Foreword:

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            Mythology is a complicated, constantly evolving process by which we carry forward the lessons of the past for new generations to learn. As such the tales told are part of the ebb and flow of time. They are simultaneously defined by all prior iterations while being constantly reimagined. The simple truth is what we often regard as the “original” works aren’t the originating sources of the myths. These are cultural tales handed down for generations before they even got codified and catalogued into the written word. Case in point: Homer did not create either The Iliad nor The Odyssey, he was the one who had collected and recited those works to their first chroniclers.

               With this thought in mind, allow me to put forward my thesis. There is no heresy in repurposing and reimagining the stories of the gods for new eras. Pagan “restorationism” is ultimately a fool’s errand precisely because it is trying to restore an “original” which in of itself was never the “original”. The only true heresy comes from failing to honor the essence of the tale itself. In much the same way a modern comic book reader will abide many versions of Batman but will be genuinely outraged by a depiction that has him killing people; students of myth and adherents of the gods can recognize when the essence of the myth has been violated.

               My purpose in writing this work is to correct one such violation. The story of Medusa is one that has evolved with society and culture over the years. As nearest we can tell she was “originally” the eldest of the gorgon sisters and an iconic monster for the Hellenic hero Perseus to slay. Possibly a minor goddess of a prior culture that got incorporated into Mycenean Greece. By the time of Hesiod’s Theogony, she had acquired the attribute of being a lover of Poseidon. I am a proponent of the theory that Medusa was intended to represent vanity and how the hubris it inspires will turn all you gaze at to “stone”, robbing all the wonder out of life, leaving you alone in a garden of “statues”, isolated from genuine, living, breathing people.

               There is a long-standing tradition to recognize Medusa as a victim of the gods. More specifically a victim of sexual violence at the hands of Poseidon and petty cruelty in her punishment by Athena. This interpretation is granted much credence in the popular culture by virtue of the source that pioneered this interpretation being nearly two-thousand years old. It’s great age mistakenly leads people to believe that it is the “original”, even though the true original works are lost to time and predate it by hundreds of years at a minimum. I am of course speaking of the tales from Metamorphosis by the Roman poet Ovid.

               Ovid tells us Medusa was a good and faithful servant of Athena who was sadistically punished for being violated by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. This version of the story paints of Poseidon as a casual serial rapist…which he is. There is more than sufficient corroboration from multiple sources to justify that interpterion. The issue at hand lay not with the depiction of Poseidon but rather Medusa and, most grievously, Athena. By making Medusa a helpless victim of the gods Ovid denies the symbolism inherent in her transformation, thereby drastically reducing the integrity of the story by entirely missing the thematic point. Though the worst injustice is done against Athena herself.

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               While as the goddess of wisdom, war, and victory Athena was no “Mr. Rogers”, she was rarely depicted as cruel or capricious. She could be stern, competitive, and harsh but never thoughtlessly so. She could and would be ruthless when the occasion called for it but never more than necessary. Outside of Ovid’s accounts (which includes the first surviving entrance of Arachne into the mythology) Athena is constantly helping heroes in their quests, winning contests against the other gods, standing brave in the face of Typhon when the other gods fled Olympus, founding democracy, and overseeing the implementation of the world’s first proper justice system.

Or in the parlance of anime: Athena is best girl.

               While the idea of Athena possessing the cold cunning to deprive one of her long-time divine rivals of their plaything in such a decisive move isn’t entirely out of step with her characterization; the fact cannot be ignored that the two instances of such cruelty come from the same author over a thousand years after Homer and Hesiod with no surviving sources to corroborate his interpretation of Minerva/Athena. While I do not intend to demean a great poet, I think it is more than fair to put his contributions to the mythology under scrutiny. Most of it checks out and does not violate the essence of the gods or myths. The glaring exception to this is Athena. To draw an analogy with modern popular culture; Ovid’s interpretation of Athena is the equivalent of Zack Snyder’s Batman or Frank Miller’s Wonder Woman.

               By that account my offerings are equally open to such scrutiny. Should you find fault in my work then please put forward your correction. This is the process of multigenerational cultural sharing that allows these stories, and thus the gods, to persist. So long as we keep telling their stories they can never truly “die”. I offer up this work to my crown goddess Athena (cards on the table: I’m a practicing pagan) for the express purpose of playing my part in the process that allows her to endure and to right a wrong I think that has been done against her.

               One can admire Ovid the poet, his lasting legacy to the arts, and even understand why his versions of the myths are meaningful to people. Yet a person can still take offense to the harm they’ve done. The truth is that Ovid’s work is almost exclusively the root of people’s misunderstandings towards Athena. It is because of his work that the feminist movement, and by extension much of the popular culture friendly to it, has grown so alienated to Athena. He has single-handedly turned the most powerful and capable woman in Greco-Roman mythology (with the incalculable influence it has on modern western culture) into a pariah and traitor, a rape victim blamer and jealous mean girl among a huge swath of the women who should benefit from her example.

               I don’t retell this story to do any harm by Medusa. First and foremost, I do so to defend my goddess and her good name from an unjust perpetuating slander. Secondly, while it deprives her the moral clarity of being a “faultless victim”, I do adamantly believe Medusa must have agency in her own damn story. Lastly, while I understand and value the story of a woman being destroyed by a powerful man, I simply believe the parable against vanity and hubris has more moral utility to the world. I’ve done my best to retain the good in Ovid’s version of the tale while refining it so I feel the correct pieces of it are properly highlighted (I have no intention of letting Poseidon off the hook). Hopefully this work will soften the hearts hardened against Athena and will encourage others to participate in this glorious mess of myth making.