Essay Sample on Medusa as a Powerful Creature

Introduction

This is a story by Apollodorus who talks about Medusa as a powerful creature. Medusa is generally described as the personification of all things that are feminine, something that the Greek civilization must master. The name Medusa in Greek means or comes from the word metis which means feminine wile. This is an aspect that the male gods struggle to gain as well as one that was ingrained in women in their creation. Medusa also means guardian, queen or ruler all meaning powerful positions that are not associated or related to Greek women. The events in the myth of Medusa shows of how the Greek male have civilized powers over the female. During the first event, Medusa is depicted as a beautiful woman with a male role when she led an army against Perseus who killed her in the war.

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During the second event by Apollodorus, Medusa represents a wild woman of the Libyan desert. Here medusa strolled to lake Tritonis and persistently annoyed the locals until this moment when Perseus killed her, this shows how the Greeks kept their women under tight rein through beliefs. The Greek men believed that their gods created women as a punishment to them hence in the case of the wild women, they were seen as dangerous who required to be dealt with quickly. There were chances that Medusa could become a very prototypical goddess of the matriarchal society if she was not killed. Her hair of snakes and a reptilian skin represents the natural cycle of birth, death as well as rebirth. Snakes are used due to their general natural skin shedding, their rebirth into new skin, the process is then compared to the women's menstrual process that was believed to be synchronized with the cycles of tide and moon.

The wings that Medusa had represents the freedom as well as mastery overworlds, the sky, the evolution between the sky and worlds of the earth. Medusa's mouth had boar tasks that protruded which represents a mixed message, they mean to cause fear and pain but on the contrary, a pig in Greek religious practices represents fertility and birth due to its large litters and multiple breasts. Medusa's ability to turn men into a stone is a clear indication of her feminine power which is power over life due to the ability to return life to the earth which it came from. Its power that represents fully control over the natural cycle and it was said that the power was created by Athena and Poseidon other than Medusa being born with it in order to further control over the male-order gods.

Conclusion

Medusa remains to be the last residuals of the earth goddesses hence she represents earth mother who became twisted and evil during the Greek power. Her power over men shows female power to cause castration or impotence of males represented or symbolized by her turning men into stone hence when Perseus beheaded Medusa shows that he gained back his manhood and ensures the feminine wile silence. Her death symbolized that all threats of Greek male were destroyed and in the process of her death, she gave birth to Chrysaor and Pegasus who came out through sprouts of blood from her neck symbolizing Medusa's menstruation and power over cycles.