10/7/19 Paulina Mastryukov PD1

11/7/19 Modern Mythology 2020 Period 1 Paulina Mastryukov 

THE DIVIDE OF WOMEN:

Compare the characterization of Danae and Andromeda against Medusa and her sisters. What is their plight? Danae and Andromeda are damsels, completely victims to their circumstances, which are more often than not determined by the men in their lives.Medusa and her sisters were monsters that were the designated antagonists of Perseus’ story. The former’s plight is that they are in danger as a result of the actions of the men in their lives, whilst the latter’s is they, starting with Medusa, were cursed to have writhing snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze.

Upon formally watching a video about the origins of Medusa according to Greek mythology, the class learned that she is one of three daughters, the only mortal one, of two ancient sea deities. She dedicated her life to being a priestess of a temple of Athena, which meant that she had to remain a virgin. She was immensely beautiful, her hair being one of her most notable qualities, with men flocking to the temple just to see her. This earned her quiet jealousy, which quickly turned to disdain from the goddess. Eventually, she caught the eye of Poseidon himself, but refused his advances on account of the fact she had vowed to remain a virgin to be a priestess to Athena. Unfortunately, Poseidon was in a feud with the goddess in question, thus saw Medusa as an opportunity to get back at her, so resolved to take the priestess by force. In trying to escape him, Medusa hid in Athena’s temple in hopes the patron deity would grant her protection. However, Poseidon was not to be stopped, leading to him raping her in her temple. Athena was enraged at such indiscretion, and as she could not do anything against a fellow god, she cursed Medusa to have venomous snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze as punishment.

• The dichotomy of women either puts them into a monster status, such as Medusa(or Medea) or completely helpless such as Danae, Andromeda, or Io.
• This passed the idea onto the younger generation, in context the girls of the time, that you would become a monster if you showed any passion or errant emotion, whilst staying submissive and obedient to the men in your life, no matter what, would guarantee a happy ending.

Afterwards, we went into a discussion about how although Perseus was a better “hero” than Jason on some levels, but he still started his quest out of arrogance. What ultimately made him more deserving on divine protection over his female counterparts(Danae and Andromeda)? A possible answer is the fact how he, no matter what, was incredibly stubborn and committed to his ultimate goal, no matter what impossible circumstances he was met with.

What did I learn? I learned that there is indeed an extreme dichotomy of women in Ancient Greek myth: you are either some sort of monster, or a helpless damsel. However, the female monsters are often the ones that we feel the most pity for.
Why did I learn it? I learned this because it was heavily emphasized during discussion how in ancient Greek society, ideas that are deeply misogynistic by today’s standards were widespread, such as the idea of submission in girls to the men in their lives.
How will I use what I learned? I will use what I have learned to keep my mind open to how the context of these stories and the standards they display are very different from modern standards, but still understand this is not right.