Edward Novodvorsky, Period 1, 12/11/23

Edward Novodvorsky
Period #1
12/11/23
Modern Mythology 2024

Literacy and Learning - Takeaways from Stone Blind

Over the past few months or so, we have read and analyzed Natalie Haynes’s Stone Blind, a novel which offered a different perspective on a myth I thought I was familiar with prior to reading. Throughout October, November, and into December, we spent lessons in which we analyzed the way Haynes looked at Greek mythology through a different perspective, focusing on the intrinsic motivations of certain characters, as well as the intended message Stone Blind meant to convey. In the end, I felt that Stone Blind attempted to tear down some of the preconceived notions we had not only about Greek mythology, but about society as a whole. Throughout it all, there remains one key ideal, best summed up by a quote written on the outer cover of the hard copy of Stone Blind - “They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.”

Prior to beginning Stone Blind, we watched Clash of the Titans, a film from 1981 which showed the myth of Perseus. I enjoyed the movie, even though the special effects made it cartoonish at times. Knowing that we were about to start reading a book which attempted to look at the story of Medusa through a different lens, I attempted to focus on the scene when she appeared and fought Perseus. The truth is, in Clash of the Titans, Medusa looked like a monster. The snakes were terrifying, her face looked hideous, and she showed no signs of being anything but a creature out to kill. This was the version of Medusa that was pushed out in pop culture, both through films like Clash of the Titans, as well as through the Percy Jackson series.

From the first page of Stone Blind, I could tell that this was going to be a completely different interpretation of the tale of Medusa. Haynes showed Medusa as a victim of a multitude of crimes. Medusa was a victim of Poseidon’s hunger, a victim of Perseus’s immaturity and arrogance, a victim of the collaboration of gods and goddesses. Medusa had control of nothing, including the supposed “power” which made her a “monster” in the first place. Stone Blind showed that Medusa wasn’t a monster by any means, and that there were other characters which showed monstrosity far more than she did.

In Lesson 1, we read the primary source of the story of Medusa - Hesiod’s Theogony. In that text, the role of Medusa was very minor. All that is mentioned is that Medusa was a mortal Gorgon, she suffered a woeful fate, and that Pegasus and Chryasor sprang out of her head when Perseus beheaded her. The primary sources write that Medusa was raped by Poseidon in the temple of Athena, and that Athena, as a form of retribution, cursed Medusa. When connecting the primary sources to what we read in Stone Blind, one question came to mind - why did so many choose to depict Medusa as a monster when she clearly wasn’t one? This was a question of critical perception that I thought about for a good twenty to thirty minutes after finishing the book last Saturday. Then, it hit me - we see this all the time.

People have been wrongfully accused of actions for millenia, whether it be false accusations of sexual assault or someone being convicted of a crime they didn’t commit. This was Medusa in Stone Blind - although Medusa was raped by Poseidon, instead of helping the victim and focusing her anger on the god who committed this abhorrent act, Athene instead punishes the one who was attacked. Medusa is created into someone who can’t even look at her own sisters due to the fear of potentially turning them into stone, all for something which wasn’t her own fault, and all while the actual convict gets away with his actions. This isn’t just about Medusa, however. Throughout all of history, people have been molded into monsters, even when they did not do anything wrong. When I look at Medusa, I think of all of the marginalized communities, both in the United States and around the world, that have been villainized and created into monsters all because certain groups decided to spread fear about other groups. Medusa wasn’t a monster. She was made into one, and people, whether it be Perseus in Stone Blind or us as young children reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, started to fear her.

And yet, the question still remains - why Medusa? After all, from what we read in Stone Blind, it’s quite clear that Perseus, a character who has so often been portrayed as a noble hero, is far more of a monster than Medusa is. Perseus leaves the Graiai sisters blind and hungry, beheads Medusa in her sleep, uses the gorgoneion to turn a shepherd into stone, uses the same gorgoneion to kill Medusa’s mother using her own head, and then kills dozens of people at a wedding after Phineus attempts to fight Cepheus, Cassiope, and Andromeda for not going through with the planned wedding. Perseus could easily be described as a mass murderer. However, through the lens he has been viewed in our times, Perseus is a hero, and we seldom question it. The fact that Stone Blind does so, however, makes it powerful.

In our lesson on Greek theatre, we discussed the idea of catharsis, which is a purification of emotions like fear and pity from the audience of a Greek tragedy. In a way, I feel like this reading was cathartic. The more I thought about the characters of Medusa and Perseus in Stone Blind, the more I realized that there are plenty of people on Earth who are just like them. Whether it be celebrities like Harvey Weinstein who seemed normal in the public eye but were vicious monsters on the inside, or those like Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis player who went missing after accusing a retired Chinese official of rape, there are plenty of people in modern society that depict the characteristics of Medusa and Perseus. As such, those characters, especially after the numerous discussions we had in class on the portrayal of Medusa and her connections to the idea of monstrosity, have become symbolic.

Perhaps it is no surprise that Medusa has become a symbol of the #MeToo movement. Not only was Medusa a victim of rape, her abuser got away scot-free, while she bore all of the punishment. Although Luciano Garbati’s “Medusa With The Head of Perseus” was not originally intended to become a symbol of the movement, it's quite clear that the sculpture itself shows a change in the perspective of mythology. Prior to analyzing the story of Medusa in the way we did while reading Stone Blind, I thought Medusa was a monster. In fact, Natalie Haynes herself thought Medusa was a monster prior to doing her own research on the book. However, times are changing, and novels like Stone Blind allow us to view common stories in different ways, potentially forming different opinions.

To end off, I do have to say that I truly enjoyed reading Stone Blind. It was a novel which provoked many questions, as well as covered different myths outside of the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Medusa. However, the main takeaway I will never forget from Stone Blind is that you can never identify a monster simply by looking at them. Whether it be by their thoughts or their actions, characters may not always be what they seem, even if preconceived notions support it. There’s always a different angle, even if it takes a little digging to get to it, and it’s important to adjust critical perception to recognize it. In the end, Medusa wasn’t a monster, that I am sure of. I’m also sure that there are many more like her.