July 19, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of 'Old Gods and New Pagans,' host Matt Holloway delves into the true origins of Medusa's myth. Discover why the well-known tale of Medusa being punished after being assaulted by Poseidon is actually a Roman addition that came centuries later. Revisit the ancient Greek portrayal of Medusa as a powerful protector rather than a victim. Understand the cultural shifts that led to the dramatic reinterpretations of her story, and explore the implications of these myths in both ancient and modern contexts.
00:00 Welcome to Old Gods and New Pagans
01:52 Medusa: The Original Myth
05:56 The Roman Retelling of Medusa
10:04 Why the Roman Version Stuck
12:34 Medusa as a Protector in Ancient Times
15:06 Modern Reclamation of Medusa
17:01 Navigating Between Ancient and Modern Interpretations
19:15 Conclusion: The Power of the Original Medusa
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello there and welcome to Old Gods and New
Pagans.
I'm your host, matt Holloway,your guide to the wonderful and
wild world of pagan traditions.
Whether you're a seasoned pagan, a curious newcomer or just
here for the stories, you're inthe right place.
I'm all about exploring ancientwisdom, modern practices and
everything in between.
So grab a cup of tea, anice-cold beer and get
(00:22):
comfortable, and let's dive intotoday's topics.
Remember, nobody has all theanswers, but asking questions
that's where we learn.
Alright, pop quiz.
What do you picture when I sayMedusa?
Let me guess snake hair,turning people to stone,
probably getting her headchopped off by some hero named
Perseus?
Right?
Yeah, I thought so.
(00:43):
Maybe you've heard the versionwhere she was a beautiful
priestess who got assaulted byPoseidon in Athena's temple and
then Athena punished her for itby turning her into a monster.
It's a pretty fucked up story,right?
Well, here's the thing.
What if I told you that thisversion, the one where Medusa is
(01:05):
sexually assaulted and thenblamed for it, isn't actually
the original Greek story at all?
What if I told you that it's aRoman edition that came along
about 700 years later?
Yeah, that's right.
We have been getting this onewrong for centuries, and today
(01:25):
we're going to untangle the realmyths from the later editions,
because understanding wherethese stories actually come from
truly matters, not just formythology junkies like me, but
for anyone who's ever usedMedusa as a symbol of survival,
of protection or of femininepower.
(01:46):
So buckle up, because we'reabout to take a deep dive into
the snake-haired truth.
Chapter 1, the Original Medusa.
Let's start at the beginning,the real beginning.
We're talking about a poemcalled Theogony, written by a
Greek poet named Hesiod around700 BCE, that's about 2,700
(02:09):
years ago, making it one of ourearliest written sources for
Greek mythology.
Now, hesiod wasn't just tellingbedtime stories.
The Theogony was essentiallyancient Greece's family tree of
the gods, a cosmic genealogyexplaining where all these
divine beings came from and howthey were related.
(02:30):
And in this ancient text wemeet Medusa for the first time
in written history.
Here's what Hesiod tells usMedusa was one of three sisters
called the Gorgons.
Their names were Steno, urieland Medusa.
They were born to twoprimordial sea gods, phorces and
(02:52):
Ceto, who were basically thedivine embodiments of the
dangerous, hidden depths of theocean.
These weren't your friendlyneighborhood deities.
These were the gods of seamonsters, of the things that
lurk in the deep and makesailors wake up in a cold sweat.
But here's the crucial detailthat Hesiod gives us Of the
(03:13):
three Gorgon sisters, onlyMedusa was mortal.
Her sisters were immortal andageless, but Medusa, she could
die and eventually she would.
Now about her encounter withPoseidon.
Hesiod does mention this, butlisten to how he describes it
With her lay, the dark-hairedone, often described as Poseidon
(03:39):
, in a soft meadow amid springflowers.
Like I said, the dark-hairedone is Poseidon, god of the sea,
in a soft meadow amid springflowers.
Like I said, the dark-hairedone is Poseidon, god of the sea
and a soft meadow, springflowers.
This doesn't sound like aviolent assault in a temple now,
does it?
It sounds almost peaceful,consensual even Now.
Here's what's really interestingthere's no mention of Athena at
(04:00):
all in this part of the story.
No temple desecration, nopunishment, no transformation
from beautiful woman to monster.
According to Hesiod, whenPerseus eventually kills Medusa,
two creatures spring from herneck the winged horse, pegasus
and a giant named Chrysaor.
Both of them are Poseidon'schildren, conceived in that soft
(04:24):
meadow among the spring flowers.
So even in the earliest versionwe have, medusa isn't
transformed into a monster aspunishment.
She just is a Gorgon.
That's her nature, her identityand her name.
It comes from the Greek wordmeaning to guard or to protect,
not a victim, not punishedGuardian protector.
(04:47):
But here's where it starts toget interesting.
Even though Hesiod describesthe Gorgons as fearsome
creatures, by the time we get toother early Greek sources we
start seeing this shift.
The poet Pindar, writing in 890BCE, refers to fair-cheeked
Medusa.
Fair-cheeked, that meansbeautiful, and this is still 500
(05:11):
years before the Roman poetOvid comes along with his
version.
Greek artists and poets werealready starting to imagine
Medusa as beautiful, not justmonstrous.
We can see this in ancientGreek art too Vase paintings and
sculptures that show Medusawith human features, sometimes
even lovely ones, alongside themore traditional monstrous
(05:32):
depictions, sometimes evenlovely ones alongside the more
traditional monstrous depictions.
So the idea of Medusa asbeautiful wasn't some Roman
innovation.
The Greeks themselves werealready complicating her image,
already seeing her as somethingmore nuanced than just a monster
.
She was becoming what scholarscall a beautiful terror,
something that was bothattractive and dangerous, human
(05:54):
and otherworldly.
Chapter 2.
The Roman Retelling Fastforward about 700 years.
We're now in Rome, about 8 CE,and a poet named Ovid is working
on his masterpiece, theMetamorphosis.
Now, ovid was brilliant, don'tget me wrong.
He was witty, clever and had agift for psychological insight
(06:17):
that was way ahead of his time.
But he was also writing for aRoman audience, in a Roman
context with Roman values andanxieties, and Romans has some
pretty specific ideas aboutwomen, about power and about
sexuality.
Here's Ovid's version, and Iwant you to listen carefully to
(06:39):
the language.
Medusa was originally abeautiful maiden, known
especially for her gorgeous hair.
She caught the attention ofNeptune that's Roman's version
of Poseidon who, according toOvid, raped her in Minerva's
temple.
Now, remember, minerva is theRoman's version of Poseidon, who
, according to Ovid, raped herin Minerva's temple.
Now, remember, minerva is theRoman version of Athena.
So, instead of punishingNeptune, minerva punished Medusa
(07:01):
by transforming her beautifulhair into snakes.
Now, before we go further, Iwant to be absolutely clear
about something Sexual assaultis real.
It's serious and a devastatingcrime that affects countless
people.
If this version of Medusa'sstory speaks to you, if it helps
you process your ownexperiences or those of someone
you care about, that is valid.
(07:24):
Stories can be powerful toolsfor healing and understanding,
regardless of their historicalorigins.
But we also need to understandwhy Ovid might have changed the
story this way, because it tellsus a lot about Roman society
and how those attitudes haveshaped our understanding of
mythology ever since, rome was adeeply patriarchal society,
(07:47):
women had very little legalpower and their sexuality was
seen as something that needed tobe controlled.
Roman literature is full ofstories where women's bodies
become vehicles for morallessons, political allegories
and social anxieties.
Female sexuality in particularwas a big part of the Roman
culture, was often portrayed asdangerous, something that could
(08:09):
bring chaos and destruction ifnot properly managed.
In Ovid's version we seeseveral Roman themes playing out
.
First there's the idea ofsacred space being violated.
Remember, romans took templesanctity very seriously and the
idea of sexual activity in atemple would have been genuinely
(08:32):
shocking to his audience.
But notice who gets punishedNot the god who committed the
assault, but the woman who wasassaulted.
This reflects Roman legal andsocial attitudes, where women
were often held responsible forsexual crimes committed against
them.
There's also the theme oftransformation as a punishment.
(08:52):
Ovid's metamorphosis is full ofstories where people,
especially women, aretransformed into something else
as a consequence of divinedispleasure.
Usually these transformationsare presented as just and
deserved, even when, to ourmodern eyes, they clearly aren't
.
And remember, ovid was alsowriting during the reign of
(09:14):
Augustus, who had implementedstrict moral legislation aimed
at controlling Roman sexuality,particularly women's sexuality.
Some scholars think Ovid's focuson stories of sexual violence
and punishment might have beenhis way of commenting on these
social pressures, though iteventually got him exiled.
So maybe it wasn't as subtle ashe expected.
(09:37):
But here's the key point Ovidwasn't trying to preserve
ancient tradition, he wascreating literature.
He was taking the stories andmaking them speak to his
contemporary audience, becausethat's what good writers do.
The problem comes when weforget that distinction and
start treating his creativeinterpretations as if they were
(09:57):
the original myth, chapter 3.
Why the Change Stuck?
So why did Ovid's versionbecome the one most people know
today?
Why did a Romanreinterpretation from 8 CE
override 700 years of earlierGreek tradition?
Well, partly because the Romansconquered the Greeks, and with
(10:19):
conquest comes culturaldominance.
Roman versions of Greek mythsbecame the standard in much of
the Mediterranean world.
Latin became the language ofscholarship for over a thousand
years in Europe.
So medieval and Renaissancescholars were reading Ovid, not
Hesiod.
But there's something else goingon here, something more
uncomfortable to think about.
(10:40):
Ovid's version stuck because itreinforced ideas about women,
about power and blame, that havebeen depressingly persistent
throughout modern history.
The narrative of the beautifulwoman who is punished for being
victimized fits into patterns ofvictim blaming that we still
see today.
(11:00):
It's the same logic that askswhat a woman was wearing,
whether she was drinking and whyshe was walking alone at night.
It's the same logic thatpunishes women for their
sexuality while excusing othersfor theirs.
This isn't to say that Ovid wasdeliberately trying to promote
victim blaming, though the endresult certainly did that.
(11:22):
But stories don't exist in avacuum.
They reflect and reinforce thevalues of the societies that
told them and, unfortunately,societies that blame women for
male violence have been all toocommon throughout modern history
.
There's another factor, too thevictim-turned-monster narrative
that has kind of a dramaticappeal that the original story
(11:44):
lacks.
It's psychologically complex,emotionally loaded, and gives
Medusa a tragic backstory thatmakes her both sympathetic and
terrifying.
It's the kind of story thatsticks in your mind, that
generates discussion andreinterpretation.
But complexity isn't the samething as authenticity, and
psychological insight isn't thesame thing as historical
(12:07):
accuracy.
Also, the Christian influenceon European culture definitely
played a role.
Early Christian writers wereoften hostile to pagan mythology
, but they were more likely topreserve stories that showed
pagan gods as cruel, unjust orevil, just like Ovid's version,
with its theme of divineinjustice and innocent suffering
(12:28):
, fit that agenda better thanHesiod's.
More straightforward, morepeaceful genealogy, chapter 4.
Medusa as Protector.
Now let's get back to what theGreeks actually thought about
Medusa, because it's prettydifferent from what we might
expect.
Throughout ancient Greek andRoman culture, images of Medusa
were used as protection.
(12:49):
Images of Medusa were used asprotection.
Her face appears on shields,armor, temple facades, household
items, jewelry and even rooftiles.
The technical term for this isapotropaic, meaning something
that wards off evil or harm.
Think about that for a second.
If Medusa were really just avictim, a symbol of
(13:09):
powerlessness and injustice.
Think about that for a second.
If Medusa were really just avictim, a symbol of
powerlessness and injustice,would people put her image on
their shields?
Would they carve her face overthe doorways?
Would Romans carry amulets withher face for protection?
No, they wouldn't.
They used her image becausethey believed she was powerful.
(13:33):
Dangerous, yes, but powerful ina way that could be harnessed
for protection.
There's archaeological evidencefor this all over the ancient
Mediterranean.
Medusa amulets have been foundfrom Britain to Egypt.
Her face appears on coins, onpublic buildings, on private
homes.
This wasn't just artisticdecoration.
(13:54):
It was magical and paganpractice.
People believed that Medusa'simage could protect them from
harm, turn away enemies and wardoff evil influences.
Her name supports thisinterpretation too.
As I mentioned earlier, medusacomes from the Greek verb
meaning to guard or to protect.
That's not the kind of name yougive a victim.
(14:17):
That's the name of a guardian,a sentinel, a fierce protector
who keeps harm at bay.
Even the snake hair, whichmodern interpretations often see
as a symbol of a curse, hadpositive associations.
In ancient cultures, snakeswere symbols of wisdom, of
transformation and of earthenergy.
They were associated withhealing.
(14:39):
Remember the rod of Asclepius,the snake-wrapped staff.
That's still a symbol ofmedicine today.
In ancient cultures, snakeswere protectors of temples and
of sacred places.
So when the Greeks looked atMedusa with her snake hair, they
weren't necessarily seeing acursed victim.
They might have been seeing apowerful guardian spirit crowned
(15:01):
with symbols of wisdom and oftransformation.
Chapter 5.
Modern Reclamation.
Fast forward to today and we'reseeing something interesting
happening with Medusa.
She's being reclaimed,reinterpreted and reimagined by
people who find power in herstory, but often based on that
(15:22):
Roman version, not the Greekoriginal.
Feminist writers and artistshave embraced Medusa as a symbol
of feminine rage, oftransformation through trauma,
of the power that can come fromsurviving victimization.
The French feminist Helene S Icannot pronounce her name wrote
(15:43):
a famous essay called the Laughof the Medusa, arguing that men
turned Medusa into a monsterbecause they feared female
desire and power.
There's the Me Too movement'sadoption of Medusa imagery.
The statue Medusa with the headof Perseus by artist Luciano
was displayed in New York as asymbol of women fighting back
(16:05):
against their abusers.
And you know what that's?
Valid Symbols evolved, mythschange.
If people find strength andmeaning in Medusa as a survivor
figure, that has value,regardless of what the ancient
Greeks thought about her.
But I think it's also worthconsidering what we might gain
by understanding her originalrole as a protector.
(16:26):
What would it mean to have afemale figure who wasn't defined
by her victimization but by herpower, who wasn't transformed
by trauma but who is simplyinherently powerful all by
herself?
For modern pagans working withMedusa, this distinction might
matter significantly.
(16:46):
Are you calling on a victim whofound strength through
suffering, or are you calling onan ancient guardian spirit
whose very essence is protection?
Both can be powerful, but theyare different kinds of power.
Chapter 6.
What this means for us.
So what do we do with all ofthis?
(17:07):
How do we navigate betweenrespecting people's modern
interpretations while alsohonoring ancient traditions?
First, I think we need to getcomfortable with the idea that
myths can have multiple validversions.
The Roman Medusa and the GreekMedusa can coexist in their own
stories and their own meanings.
One doesn't cancel out theother, but we should be honest
(17:31):
about which is which and whenand why different versions
developed.
Second, we need to thinkcritically about the stories we
tell and retell.
When we default to the victimnarrative, what message are we
sending when we focus onMedusa's transformation rather
than her intrinsic power?
What are we saying about wherewomen's strength comes from?
(17:53):
This doesn't mean that theRoman version is wrong or that
people who connect with it aresimply misguided, but it does
mean we should be aware of ourchoices and their implications.
For those of us interested inhistorical pagan practice, this
kind of analysis is crucial.
(18:14):
We want to understand howancient people actually thought
about their gods and spirits.
We need to dig past the laterinterpretations and try to get
back to the source material andnot what was changed and adapted
to fit Christian or Romanaudiences.
And here's the thing the more Ilearn about the original Medusa,
(18:35):
the more powerful she becomesto me, not because she overcame
victimization, but because shenever was a victim in the first
place.
She was always the one with thepower.
There's something deeplysatisfying about that, about
(19:03):
that In a world where women arestill often expected to earn
their power through suffering,where we're told that our
strength must come from ourwounds, here's an ancient figure
who was just powerful, period.
No tragic backstory required.
She had her own power.
So there you have it, folks theMedusa.
You thought you knew the victimwho was punished for her
assault.
That's not the ancient Greekstory.
(19:24):
That's a Roman edition fromover 700 years later, created in
a very different culturalcontext with very different
ideas about women, about powerand blame.
The original Medusa, she, was aprotective figure whose very
name means to guard.
Her image kept evil at bay, notbecause she was a
(19:45):
victim-turned-monster, butbecause she was powerful from
the start.
She was the guardian, whosegaze could turn threats to stone
, whose serpent hair marked heras wise and transformative,
whose fierce protection was sovalued that people carried her
image into battle and carved itover the doorways and wore it on
their person.
Now, this doesn't invalidateanyone's connection to the later
(20:09):
version.
Symbols evolved, as I said, andif Ovid's Medusa speaks to your
experience or gives youstrength, that's meaningful in
its own way and absolutely valid.
But it's worth knowing thedifference between the ancient
tradition and the modernreinterpretation or Roman
reinterpretation, especially ifyou're trying to connect with
(20:30):
historical pagan practices.
Next time someone tells you thatthe assault version is the real
myth, you can politely informthem they're about seven
centuries off, because sometimesknowing the real history is the
best protection of all.
And maybe, just maybe, we mightfind something powerful in the
(20:53):
idea of a feminine divine figurewho didn't need to be broken to
become strong, who was never avictim to begin with and who was
always simply and fiercely justherself.
Thank you for joining me inthis deep dive into snake-haired
truth.
This has been Old Gods and NewPagans.
Again, I'm Matt Holloway.
(21:14):
Until next time, keepquestioning, keep learning and
remember not everything youthink you know about the old
gods is actually old.
Check out the Pagan Temple,thepagantemplecom.
Join the community, enter intothese discussions and, yeah,
let's see what else we can digup.
Hello there and welcome to Old Gods and New
Pagans.
I'm your host, matt Holloway,your guide to the wonderful and
wild world of pagan traditions.
Whether you're a seasoned pagan, a curious newcomer or just
here for the stories, you're inthe right place.
I'm all about exploring ancientwisdom, modern practices and
everything in between.
So grab a cup of tea, anice-cold beer and get
(00:22):
comfortable, and let's dive intotoday's topics.
Remember, nobody has all theanswers, but asking questions
that's where we learn.
Alright, pop quiz.
What do you picture when I sayMedusa?
Let me guess snake hair,turning people to stone,
probably getting her headchopped off by some hero named
Perseus?
Right?
Yeah, I thought so.
(00:43):
Maybe you've heard the versionwhere she was a beautiful
priestess who got assaulted byPoseidon in Athena's temple and
then Athena punished her for itby turning her into a monster.
It's a pretty fucked up story,right?
Well, here's the thing.
What if I told you that thisversion, the one where Medusa is
(01:05):
sexually assaulted and thenblamed for it, isn't actually
the original Greek story at all?
What if I told you that it's aRoman edition that came along
about 700 years later?
Yeah, that's right.
We have been getting this onewrong for centuries, and today
(01:25):
we're going to untangle the realmyths from the later editions,
because understanding wherethese stories actually come from
truly matters, not just formythology junkies like me, but
for anyone who's ever usedMedusa as a symbol of survival,
of protection or of femininepower.
(01:46):
So buckle up, because we'reabout to take a deep dive into
the snake-haired truth.
Chapter 1, the Original Medusa.
Let's start at the beginning,the real beginning.
We're talking about a poemcalled Theogony, written by a
Greek poet named Hesiod around700 BCE, that's about 2,700
(02:09):
years ago, making it one of ourearliest written sources for
Greek mythology.
Now, hesiod wasn't just tellingbedtime stories.
The Theogony was essentiallyancient Greece's family tree of
the gods, a cosmic genealogyexplaining where all these
divine beings came from and howthey were related.
(02:30):
And in this ancient text wemeet Medusa for the first time
in written history.
Here's what Hesiod tells usMedusa was one of three sisters
called the Gorgons.
Their names were Steno, urieland Medusa.
They were born to twoprimordial sea gods, phorces and
(02:52):
Ceto, who were basically thedivine embodiments of the
dangerous, hidden depths of theocean.
These weren't your friendlyneighborhood deities.
These were the gods of seamonsters, of the things that
lurk in the deep and makesailors wake up in a cold sweat.
But here's the crucial detailthat Hesiod gives us Of the
(03:13):
three Gorgon sisters, onlyMedusa was mortal.
Her sisters were immortal andageless, but Medusa, she could
die and eventually she would.
Now about her encounter withPoseidon.
Hesiod does mention this, butlisten to how he describes it
With her lay, the dark-hairedone, often described as Poseidon
(03:39):
, in a soft meadow amid springflowers.
Like I said, the dark-hairedone is Poseidon, god of the sea,
in a soft meadow amid springflowers.
Like I said, the dark-hairedone is Poseidon, god of the sea
and a soft meadow, springflowers.
This doesn't sound like aviolent assault in a temple now,
does it?
It sounds almost peaceful,consensual even Now.
Here's what's really interestingthere's no mention of Athena at
(04:00):
all in this part of the story.
No temple desecration, nopunishment, no transformation
from beautiful woman to monster.
According to Hesiod, whenPerseus eventually kills Medusa,
two creatures spring from herneck the winged horse, pegasus
and a giant named Chrysaor.
Both of them are Poseidon'schildren, conceived in that soft
(04:24):
meadow among the spring flowers.
So even in the earliest versionwe have, medusa isn't
transformed into a monster aspunishment.
She just is a Gorgon.
That's her nature, her identityand her name.
It comes from the Greek wordmeaning to guard or to protect,
not a victim, not punishedGuardian protector.
(04:47):
But here's where it starts toget interesting.
Even though Hesiod describesthe Gorgons as fearsome
creatures, by the time we get toother early Greek sources we
start seeing this shift.
The poet Pindar, writing in 890BCE, refers to fair-cheeked
Medusa.
Fair-cheeked, that meansbeautiful, and this is still 500
(05:11):
years before the Roman poetOvid comes along with his
version.
Greek artists and poets werealready starting to imagine
Medusa as beautiful, not justmonstrous.
We can see this in ancientGreek art too Vase paintings and
sculptures that show Medusawith human features, sometimes
even lovely ones, alongside themore traditional monstrous
(05:32):
depictions, sometimes evenlovely ones alongside the more
traditional monstrous depictions.
So the idea of Medusa asbeautiful wasn't some Roman
innovation.
The Greeks themselves werealready complicating her image,
already seeing her as somethingmore nuanced than just a monster
.
She was becoming what scholarscall a beautiful terror,
something that was bothattractive and dangerous, human
(05:54):
and otherworldly.
Chapter 2.
The Roman Retelling Fastforward about 700 years.
We're now in Rome, about 8 CE,and a poet named Ovid is working
on his masterpiece, theMetamorphosis.
Now, ovid was brilliant, don'tget me wrong.
He was witty, clever and had agift for psychological insight
(06:17):
that was way ahead of his time.
But he was also writing for aRoman audience, in a Roman
context with Roman values andanxieties, and Romans has some
pretty specific ideas aboutwomen, about power and about
sexuality.
Here's Ovid's version, and Iwant you to listen carefully to
(06:39):
the language.
Medusa was originally abeautiful maiden, known
especially for her gorgeous hair.
She caught the attention ofNeptune that's Roman's version
of Poseidon who, according toOvid, raped her in Minerva's
temple.
Now, remember, minerva is theRoman's version of Poseidon, who
, according to Ovid, raped herin Minerva's temple.
Now, remember, minerva is theRoman version of Athena.
So, instead of punishingNeptune, minerva punished Medusa
(07:01):
by transforming her beautifulhair into snakes.
Now, before we go further, Iwant to be absolutely clear
about something Sexual assaultis real.
It's serious and a devastatingcrime that affects countless
people.
If this version of Medusa'sstory speaks to you, if it helps
you process your ownexperiences or those of someone
you care about, that is valid.
(07:24):
Stories can be powerful toolsfor healing and understanding,
regardless of their historicalorigins.
But we also need to understandwhy Ovid might have changed the
story this way, because it tellsus a lot about Roman society
and how those attitudes haveshaped our understanding of
mythology ever since, rome was adeeply patriarchal society,
(07:47):
women had very little legalpower and their sexuality was
seen as something that needed tobe controlled.
Roman literature is full ofstories where women's bodies
become vehicles for morallessons, political allegories
and social anxieties.
Female sexuality in particularwas a big part of the Roman
culture, was often portrayed asdangerous, something that could
(08:09):
bring chaos and destruction ifnot properly managed.
In Ovid's version we seeseveral Roman themes playing out
.
First there's the idea ofsacred space being violated.
Remember, romans took templesanctity very seriously and the
idea of sexual activity in atemple would have been genuinely
(08:32):
shocking to his audience.
But notice who gets punishedNot the god who committed the
assault, but the woman who wasassaulted.
This reflects Roman legal andsocial attitudes, where women
were often held responsible forsexual crimes committed against
them.
There's also the theme oftransformation as a punishment.
(08:52):
Ovid's metamorphosis is full ofstories where people,
especially women, aretransformed into something else
as a consequence of divinedispleasure.
Usually these transformationsare presented as just and
deserved, even when, to ourmodern eyes, they clearly aren't
.
And remember, ovid was alsowriting during the reign of
(09:14):
Augustus, who had implementedstrict moral legislation aimed
at controlling Roman sexuality,particularly women's sexuality.
Some scholars think Ovid's focuson stories of sexual violence
and punishment might have beenhis way of commenting on these
social pressures, though iteventually got him exiled.
So maybe it wasn't as subtle ashe expected.
(09:37):
But here's the key point Ovidwasn't trying to preserve
ancient tradition, he wascreating literature.
He was taking the stories andmaking them speak to his
contemporary audience, becausethat's what good writers do.
The problem comes when weforget that distinction and
start treating his creativeinterpretations as if they were
(09:57):
the original myth, chapter 3.
Why the Change Stuck?
So why did Ovid's versionbecome the one most people know
today?
Why did a Romanreinterpretation from 8 CE
override 700 years of earlierGreek tradition?
