Medusa : Monster or Victim

 Medusa is one of the most interesting figures of Greek mythology. For those who don't know her by name her description will help , she is a woman with snakes in her head in place of hairs and whoever looks into her eyes turns to stone . Remember her now ! , She has prominently taken place in modern day urban fantasy and mythological fiction and has been a figure of fascination for writers and scholars alike. But the question still hangs in air , who is Medusa and what is her story?

Most may think that mythology is a bunch of baseless story, but is it or it is just a cryptic message telling us to decipher the truth of the society at that time. You see there are many versions of the same story so it is hard to understand which one is real and which is a diverted  .

But in the end the main story revolves around Poseidon and Athena's rivalry and Medusa was their scapegoat . The rivalry of Athena and Poseidon dates back to the creation of Athens , they both wanted to be the patrons of the city and so a competition was arranged , the one who could give the best gift to Athens will be their patron. Athena gave the olive tree and Poseidon a fountain but unfortunately the fountain had salty water instead of sweet water. So obviously the Athens choose Athena as their goddess and not Poseidon. Thus Poseidon was pissed and wanted to have revenge.

Then he met medusa , her beauty attracted him , well you see medusa wasn't always a snake woman . She was beautiful with long hairs and startling eyes , eyes so  gorgeous that anyone could drown in them . Some stories claim that Medusa was also a priestess of the temple of Athena but other say that she was an ordinary mortal. Priestess or not she was beautiful and had an affair with Poseidon. Now there are many versions of story that predict Medusa willingly had sexual intercourse with Poseidon while few others claim she was raped by him . So willingly or unwillingly Poseidon did it at the shrine of Athena.

That's it Poseidon wanted revenge so what better way to do it , than taking away the virginity of a girl at the feet of the goddess who herself is eternal maiden. Athena got blind with anger but she could do anything to a god so her rage was directed to Medusa . She cursed Medusa in such a way that no one can ever look into her eyes again without turning into stones and each strand of her hair turned into a snake. As usual Poseidon ran away without giving the girl a second look . Coward . 

See Poseidon ran away without getting any punishment while it was the woman who got to face the society. After sometime Athena turned a bit soft towards her and turned her sisters to Gorgons so that they could take care of Medusa. 

Now let us try to decipher the story forget about the curses and think Medusa as an ordinary woman , a woman who fell in love with a man . She loved him with all of her heart but then she was betrayed , tortured  ,raped by him and in the end thrown away like a tissue paper . ( Getting the familiarity of the story). Now do you remember I told that medusa was beautiful, maybe that was just not only from outside but from inside too. Maybe it was her beautiful and inexperienced soul that attracted everyone but to much attention comes with a price , maybe there were people who were jealous of her and when her lover left her they made sure that she would never find anyone to heal her broken heart again. She was thrown away by the society tainted as a bad omen . Now what about her eyes , the pretty eyes that can pull you in trance . Eyes are the doorway to the soul right!  Maybe the person who dared to look into her deep eyes was petrified because of what he saw  , because of the unattended wounds of her heart because of that scars that still bleed but Moreover maybe because she smiled even with the intense pain engulfing her. Her sisters the only family she had , the ones who stood with her were also thrown away by the society.

Then again she was accused to turn people into stone just for fun . She was looked down as the villan who lead innocent people to their deaths  turning them to stone statues in her garden but what if the story is just metamorphosed what if the snakes on her head depicted the her intense venom against the society which destroyed her . What if the persons who came to her garden saw her and heard her story never left because they supported her , may be that's why the society called her a villain because even after everything they couldn't stop her from being the centre of attraction . When they couldn't stop Medusa even after everything  ,they threw the last straw ,they sent someone to kill her and warned him not to look into her eyes (in ordinary words don't believe her).

So we have the hero Perseus who slayed the Gorgon Medusa.

End of story 

Or is it

Because even after so many eon's  of her demise she is still the image of admiration and inspiration among a large section of people. Her strength and endurance is still talked upon . So the society failed to dominate the villain or was she just another victim of the society. In the end it depends on us what we want to believe or what we think. Was Medusa a hero or villain depends on us.

                            _ blue rose belles

                                       ( Archie)

Vampire reality

'Vampire' is a term very much common and associated in modern supernatural fiction. Some imagine them as deadly creatures sucking on human blood while others find them handsome and charming. It's not astonishing that after books like twilight, vampire academy , vampire diaries, etc half of the teen girls want a vampire boyfriend.

But how exactly has the myth of vampires came into existence have you ever wondered?

No, not everyone had thought about it right! The actual myth developed somewhere in Ireland long ago. The first traces of vampiric creatures were found in Irish or Celtic mythology.

But the question still remains.Are vampires real?

Don't be surprised when I tell you yes

Vampires are real.

But they are not as we imagined them.

The real life vampires are basically humans, yes humans who are diagnosed with a disease called vampirism. In this disease people have tendency to drink blood, you can say they are addicted to it. The disease starts due to allergic reactions of certain compounds with blood that makes these people addicted to drinking blood. The clinical term for this disease is Renfield's syndrome after Dr. Renfield, who first did a research on the disease.

Now how many of us remember Prince Vlad V of Wallachia, yup I am talking about the infamous Dracula. According to many he had an immense bloodlust, he used to torture people by impaling their living body on stakes. In 1985, Dr. Thomas McDevitt suggested that Dracula suffered from an allergic reaction to blood which made him obsessed with it. Moreover the prince is seen with dark circles , puffy cheeks and a pale complexion in some of his portraits , these are surprisingly the some characteristic features of allergic reactions also. So Bram Stoker may not be completely lying about vampires.

Now coming to the superstitions like stake to the heart, burning in fire or beheading are the only way to kill  vampires. But don't you think that even a normal human being would have been killed in this way.

In late nineteenth century and early twentieth century many people in Romania went on digging graves to burn bodies in the belief that the dead person are somehow transformed into vampires . An interesting article tells the story of a little boy who had gone ill just after his sisters and mother died. The villagers thought that the someone dead from his family was 'feeding' on him which was degrading his health. So, they performed the ritual of digging up their graves and burning their hearts . Then they actually made a concoction with the burned ashes and fed it to the boy. The boy died next day. 

Sometime in 1982, Professor David Dolphin explained a congenital blood disorder called iron deficiency porphyria as the Dracula disease. In this disease irons and porphyrins cannot form complex compounds. Interestingly due to the presence iron free porphyrins skin lesions and other skin disfigurements are caused due to the start of a chain reaction which is stimulated by sunlight . So the affected people avoid daytime. Another characteristics of these disease is tightening of gums that makes their teeth to protude.

In this disease any substance that destroys 'haem' of hemoglobin is lethal to the patient. Now garlic activates cytochromeP450 that is an 'haem' destroying enzyme.

So next time if you meet someone with sunlight allergy or protruding teeth, don't  go around running with garlic bread to prove they are vampires.

Lastly real vampires don't live long. Most of them die due to iron overload or excessive allergic reactions. They may not be the prince charming since these disease takes toll on body giving rise to heavy dark circles and excessive hairloss if not treated properly. 

 My advice would be next time you read a vampire novel do consider from where the myths arises.

                                                 

                                                 ----- Blue rose belles  (Archie)