Perseus and Medusa Final Round

There are so many modern adaptations of this tale that it is hard to choose which ones to talk about in this final entry.  I chose the most recent takes on this story which happen to be in film and literature.  I am a huge movie fan and am never without a book, and as far as I can remember I have always been interested in mythology from other cultures so when I heard about the Clash of the Titans movie I had to go and see it.  On the whole the movie was terrible and did not hold true to anything other than the major parts of any of the tales, such as the characters names and the general layout of how it all happened.  However, I thought the fight scene with Perseus and Medusa in this film was really nicely done in regards to effects and artistic qualities.  The other two sisters are completely left out of this and instead other men are added in which is not right, also the Pegasus and the warrior are not included.  What was really interesting and very well done was the inclusion of the collection of stone warriors and unfortunate souls that happened upon her as well as how they create Medusa’s body.  Instead of her having wings she has one enormous snake body with a rattle at the end and uses that to propel herself around her lair just as fast as wings would but with the capabilities to grab people or things with her tail.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39pesl6J6e0

I found this clip while searching for pictures of statues and thought it was brilliant.  It shows the actual transformation of Medusa from beautiful woman to gorgon.  The makeup is brilliant and the way they show the pain and agony of what she had to endure for punishment is actually a bit unnerving.  The end of the clip is my favorite part though because one of the scholars being interviewed for the series states that the physical aspect of the punishment was not the most horrible, it was the life of solitude that she would be forced to live with no one but her gorgon sisters.  I can honestly say I think that is the more miserable part of the punishment, not being able to interact with anyone, looks will fade eventually, but the inability to have any kind of relationships with anyone but two immortal monsters would crush me. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQvAvBxEm4k&feature=youtu.be

           My favorite rendition of this legend has to be the book series by Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  In the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, Percy finds out that he is the son of a Greek god on his twelfth birthday and that he has to make his way to a camp to train with other Demi-gods.  In one of his many adventures while attending this camp he has to defeat Medusa, who cleverly disguises herself as the humble owner of a statue emporium and diner.  In the book Percy uses a mirror to keep from looking at her much like the legend uses a polished bronze shield and a sword he has that is made of celestial bronze (good for dispatching immortal monsters and created by the gods) like in the legend Perseus has a sword made of adamant.

            This wonderful book series was turned into a movie, just one for five books, and was ruined by Disney.  I watched the first twenty minutes of the movie and turned it off because it was terrible, but I digress.  I found a clip of the scene with Medusa from this movie and I liked what they did with what Percy’s mirror was.  This part was a brilliant adaptation using modern items we rely on and mixing them with legend. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=K-Y4q2m9OFE

            The books are INFINITELY better than the movie and that goes for all of Riordan’s books.  He has other series involving Egyptian mythology and Roman mythology.  The Roman series is amazing so far and he makes and amazing tie between the Greek and Roman aspects of the gods.  Since they are each based on the same areas of ruling and the Romans derived their gods from the Greeks it was fantastic to read how he was going to go about making the ties.  If you like Harry Potter and you like Mythology you will like these books.  They are fast, easy reads and he not only uses the mythology but also the geographical ties as well.

 http://www.rickriordan.com/my-books/percy-jackson/percy-jackson-olympians.aspx

Perseus and Medusa Round 3

Painting is one of the oldest forms of art and is also one of the types of art with the most variance in style.  The paintings I have chosen are more or less created in the classical style and rage in dates from the time of Pompeii to the early 1920’s.  There are hundreds of paintings of Medusa and Perseus but I chose these three because each one is vastly different from the other in every way; composition, color, location, and what parts of the story they are illustrating.  It’s been really interesting to see how popular this story has been just throughout art history alone, and not to mention all the parody art I have found this semester.

            The first painting was found on a wall in Pompeii.  The artist is not known but the fact that the painting is still in amazing condition and survived the eruption is remarkable.  

 

In this painting Perseus is shown after he has slain Medusa and has saved Andromeda from the sea monster created by Poseidon to attack her for being vain.  He used the head of Medusa to paralyze the sea monster and turn it to stone, then again to freeze her old suitor, and then again to freeze King Akrisios before giving the head to Athena.  Athena placed the head of Medusa onto her shield to scare off her enemies.  I like how different this painting is; how Medusa’s head is on a stick, how the sandals look like they are a part of his feet and legs.  What is most extraordinary about this painting is how it was preserved in the eruption at Pompeii; the color and quality for such an old work is just unbelievable.

            Caravaggio made this painting of Medusa in 1597.  It shows her decapitated head suspended in space with the blood still pouring from her neck.  The look on her face that Caravaggio has captured is more realistic than some of the other representation I have found.  Perseus crept up on her while she was sleeping and beheaded her; she isn’t going to look furious or hateful, she would look more surprised because she was attacked while she was asleep. 

 

The circular composition is a very interesting choice for this subject and I think it makes this more compelling.  It keeps you in the image and makes you confront the picture.  You cannot escape Medusa’s gaze and are forced to experience her surprise in being killed.  What also makes this painting so intriguing and relatable is the fact that it looks like a portrait of a real person, possibly even someone you know.  She looks more human in this than she is described in the legend and this does nothing but help the painting.  The emotion is expertly conveyed and I feel is one of the most successful paintings of Medusa’s fate I have seen.

            This painting is amazing in its own way because of the way the story is all mashed together again in the single frame.  This painting was created in 1922-25 by John Singer Sargent and has an almost graphic and flat quality to the work.  There are definitely tonal ranges and a three dimensional quality to the work by the use of perspective but the way the color is laid out it seems to have flatness and graphic outlining. 

 

It looks as though Perseus rode the Pegasus into battle and that’s not what happened.  The Pegasus didn’t happen until after Perseus killed Medusa.  Also it is not Perseus that tames the Pegasus; it is another hero from another tale.  This also shows him handing the head of Medusa off to Athena, which he does later in the story.  What is so interesting is the use of putting different aspects of a story together again in the same frame even though there is room to separate them. The clouds of smoke could also be from Medusa dying and Pegasus being born, but regardless, it’s still mashing the story together to fit one frame.  Perseus is shown again as a younger man with an idealized body which is very deeply rooted in the history of Greek interpretations of people in art.  I think it’s very interesting that even thousands of years later we are still employing the Greek ideal of the idealized body as the image of heroics. 


 http://jssgallery.org/paintings/mfa/perseus_on_pegasus_slaying_medusa.htm
 http://allart.biz/photos/image/Michelangelo_Caravaggio_79_Medusa.html
 http://www.laits.utexas.edu/moore/rome/image/perseus-and-medusa

Perseus and Medusa Round 2

Greece is known for its amazing ability to make highly detailed, overly idealized sculptures.  They have been known throughout history as the leaders in sculptural art and created the basis of what most any sculptor has ever learned.  The Romans when they took over Greece learned the techniques and perfected them to make more realistic sculptures of people to the point of including liver spots and wrinkles.  What I have found to be the most amazing part about Greek sculpture was that regardless of the subject matter the figures were always beautiful, always looked clean, and always had the perfect body and hair.  These sculptures I have picked out of the many are the ones I feel embody most what it is the Greeks were after in their endeavors to portray intense emotion while still having the completely ideal body and face.  These sculptures were all created between 1545 and 1903 and are some of the most popular sculptures of this story we have today. 

This first sculpture is the oldest of the bunch; it was created in 1545 by Benvenuto Cellini.  He worked on this statue for nearly ten years; it is eighteen feet tall and made of bronze.  Blood is gushing from the neck where Medusa’s head has been removed and her body is atop a pedestal showing smaller sculptures of Perseus life before this quest.  The base is made of marble and hold smaller scale sculptures of Danae and Zeus in its little alcoves.  This statue was made in the mannerist form which means it is highly detailed and rather grotesque; however, people don’t see it as such.  This sculpture is remarkably beautiful and was just restored about eleven years ago.  It has been sitting outside in Florence, Italy since it’s unveiling and was covered in bird droppings and horrible beatings from the weather.  This statue is most definitely holding true to the ancient ideals of a perfect body, face, and accomplishment of a heroic task.  

 

            This sculpture was created by Antonio Canova around 1800 by command of Pope Pius VII and is made of marble.  The original sculpture is in the Vatican but there is a copy as close as New York City, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where you can view this.  There are copies of this statue all over the world and it’s not hard to see why people would want to have it in either their private collections or museums would want to have a version of it to show to guests.

 

This statue was made because when Napoleon invaded he took with him the statue of Apollo Belvedere which looked like this:

 

Napoleon took this from the Vatican and Canova was commanded to make a replacement.  This statue of Perseus is in the exact same pose as the Apollo Belvedere and stands on the same pedestal that the Apollo had once been on.  This statue takes a more soft body approach to Perseus.  He has muscle definition and you can still tell he is strong, but there is youthfulness to his physique.  There are no hard defining lines and he looks more around the age of 16-18 which is when the story takes place. The soft quality of the sculpture reminds me of the beginning of the more refined Greek sculpture; Kritios Boy for example, was a young man who had the same youthful features of the body and face as this version of Perseus.  Both have the short, wavy locks of hair and are in poses of motion.  This is a direct reference to the Greek culture upon which the legend of Perseus and Medusa comes from and the beginning of sculpture itself.  