Well, partly because the Romansconquered the Greeks, and with
(10:19):
conquest comes culturaldominance.
Roman versions of Greek mythsbecame the standard in much of
the Mediterranean world.
Latin became the language ofscholarship for over a thousand
years in Europe.
So medieval and Renaissancescholars were reading Ovid, not
Hesiod.
But there's something else goingon here, something more
uncomfortable to think about.
(10:40):
Ovid's version stuck because itreinforced ideas about women,
about power and blame, that havebeen depressingly persistent
throughout modern history.
The narrative of the beautifulwoman who is punished for being
victimized fits into patterns ofvictim blaming that we still
see today.
(11:00):
It's the same logic that askswhat a woman was wearing,
whether she was drinking and whyshe was walking alone at night.
It's the same logic thatpunishes women for their
sexuality while excusing othersfor theirs.
This isn't to say that Ovid wasdeliberately trying to promote
victim blaming, though the endresult certainly did that.
(11:22):
But stories don't exist in avacuum.
They reflect and reinforce thevalues of the societies that
told them and, unfortunately,societies that blame women for
male violence have been all toocommon throughout modern history
.
There's another factor, too thevictim-turned-monster narrative
that has kind of a dramaticappeal that the original story
(11:44):
lacks.
It's psychologically complex,emotionally loaded, and gives
Medusa a tragic backstory thatmakes her both sympathetic and
terrifying.
It's the kind of story thatsticks in your mind, that
generates discussion andreinterpretation.
But complexity isn't the samething as authenticity, and
psychological insight isn't thesame thing as historical
(12:07):
accuracy.
Also, the Christian influenceon European culture definitely
played a role.
Early Christian writers wereoften hostile to pagan mythology
, but they were more likely topreserve stories that showed
pagan gods as cruel, unjust orevil, just like Ovid's version,
with its theme of divineinjustice and innocent suffering
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, fit that agenda better thanHesiod's.
More straightforward, morepeaceful genealogy, chapter 4.
Medusa as Protector.
Now let's get back to what theGreeks actually thought about
Medusa, because it's prettydifferent from what we might
expect.
Throughout ancient Greek andRoman culture, images of Medusa
were used as protection.
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Images of Medusa were used asprotection.
Her face appears on shields,armor, temple facades, household
items, jewelry and even rooftiles.
The technical term for this isapotropaic, meaning something
that wards off evil or harm.
Think about that for a second.
If Medusa were really just avictim, a symbol of
(13:09):
powerlessness and injustice.
Think about that for a second.
If Medusa were really just avictim, a symbol of
powerlessness and injustice,would people put her image on
their shields?
Would they carve her face overthe doorways?
Would Romans carry amulets withher face for protection?
No, they wouldn't.
They used her image becausethey believed she was powerful.
(13:33):
Dangerous, yes, but powerful ina way that could be harnessed
for protection.
There's archaeological evidencefor this all over the ancient
Mediterranean.
Medusa amulets have been foundfrom Britain to Egypt.
Her face appears on coins, onpublic buildings, on private
homes.
This wasn't just artisticdecoration.
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It was magical and paganpractice.
People believed that Medusa'simage could protect them from
harm, turn away enemies and wardoff evil influences.
Her name supports thisinterpretation too.
As I mentioned earlier, medusacomes from the Greek verb
meaning to guard or to protect.
That's not the kind of name yougive a victim.
(14:17):
That's the name of a guardian,a sentinel, a fierce protector
who keeps harm at bay.
Even the snake hair, whichmodern interpretations often see
as a symbol of a curse, hadpositive associations.
In ancient cultures, snakeswere symbols of wisdom, of
transformation and of earthenergy.
They were associated withhealing.
(14:39):
Remember the rod of Asclepius,the snake-wrapped staff.
That's still a symbol ofmedicine today.
In ancient cultures, snakeswere protectors of temples and
of sacred places.
So when the Greeks looked atMedusa with her snake hair, they
weren't necessarily seeing acursed victim.
They might have been seeing apowerful guardian spirit crowned
(15:01):
with symbols of wisdom and oftransformation.
Chapter 5.
Modern Reclamation.
Fast forward to today and we'reseeing something interesting
happening with Medusa.
She's being reclaimed,reinterpreted and reimagined by
people who find power in herstory, but often based on that
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Roman version, not the Greekoriginal.
Feminist writers and artistshave embraced Medusa as a symbol
of feminine rage, oftransformation through trauma,
of the power that can come fromsurviving victimization.
