I can't believe I've never posted in this thread!
I've been "Medusa" in various online spaces since 1996 but my penchant for all things snakey-haired-goddess goes way, WAY back to my childhood.
I first watched "Clash of the Titans" (the really awesome campy one from 1981) when I was 5 years old and immediately was intrigued by this creepy snakewoman who was basically minding her own business off in this banged up temple when all these assholes came and murdered her because they needed her head.
I begged my step-dad for stories about Medusa and he set about reading stories to me from a huge stack of books that lived on my nightstand for a couple of years. He made stories up when we ran out of Greek tales and I combed encyclopedias and art journals for pictures of what she might have looked like.
In many of the stories, Medusa had been a virginal fair maiden and a priestess of Athena (and granddaughter of Gaea!) and had been devoted to a life of purity until Poseidon came along and she fell for him. She was cursed after getting down with Poseidon in Athena's temple and turned from a beautiul maiden into the snakewoman.
As a child, I identified with the idea that this woman had done nothing really wrong other than fall in love (my step-dad protected me from the sex stuff) and also how she lived by herself after being turned to a snake and all these warriors basically kept coming to try and kill her.
As a young adult, I identified more with "love turns you ugly" after having been through a couple of hellish breakups.
As a woman, I identify with the "death-stare" aka how I can look upon someone and turn them to stone. And this is more about personal power than anything (and that thing where I don't put up with people's shit).
But also? I identify with the idea that it isn't really love that turns us ugly, but rather other people's perceptions of how we live our lives. And that doesn't make
us ugly, it just speaks to how other people draw pictures of us in their minds when they often don't know shit about us.
And I'm actually ok being misunderstood. I'm also ok keeping to myself in abandoned temples.
I've also learned that if I'm minding my own, slithering through my life and not bothering anyone else, anyone who comes for me because of what they think they can get from me better bring a fucking army.
And it's not even that I'm bitter or whatever, because I'm pretty happy and optimistic.
I still think of the figure of Medusa as a beautiful, fierce Goddess...just with little pet snakes who are wildly protective.
Besides?
There's this:
