

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxwax/medusa-greek-myth-rape-victim-turned-into-a-monster

Reply
Alexandra
8/15/2020 09:36:20 pm

Thank you sistar Krista! Precisely my sentiments. <3

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Krista
8/17/2020 09:12:49 pm

<3 Thank YOU, siSTAR! <3

Michelle
11/21/2021 02:06:20 pm

Krista and Alexandra, I concur. The gods punish the human though they allowed her flesh to be used as an object....doesn't make sense. I feel like there is another storyline within the names in these legends. Medusa's head saves Perseus, who saves Andromeda. MEDusa and androMEDa....Andromeda in her plight as a result of a God's reaction...

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    AUTHOR

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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a senior studying government and linguistics at Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law. 
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