 

Of all the statues I have found of Perseus and Medusa this next one if my favorite.  The pose, the emotion and the way the Helm of Hades/Nymph hat is depicted makes me laugh.  This statue was created by Laurent-Honoré Marqueste around the turn of the century; I have found conflicting accounts that say it was sculpted in 1900 and 1903, and it is made of white marble.  

This sculpture is amazing.  The motion and tension that goes between the two figures can be felt in simply looking at a photograph of the sculpture.  What truly makes this statue though is its inclusion of the body of Medusa and shows Perseus in the act off attacking her and killing her.  You can see the fear in both their eyes; Medusa writhes trying to break free and turn him to stone but he will have her head off before she has a chance.  Perseus has a very wild look in his eye, he seems almost like he wants to take this life, like she deserves to be beheaded.  This sculpture leads to more telling of the story and makes more of a conversation piece, only half the story is told and unless you know the story you’re not sure what will happen other than what the title gives away.  The bodies are soft, not defined with rippling abs and pectoral muscles, which I think is more appropriate because Perseus was not an older man, he was a boy and for him to have that much muscle definition is just ridiculous.  I also love the way the Helm of Hades was created, the wings on this side are overly pronounced and stick out like the ears of a lamb or a bunny.  This is funny because the rest of the sculpture is morbidly disturbing and then you see the helm and it suddenly becomes somewhat lighter.  

http://venusinthefifth.tumblr.com/post/6390705289/perseus-slaying-medusa-by-laurent-honore-marqueste
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadanwa/3105457643/
http://www.bonannocoins.com/blog/index.html/4
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Belvedere
 http://jssgallery.org/other_artists/benvenuto_cellini/photo_cellni_bronze_statue_perseus_beheading_medusa.htm
 http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-perseus-and-medusa/
 http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/PerseusLaurentHMarqueste.html

Perseus and Medusa Round 1

The first depictions of this story were painted on amphora, vessels of clay with two handles on either side used in ancient Greece to hold various types of food and liquids.  When these were painted they were very valuable and considered an item of luxury. 

This particular amphora is showing the ending of the battle between Perseus and Medusa.  Perseus is fleeing with Medusa’s head in the kibisis that was given to him and Athena is there to help him conquer the gorgon.  This is done in what is known as red-figure vase painting which was the use of painting in red on a black background as opposed to the even more ancient way of painting in black upon a red surface.  This allowed for greater detail and more tones to be created.  It was common to have scenes of great mythological feats on these amphorae because it symbolized the greatness of the history of Greece and was also a great way to start conversations at a party or at the symposium.  

            This story of Perseus beheading Medusa was also created in sculpture.  It wouldn’t be a part of ancient Greek culture without sculpture.  This story was sculpted first as part of the decoration of temples.  This one in particular was part of a temple and again it is showing the killing of Medusa by Perseus from the temple of Selinus.

            This is called a Metope, which is a part of the relief decorating used in temples that is rectangular in between two triglyphs in a Doric style frieze. This space was always used to show scenes from legends of good triumphing over evil or the particular god/goddess the temple is dedicated to wining a bet or, just in general, being better than all the other gods. 

          This is another example of temple art telling the story of Medusa and Perseus.

           This is a pediment from the temple of Artemis at Corfu, and is possibly one of the oldest parts of the temple.  This is a strange mixture of stories as it used to show Medusa with both of her offspring, the Pegasus and the warrior named “Golden Sword”, which is impossible since her children were only born after her death.  The other subjects in the pediment are the Trojans and the giants; both represent an uncivilized world and are the sworn enemies of the Greeks.  What happened in primitive Greek art was the combining of stories or the combining of aspects of stories to fit in spaces provided.  Many times there would be shown parts of a story that could not be possible to be seen together but would appear in the same space because of lack of space.  When this happened people saw the different parts of the stories mashed together and would be able to fill in the blanks because they knew the stories so well.  A very good example of this is in another amphora showing the Perseus and Medusa story.

This is showing not only the killing of Medusa but also the old King Akrisios, who is not involved in the story save the beginning and the end.  This is a very interesting way to not only tell a story through art but as a way to pass the story down from generation to generation.  Many stories were kept alive by passing them down through word of mouth and art since most people were not literate they were not written down.  It’s fascinating to see how the telling of stories has progressed from sculptures and vase paintings to three dimensional movies and huge anthologies but we always go back to art for references. 

http://www.class.uidaho.edu/monsters/art/gallery.htm

http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/women/momasmamas.html

http://www.greek-gods-and-goddesses.com/perseus-slaying-medusa.html

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Red-Figure-Amphora-Showing-the-Slaying-of-Medusa-by-Perseus-Posters_i1348697_.htm

The Story of Perseus and Medusa

The story of Perseus and Medusa began in ancient Greece.  The story begins with King Akrisios; he was the king of Argos who had a daughter named Danae.  His family line was descended from Zeus and he wanted a son to carry on the family line.  Having the family line end here with a woman was considered disgraceful and so he went and sought the counsel of the Oracle at Delphi about having a son.  Instead of affirming his wishes she confirmed his fears that he would have no sons.  As if this was not bad enough, the Oracle also told him that he would be killed by his future grandson.  King Akrisios was a very selfish man and decided that he would rather have his daughter locked away in a bronze chamber (depending on the version of the story it was either a tower or an underground vault) so that she would be kept out of the sight of men and so he would never have to worry about any marriages or grandchildren. 

