Gorgon
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In Greek mythology, the Gorgon (plural: Gorgons) (Greek: Γοργών or Γοργώ Gorgon/Gorgo, "terrible" or, according to some, "loud-roaring") was a vicious female monster with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes.
The mythological monster Medusa and other Gorgons have featured in art and culture from the days of ancient Greece to the modern day. She has been variously portrayed as a monster, a protective symbol, a rallying symbol for liberty and a sympathetic rape victim.
Perhaps best-recognized by her head of living snakes and ability to turn living creatures to stone, Medusa is an ancient icon that remains "one of the most popular and enduring figures of Greek mythology" and "continues to live on in the popular imagination" though other figures are forgotten.
Her likeness has been immortalized by numerous artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin and Benvenuto Cellini.<ref name="Mystery 200">Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, pg. 200</ref>
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Ancient times to Renaissance
[[File:Perseus Cellini Loggia dei Lanzi 2005 09 13.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Cellini's bronze statue of Perseus with the Head of Medusa, completed in the Renaissance]]
The Medusa or Gorgon head, the Gorgoneion, was used in the ancient world as a protective apotropaic symbol. Among the Ancient Greeks, it was the most widely-used image intended to avert evil. Medusa's goggling eyes, fangs and protruding tongue head were depicted as mounted on the shield of Athena herself.<ref>Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, pp 196ff.</ref> Its use in this fashion is depicted in the Alexander Mosaic, a Roman mosaic (ca. 200 BC) in Pompeii. In some cruder representations, the blood flowing under the head can be mistaken for a beard.
By the Renaissance, artists depicted Medusa's head held aloft by the realistic human form of the triumphant hero Perseus (such as in the 1554 bronze statue Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini) or evoked horror by making Medusa's detached head the main subject (as demonstrated by the 1597 painting Medusa by Baroque originator Caravaggio).<ref>Might Medici, By Robert Hughes, Time, Dec. 05, 2002</ref>
19th century
After the French Revolution, Medusa was used as a popular emblem of Jacobinism and was often displayed as a figure of "French Liberty" in opposition to "English Liberty," personified by Athena (whose shield bore Medusa's head).<ref>Judson, B. (2001). The Politics of Medusa: Shelley's Physiognomy of Revolution. ELH. 68(1), 135-154.</ref> "To radicals like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Medusa was an "abject hero," a victim of tyranny whose weakness, disfiguration, and monstrous mutilation become in themselves a kind of revolutionary power."<ref>"Ekphrasis and the Other" by W. J. T. Mitchell, excerpted from Picture Theory(The University of Chicago Press);the paper originally appeared in South Atlantic Quarterly XCI (Summer 1992), pg. 695-719.</ref> Shelley's 1819 poem, On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery was published posthomously by his wife Mary Shelley in 1824.<ref>Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The Complete Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 14 June 1994, pg. 621, ISBN 0-679-60111-2.</ref> Octave Mirbeau's use of Medusa during this time has also been examined.<ref> Claude Herzfeld, La Figure de Méduse dans l'œuvre d'Octave Mirbeau, Librairie Nizet, Paris, 1992, 107 pages.</ref>
Modern use
Having become "one of the most recognizable images of Greek mythology," Medusa has been featured on the cover of nearly every paperback edition of Edith Hamilton's popular book Mythology since 1942, as well as editions of Bulfinch's Mythology.<ref name="Mystery 200"/> Medusa has made countless appearances in animation. Gorgons are also mentioned in Charles Dickens' book A Tale of Two Cities.
Pop culture
Medusa is one of the main villains in the anime/manga series Soul Eater
Films
[[File:Medusa-ClashofTitans.jpg|220px|thumb|Medusa from Clash of the Titans.]] It has been suggested that "most people today who are aware of the story of Perseus and Medusa owe their knowledge to the 1981 film Clash of the Titans."<ref>Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, pg. 209.</ref> The battle with Medusa was memorable for its use of stop motion animation by special effects creator Ray Harryhausen. Cursed by being turned from beautiful to ugly, the Medusa of Clash has snakes for hair and a snake-like lower body; in addition to turning people to stone with her gaze, she uses arrows, and unnerves enemies with the rattle on the tip of her tail. Her blood is able to dissolve a metal shield, and drops of it later transform into fearsome giant scorpions; Medusa's decapitated head also retains its power to turn creatures to stone.<ref>Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, pg. 214</ref> Though "the essential story sticks closer to its sources than any other interpretation," the film takes creative liberties and Medusa is imagined differently than "any previous representations, ancient or modern."<ref>Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, pg. 210.</ref> Medusa is also featured in the film's 2010 remake, where the heroes must acquire her head in order to defeat a Titan.<ref>http://scifiwire.com/2009/12/medusa-kraken-revealed-in.php</ref> In 2012, Medusa was depicted in the film Dante's Inferno Animated, which was introduced at the Cannes Film Festival.
