Kelly Mei, Period 1, 12/7/23

Kelly Mei
Period 1
12/07/23
Modern Mythology 2024

Literacy and Learning
Title: What meets more than to the Eye

    Medusa. When I hear the name Medusa, the first image that pops into my head is a green lady with snakes for her hair. Now, this necessarily doesn’t mean my conception of her is entirely wrong, but it only scratches the surface of who she is and what she is.

    I’ll admit, before the unit for Medusa I would be exposed to, I didn’t have a clear picture of who she was. All I knew were her iconic features which many people would also come up to answer for. The self-awareness of my limited knowledge without a primary source of the fate of Medusa was presented in an exercise in class. In class, we were to come up with as much information as we can about Medusa. Next, we had to contact our family members and ask them what they knew about her. The results were roughly similar, due to the fact that we only had a simple concept of her rather than understanding her from her primary source. A lady cursed by Athene with snake hair that can turn you into stone if you made eye contact with it was a frequent answer.

    After that exercise, we were introduced to a book called Stone Blind. As the title implies, it follows the story of Medusa from a feminist point of view. Our perspective of the gorgon was not originally in a feminist lens, rather just what was memorable to us: cursed snake hair. When I approached the story, I was amazed at the different take of Medusa’s life. From other retellings of the story of Medusa and Perseus, it had shown a more ‘human’ side of Medusa, rather than a monster who sought vengeance. This was also prevalent to a primary source of Medusa’s story, where it only described her as a person whose fate was unfortunate due to being deflowered by Poseidon.

    Before I explain more of how Stone Blind has changed my perspective of mythology as a whole, I must define what a feminist lens is. Literature can be viewed in different perspectives, from a structuralist theory to the queer lens theory. The feminist criticism involves the use of the writing to advocate for gender equality between the two sexes. Throughout the evolution of literature from the years, men were predominantly involved in the stories, mostly as the heroes or the characters in focus. Very rarely in past literature would the woman be viewed in the same light and pedestal as men, due to a sexist perspective of how ‘unrealistic’ it would be because they’re a /woman./ It’s important for literature to be viewed in this lens because once again, it was to establish a more balanced power dynamic between men and women. The reason why I would view Medusa in a feminist theory and why Stone Blind chose to lean towards this stance was because Medusa as a structure in the story of Perseus, is the villain. She is not a morally good character because she is the villain in Persues’s story. In the feminist theory, she’s viewed as a gorgon with a human side. She’s valid to seek vengeance because of what happened to her and Poseidon. One can even stretch that the curse that Athene placed on her was to protect her from a repeat of the incident.

    What defines a monster? When I hear Medusa, I first associate her as a ‘monster.’ But, what are the characteristics of a monster and does Medusa really fit those descriptions? In later lessons, my group and I had assumed a monster was an evil being who did not fit any characteristics of a human in a literal sense. In a more figurative sense and more commonly used in literature, they’re animalistic and don't fit with the social norms placed in society. They’re most often morally wrong in the narrative.

    Medusa was a human before turning into a gorgon. As a gorgon, as retold in Stone Blind, she was afraid of ever looking at someone in fear of turning them into stone. In a figurative sense, she had animal features (snakes, wings) however, her behavior is more meek and terrified of what her capabilities are. She doesn’t fit with society because she casted society away, scared to hurt people. In future lessons, this statement will be important.

    Then, what defines a hero? In discussions in class, the attributes of a Greek hero is that he must be of royal or divine blood, perform extraordinary deeds, have a fatal flaw, be assisted by the divine and suffer physically. In a sense, Perseus was a Greek hero, he had come from Zeus and went on a journey to defeat a gorgon to save his mother from marriage. His fatal flaw was that he was rash and suffered from hubris (excessive pride) in many times of his journey, written in Stone Blind. The attributes of a hero in modern day, however, would be someone who protects for the good with or without supernatural abilities. In my opinion, my definition of a hero leans more towards feminism, a person who sacrifices themselves while bettering others. Perseus went on his journey for his own goals, trying to protect his mother and marry Andromeda from rescuing her. However, after he had beheaded Medusa, he uses her as a weapon – which breaks the idea of bettering others. This was further viewed in, as repeated, the feminist lens in the book Stone Blind in Perseus’s perspective, revealing how incompetent he was compared to the past retelling of myths of him being a brave hero. There are many types of heroes as well, anti-hero, medieval hero, romantic hero and vigilante hero. However, I cannot see Perseus in a positively heroic light after what he had done with Medusa.

