So I was reading up about Medusa on Wikipedia, and I noticed something they didn't tell me in elementary school: You know how Medusa became so hideous? Poseidon raped her in a temple of Athena. (The winged horse Pegasus and his giant brother Chrysaor were conceived there.) Athena was pissed off, but of course she didn't take it out on Poseidon. No, she decided to punish Medusa for the horrible crime of allowing herself to be raped, by making her so hideous no man could look at her again without being turned to stone. :\
Poor Medusa. I'd chalk this up to messed up ancient Greek morality, but of course there are still plenty of misogynistic societies today that punish women for being raped.
Comments (2)
So true! Happens a lot to the raped Greek girls. Either they get mangled, or their offspring do.
Posted by Audrey | March 23, 2008
Posted on March 23, 2008
Poor Medusa. :-( I took a Greek and Roman myth class in college that went into some of the more unpleasant aspects of these myths (though most of them aren't the least bit pleasant to begin with), and I'm not even sure we discussed this! I'm going to have to look in my old textbook and see if that info's there.
Posted by Radhika | March 24, 2008
Posted on March 24, 2008