The French feminist Helene S Icannot pronounce her name wrote
(15:43):
a famous essay called the Laughof the Medusa, arguing that men
turned Medusa into a monsterbecause they feared female
desire and power.
There's the Me Too movement'sadoption of Medusa imagery.
The statue Medusa with the headof Perseus by artist Luciano
was displayed in New York as asymbol of women fighting back
(16:05):
against their abusers.
And you know what that's?
Valid Symbols evolved, mythschange.
If people find strength andmeaning in Medusa as a survivor
figure, that has value,regardless of what the ancient
Greeks thought about her.
But I think it's also worthconsidering what we might gain
by understanding her originalrole as a protector.
(16:26):
What would it mean to have afemale figure who wasn't defined
by her victimization but by herpower, who wasn't transformed
by trauma but who is simplyinherently powerful all by
herself?
For modern pagans working withMedusa, this distinction might
matter significantly.
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Are you calling on a victim whofound strength through
suffering, or are you calling onan ancient guardian spirit
whose very essence is protection?
Both can be powerful, but theyare different kinds of power.
Chapter 6.
What this means for us.
So what do we do with all ofthis?
(17:07):
How do we navigate betweenrespecting people's modern
interpretations while alsohonoring ancient traditions?
First, I think we need to getcomfortable with the idea that
myths can have multiple validversions.
The Roman Medusa and the GreekMedusa can coexist in their own
stories and their own meanings.
One doesn't cancel out theother, but we should be honest
(17:31):
about which is which and whenand why different versions
developed.
Second, we need to thinkcritically about the stories we
tell and retell.
When we default to the victimnarrative, what message are we
sending when we focus onMedusa's transformation rather
than her intrinsic power?
What are we saying about wherewomen's strength comes from?
(17:53):
This doesn't mean that theRoman version is wrong or that
people who connect with it aresimply misguided, but it does
mean we should be aware of ourchoices and their implications.
For those of us interested inhistorical pagan practice, this
kind of analysis is crucial.
(18:14):
We want to understand howancient people actually thought
about their gods and spirits.
We need to dig past the laterinterpretations and try to get
back to the source material andnot what was changed and adapted
to fit Christian or Romanaudiences.
And here's the thing the more Ilearn about the original Medusa,
(18:35):
the more powerful she becomesto me, not because she overcame
victimization, but because shenever was a victim in the first
place.
She was always the one with thepower.
There's something deeplysatisfying about that, about
(19:03):
that In a world where women arestill often expected to earn
their power through suffering,where we're told that our
strength must come from ourwounds, here's an ancient figure
who was just powerful, period.
No tragic backstory required.
She had her own power.
So there you have it, folks theMedusa.
You thought you knew the victimwho was punished for her
assault.
That's not the ancient Greekstory.
(19:24):
That's a Roman edition fromover 700 years later, created in
a very different culturalcontext with very different
ideas about women, about powerand blame.
The original Medusa, she, was aprotective figure whose very
name means to guard.
Her image kept evil at bay, notbecause she was a
(19:45):
victim-turned-monster, butbecause she was powerful from
the start.
She was the guardian, whosegaze could turn threats to stone
, whose serpent hair marked heras wise and transformative,
whose fierce protection was sovalued that people carried her
image into battle and carved itover the doorways and wore it on
their person.
Now, this doesn't invalidateanyone's connection to the later
(20:09):
version.
Symbols evolved, as I said, andif Ovid's Medusa speaks to your
experience or gives youstrength, that's meaningful in
its own way and absolutely valid.
But it's worth knowing thedifference between the ancient
tradition and the modernreinterpretation or Roman
reinterpretation, especially ifyou're trying to connect with
(20:30):
historical pagan practices.
Next time someone tells you thatthe assault version is the real
myth, you can politely informthem they're about seven
centuries off, because sometimesknowing the real history is the
best protection of all.
And maybe, just maybe, we mightfind something powerful in the
(20:53):
idea of a feminine divine figurewho didn't need to be broken to
become strong, who was never avictim to begin with and who was
always simply and fiercely justherself.
Thank you for joining me inthis deep dive into snake-haired
truth.
This has been Old Gods and NewPagans.
Again, I'm Matt Holloway.
(21:14):
Until next time, keepquestioning, keep learning and
remember not everything youthink you know about the old
gods is actually old.
Check out the Pagan Temple,thepagantemplecom.
Join the community, enter intothese discussions and, yeah,
let's see what else we can digup.
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