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)