    Stone Blind not only focuses on Perseus and Medusa’s story, but the characters surrounding them as well. One of the noteworthy moments of the novel is the interaction with Hephaestus, the god of blacksmith and Athene. In their interaction in myth retellings and artworks, Hephaestus is seen as the victim whereas Athene is seen as rude and neglectful for not returning his love. However, in Stone Blind, Hephaestus is seen as the aggressor, trying to force himself on her. Athene was rightfully angry for being forced upon, and in class, we dissected her character even more. Athene was seen as ‘cold’ because she had no experience with nurture. In Stone Blind, her mother’s story involved her death and her coming out from Zeus’s head, so she had no motherly connections. Under the surface, she’s seen with having trust issues, putting up a front so she can protect herself because she never had the moment of vulnerability to herself. This can also be why she was so angry at Hephaestus as well, he wanted her to be vulnerable. It was easier for her to push him away rather than to open up and be hurt again.

    Back to the topic of Medusa being depicted as a monster in modern day, in an interview with Natalie Haynes, it was revealed in research that she never killed anyone. With monsters in a literal sense, they're seen as aggressive and dangerous, dangerous enough to kill. Medusa never killed a single human being as a gorgon, she had pushed everyone away in fear that she would end up killing them with her transformation. She was scared to approach the sisters who had nurtured and cared for her in case that she would end up killing them. This shows more of her human side, her behavior to protect those she loved was still there even after transformation. With that in mind, can Perseus be depicted as a monster after collecting her head and using her? I’d like to argue yes figuratively.

    Now, how does this tie up to what meets more than the eye?

    It is important to view texts in different lenses, such as Medusa’s text, because it reveals more of the story than what we are told over and over. It’s like the story of a little red riding hood, we have a perception of a little girl who’s been repeatedly forced upon by an aggressor before a hero comes and saves her. However, in a feminist lens, we can dig deeper into little red’s character and show that she is a confrontational and smart girl, who’s able to make her own decisions rather than being under her mother’s shelter. She pushes herself forward and questions everything for her own safety. If I had not learned about different literary criticisms, I would always have a one-sided perspective on a text and never would be able to dig under the surface of the characters, decision makings of the story and the small details that were put into it. After reading Stone Blind, it had given not only Medusa more character and had me learning more about her relationship with her sister and her true personality, it had also given other characters their own voices, such as the story with Athene. I believe now that I can view other texts in other literary theories such as structuralism so I can have a deeper insight into the story than what meets the surface.

    Natalie Haynes does an excellent job on tackling ‘what meets the eye’ of Medusa since she assumes that everyone had a one-sided narrative of her. In her interview, she even admitted to having one-sided assumptions, mistakenly believing that she may have killed someone but after research, zero. What I learned from Stone Blind is that everything in literature has a purpose. Not only in Stone Blind but in Greek Mythology in general, everything from names to the roles of the character had meaning. In a discussion, I talked about Medusa’s and Perseus’s name and how that played a role in their narrative. The word ‘gorgoneion’ could be derived from thunder, showing her sister’s loud nature. It also represents the fear of the natural world, people fearing the realities of the world and not confronting it. Perseus, from my own analysis, had meant ‘to destroy,’ which could be referring to his destructive nature after obtaining the gorgon's head and his victory of Medusa.

    From the discussions, I talked about my favorite book series, Warriors and how the analysis of Stone Blind had helped alter my mind into diving deeper into the text, better helping me understand the characters and the plot more. From the names of the characters, which had been representative of their character’s behavioral and physical traits to the complex psychology of the character’s decision of the story, it also helped me understand the author’s decision and mindset while constructing the story which ties everything together. This not only applies to literature, but to everyday life as well, specifically with the psychology side of life. While currently taking my psychology class, I had learned that there was a reason for behavior, just like there was a reason for writing decisions in books.

    Overall, after finishing Stone Blind, I really liked how it took a story that has been reiterated similarly multiple times from back then to modern day and took the characters that had been overlooked by the main characters and used that to give a rounder perception to them. I had enjoyed reading the blooming and caring relationships between Medusa and her sisters, which never was fleshed out in the first sources of her story and really in most retelling of her story as well. I also enjoyed reading a more raw side of Perseus, rather than a one dimensional character who’s brave enough to go on an adventure and is encountered by adversities, he had interactions with the characters he met on the go. It was refreshing to have more of a ‘slow’ pacing to expand on the characters while sharing an important message of feminism.

    I guess you can say that I had learned about what meets more than to the eye, in literature and in the story of Medusa.