Medusa

In the Mirror of Time

David Leeming

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781780230955
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780231334
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Medusa petrifies. Her gaze turned the ancients to stone; for Dante she was an erotic power that could destroy men. Freud saw in her serpentine hair a nest of terrifying penises signalling the castration complex, while for the Greek hero Perseus she was a dangerous female monster who must be destroyed. Yet in our time Medusa’s reputation has improved: feminists see her as a noble victim of a patriarchal society; the fashion house Versace celebrates the lure of her mysterious visage in a logo that stares out at us from his adverts; and she has served as a model for numerous theories by modern philosophers and intellectuals. In our contemporary culture she is once again a power player demanding to be recognized. Medusa still transfixes us. 

In Medusa: In the Mirror of Time David Leeming explores how and why the mythical figure of the Gorgon has become one of the most important and enduring of human history. He searches for Medusa’s origins in global cultures more disparate and more ancient than the well-known classical Greek and follows her path through the centuries. The author finds that the Medusa myth is a cultural dream that has continually developed and changed with each passing era, ultimately bringing him to the question: what does the Medusa dream say about us?

INDEX

Adler, Amy 78, 104

Aegis, 20–21

Aeneas 30, 36

Agamemnon 20

Aikin, Anna L. 45

Akrisios 10–12, 16

Alighieri, Dante 30, 35, 38, 39, 101, 104

Divine Comedy (Inferno) 35, 38, 39

Rime Petrose 39

Amazons 17

Ammon (Amun) 15

Andromeda 15, 51, 97, 105, 109, 111, 112

Aphrodite 20

Apollo 57, 91, 98

Apollodorus 10–14, 20, 35, 58, 66, 97

Apollonian 57, 60–62, 73

see also Dionysian

Apollonius Rhodius 9, 15

apotropaic talisman 20–22, 26, 41–2, 59, 65, 67–70, 74, 82, 92, 95, 99, 109, 110

archetypes 20, 25, 29, 30, 32, 59, 60, 87, 88, 90, 93, 94, 96, 99, 101–3, 106, 108–10

Argonauts 9, 15

Argos 10, 16, 17, 23

Ariosto 34

Aristotle 16, 85

Arnulf of Orleans 33

Athene 12–21, 25, 33, 34, 39, 42, 43, 51, 54, 58, 60, 64, 67, 68, 74, 91, 94, 97, 98, 101–3, 105, 109–11

her shield 39, 42, 67, 68, 73, 78, 97, 100, 110

Atlas 13, 14, 109

Augustine of Hippo 32

Baal 30

Babylonians 20, 91, 98

Bacon, Francis 55

Barnes, Hazel 61

Barth, John 80

Barthes, Roland 63–4

Bast 90

Bellerophon 14, 91, 98, 100

Benjamin, Walter 55, 62

Beowulf 109

Bes 25–29, 99

Bible, the 30, 108

Boccaccio, Giovanni 33

Bowers, Susan 73, 104

Buddha 87, 108

Burne-Jones, Edward 51–2

The Baleful Head 52

Caillois, Roger 63, 65–6, 68, 73, 104

Cain and Abel 108

Campbell, Joseph 86, 87, 96

The Hero with a Thousand Faces 87

Canova, Antonio 46, 67

Perseus Holding the Severed Head of Medusa 46

Caravaggio 40–42, 65

Medusa 42

Carballido, Emilio 80

Cassiopeia 15

castration 7, 58–9, 65–7, 72–3, 94, 103, 106, 112

see also Freud, Sigmund

Cellini, Benvenuto 67, 95

Perseus with the Head of Medusa 95

Cepheus 15

Chimera 14, 60, 80, 91, 97, 98, 106–7

chivalry 35

Christianity 27, 31–9, 41, 61, 64, 84–7, 97, 102, 106, 109

Christine de Pizan 71

Circe 30

Cixous, Hélène 71–2, 104

Clash of the Titans (film, 1981) 80

Cleopatra 31

Coatlicue 27, 90

Collins, William 45

Conti, Natale 34, 101

Corinth 23

courtly love 35–6

Cronus 19

Culpepper, Emily Erwin 74–5

Currie, Charlotte 96, 104

Danaë 10–12, 15, 105, 108

Danaids 10

Danaus 10

David and Goliath 94

De Lauretis, Teresa 73, 104

decapitation 10, 30, 32, 40, 50, 58, 65, 80, 81, 94–5

see also severed head

Delilah 30

Delphic Python 91

Derrida, Jacques 63–5, 71, 73

Devi 88

Dido 30

Diktys 12, 15–16, 108

Diodorus Siculus 17, 33, 91

Dionysian 57, 60, 62

see also Apollonian

Dionysos 20

Doty, William 85

Douglas, N. 99

dragons 14, 21, 81, 98, 99, 106, 107

Drake, Nathan 45

Durga 88

Dykewomon, Elana 75

Ebreo, Leone 34, 101

Echidna 9, 98

ekphrasis 49, 65

Eliade, Mircea 85, 87

Enkidu 25–6

Enuma Elish 98

Euripides 9, 20

Eurynome 90

Eve 30, 32, 97

evil eye 68, 92–3, 99, 105, 109, 111

hamsa hand 92

nazar 92

eyes 92–3

female monsters 88, 90–91, 99, 101

feminism 7, 71–8

femme fatale 30–43, 79–83, 96, 101–2, ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• I The Myth
• II Medusa’s Lineage
• III Medusa in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
• IV Medusa in the Romantic and Victorian Ages
• V Medusa in the Age of Realism
• VI The Modern Intellectual Medusa
• VII The Feminist Medusa
• VIII Medusa as a Contemporary Icon
• IX Myth as Dream
• Conclusion: Who is Medusa?
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX