Perseus And Medus Feminine Power

Feminine power is not exactly what one thinks of first when discussing the gorgon Medusa. Instead the connotation of danger immediately comes up. The tale of Perseus and Medusa also comes to mind as well, with the general idea of Perseus beheading her like any other hero’s adventure. Yet Ovid’s telling of the myth paints Medusa to possess a seemingly contradictory duality in that she is still the destructive menace we have all seen, but yet she holds many life providing or protective qualities that would say otherwise. Her drops of blood resulted in snakes, seeped into the seaweed to create coral, and from her beheaded body came Pegasus and Pegasus’ brother. These all demonstrate the often hidden side to Medusa that does not always get shown, …show more content…
By being wronged with no sense of justice coming her way, Ovid creates a bridge for us to be able to emphasize with Medusa, feeling sorry for her, and at the same time, diminishing Perseus’ accomplishment of slaying her. The knight in shining armor in reference to his saving of Andromeda, gets the bitter disappointment of rust over his achievement instead. Medusa’s image on shields, and buildings also point to the often overlooked aspect of protection she provides. Though it may be called dread when one sees Medusa’s face on these structures and objects, there is a reliance, and therefore a protective element to her, further evidenced by how Perseus utilizes her head in order to win the fight between him and Andromeda’s previous suitor, Phineus, turning him and his men to stone. This reliance on Medusa’s power by Perseus points to her strength, and also the lack of strength that Perseus himself has as …show more content…
Yet, as the goddess of the hunt, Artemis was quite ruthless in ending life as well, through the use of her bow and arrows, with the tale of Artemis killing all seven daughters of Niobe as one instance of her destructive power. And though Aphrodite does not seem to have the same destructive power possessed by Medusa and Artemis, the goddess does have a very close association with the word ‘productive’ as it pertains to her being a major symbol of fertility and her birth story helps strengthen that, due to how she emerged from the seafoam, a resultant of the bodily fluids from the sexual intercourse between Ouranos and Gaia. Medusa, as previously mentioned, was able to create life, the red coral formed from the combination of seaweed and blood coming to mind, and so there are some similarities shared between these two myths. And so, the disconnect between these figures of feminine power, in their unique roles and characters allow us to see the duality of the concept. Destruction of course has a clearer association with the word power, and all three of these women possess it. Artemis with her hunting skills, Aphrodite with her ability to wreak havoc through manipulation of love, and Medusa, with her ability to turn beings into stone.