            However, as is common in Greek legend, when you try and avoid fate it never works.  Fate always finds a way to complete itself and is unavoidable.  While Danae was locked up in her bronze prison Zeus saw her and became entranced by her beauty.  He visited her as a golden mist and she became pregnant with his son whom she named Perseus.  When King Akrisios found out about her son he did not believe that he was a child of Zeus and had Danae and Perseus locked in a chest and thrown into the sea.  He did not want to kill the boy outright incase the story was true so instead he left it up to Zeus to save them by letting their fate into his hands.  All night the chest floated and bobbed about in the ocean and this would have killed them both if not for Dictys, the fisherman who found them on the coast of the small island called Seriphos.  He hauled in the chest in his next and took them into his home and raised Perseus as his own son.  Dictys was the younger brother of the ruler of the island named Polydectes who was an older, cruel man.  Polydectes fell in love with Danae and wanted to marry her but she would not have him, whether it was because she had heard of his cruelty or not is unknown but he could not abduct her due to her wild son.  Polydectes decided a good way to get rid of Perseus was to send him on an impossible quest, one that would ultimately end his life and one that Perseus would choose himself, being known for boasting, this would be easy.  When Polydectes declared he was to marry a princess from another land but needed a gift to give her father he demanded from every man on the island a horse.  Being poor, Perseus had no horse so he said he’d give something better, the head of Medusa the gorgon.

            There are three gorgons in Greek mythology named Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.  Medusa was the only mortal one of the three, having been turned into a gorgon for challenging Athena’s beauty or for having relations with Poseidon in Athena’s temple.  All three had the bodies of reptiles, golden wings, bronze talons and tusks, and snakes for hair.  They were so hideous that one look would turn the unfortunate viewer to stone.  To bring back the head of Medusa would be an impossible task.  In different versions of this story Perseus brings back the head of Medusa to pay off a debt of Dictys or to oust Polydectes from power.  Athena and Hermes helped Perseus in his quest to slay Medusa; after Perseus consulted with the Three Fates about where Medusa’s lair was Hermes gave him winged sandals so he could fly there.  He also gave him a sack called a kibisis, which is made for holding bulky items and makes the items invisible as well as giving him a sickle shaped sword made of adamantine.  Athena gave him her shield and directions to use it to see Medusa’s reflection to he would be able to see where she was and behead her without getting turned into stone. 

Perseus approached the island where the gorgons lived and they were all asleep.  Their lair was covered with the statues of fallen warriors who had attempted to either catch a glimpse or kill Medusa.  He crept in and silently beheaded Medusa without actually looking at her.  He put her head in the kibisis and flew away on the shoes of Hermes.  The two sisters, Stheno ad Euryale, woke and chased after Perseus but were unable to catch him.  In other versions of this story Perseus has the Helm of Hades which makes him invisible or he is given a hat that makes him invisible by the nymphs that the fates send him to see before Athena and Hermes help him.  Also Medusa was supposedly pregnant with Poseidon’s children when Athena transformed her, so when Perseus kills Medusa a full grown warrior and a perfect horse with wings emerge from the stump of Medusa’s body.  The man fathered Geryon, the herder of the west and the horse is known as Pegasus whom Athena and a different hero tame in another story.      

Perseus got married to a princess named Andromeda and takes her with him back to his home on Seriphos and stops Polydectes from taking his mother Danae as his wife.  He exposed the head of Medusa to Polydectes and turned him and all who came to his aid into stone.  He then names Dictys as the new king of Seriphos and sails away to find his real grandfather.  When he dose find his real grandfather he kills him unknowingly by hitting him with a diskos he threw in a competition.  By the time he reached the man he heard someone say his name was Akrisios and Perseus knew the Oracles prophecy had come true. 
  
Martin, R. P. Myths of the ancient greeks. New Amer Library, 2003.
Hamilton, E. Mythology. Back Bay Books, 1998. 
Graves, Robert. Greek Gods And Heroes. Laurel Leaf, 1966.  
Cotterell, Arthur, and Rachel Storm. The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of World Mythology, A Comprehensive A-Z Of The Myths And Legends Of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, India, China And The Norse And Celtic Lands. 2010.  
http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/kottkegorgon/gorgonmyth.html
 http://www.online-mythology.com/perseus_medusa/