Retribution.
DIES VENERIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCLII A.U.C. | XIV
Photographer: Carol Highsmith
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Psychoanalysts have interpreted the Medusa myth as a violent manifestation of Athena’s suppressed sexuality.
Athena Parthenos (literally ‘maiden,’ meaning virgin), ‘always depicted with the face of Medusa on her [aegis], is two-faced. The fearsome split-off & repudiated face of female sexual power, denied as being her own attribute, is displaced but still carried by Athena.’ ¹
‘Athena’s rejection of her powerful, instinctual femininity & sexuality is part of her denial of the depths of her nature. When these are disowned, Athena becomes all head, & the darkness of this is there for all to see in the terrifying image of Medusa’s head that the goddess wears on her breast – a head so horrible that those who see Medusa or are seen by her are turned to stone.’ ²
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¹ Beth J. Seelig, M.D., The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena: Aspects of Triangulation in the Girl (London: Institute of Pyschoanalysis, 2002), 895.
² Ariana Huffington, The Gods of Greece (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994), 93.
Public domain image manipulated in GIMP.
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2012-Feb-07