Medusa appears in the film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, played by Uma Thurman, where she attacks Percy Jackson and his friends while seeking the Pearl of Persephone in her garden centre, populated by various statues of people she has turned to stone. She is defeated when Percy's allies drive a car through a wall while Medusa is distracted with Percy, allowing Percy time to escape and decapitate her.
The myth of the Gorgon had also been notably updated and used as the basis for the 1964 Hammer horror film The Gorgon, which "abandoned the traditional myth entirely and tried to tell a new story." This version takes place in a German village where a series of victims suffer mysterious and gradual petrification; it is ultimately revealed that the spirit of an ancient Gorgon has possessed a certain resident, who subsequently transforms into a Gorgon during the full moon. When she is decapitated, her head returns to that of the human woman.<ref>Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, pg. 207.</ref>
Medusa was also the villain in the Blood Ties episode "Stone Cold", where private investigator Vicki Nelson and her vampire partner Henry Fitzroy were investigating disappearances at a club run by Medusa after she assumed a human appearance. In this version, Medusa's transformation is the result of Poseidon raping her in Athena's temple, with Athena cursing her as a punishment; all her victims are men who were attracted to the beauty of her human form as she believes that they are only interested in her physical beauty. Vicki finally decapitates Medusa after she turns Henry to stone, with Medusa's decapitation returning her victims to normal.
Gaming
Medusa and gorgons have been featured in gaming since the advent of role-playing games (RPGs). The seminal RPG Dungeons and Dragons classifies Medusa as a species of monster and Gorgons as scale-covered ox-like creatures that breathe out a gas that turns victims to stone.
Medusa and gorgons are featured in many popular video games as well. For example, in the role-playing video game Final Fantasy X, the boss Yunalesca, appearance during her second and final forms is modeled after her. The God of War series of video games have gorgons as enemies, depicted as scaly reptile-women with serpentine lower bodies and snakes for hair.<ref>Medusa the Gorgon - Atmosfear.com.au</ref><ref>GameBanshee-Titan Quest Walkthrough</ref> Medusa appears as a boss in God of War, as does Euryale in God of War II. Stheno has not appeared in the other games in the series but is speculated to be in the upcoming prequel God of War: Ascension.
Medusa also appears as the main antagonist of the NES game Kid Icarus and the Nintendo 3DS game Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Medusa heads and Medusa herself often appear as regular enemies and bosses in the Castlevania series.
Medusa and her sisters all appear as a boss encounter in the game Titan Quest in addition to Gorgon enemies throughout the game's first act.
She is also an important character in the visual novel Fate/stay night, created by TYPE-MOON. She is a spirit summoned to do battle under the identity of Rider.
Medusa also makes a cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat (2011). Her severed head is used by Kratos (God of War) in his second fatality "Medusa's Gaze" in order to turn his opponent into stone. He then finishes them off by lunging the Nemean Cestus into their stone body, smashing them into tiny pieces in the process.
In the popular computer game League of Legends there is a character called Cassiopeia which was inspired from Medusa, a character originally present in Defense of the Ancients. She has the lower body of a snake, and one of her abilities allows her to turn enemies to stone.
In popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, there is a character named Queen Azshara who is very obviously based on Medusa, with the exception that she was willingly transformed into what she is. She was a gorgeous Night Elf Queen who grew vain and power-hungry and ended up causing a sundering of the world. As she was dying, a mysterious god offered to save her by transforming her into a Medusa-like entity. She now lives on the bottom of the ocean and is considered one of the most powerful characters in the game. Her followers are somewhat Medusoid as well, especially the female high-ranking Naga with snake hair.
Music
- On their 1980 album Signing Off, British band UB40 features a song "Madame Medusa" which draws unfavorable comparisons between the mythological monster and United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
- US thrash metal band Anthrax recorded a song about the legend entitled "Medusa" on their 1985 album Spreading The Disease.
