The Rape of Medusa - Beth J. Seelig, MD

envy were foreign to the ancient Greeks and are not central to understanding their
mythology. However, one can also argue that it is useful to employ a myth as
illustration, independent of its origin, and this is my intent. I do not wish to engage
in a dispute about the culture of the ancient Greeks, rather, I wish to borrow their
robust imagery as metaphoric illustration of some powerful psychodynamic issues.
In this regard, I agree with Arlow's perspective on psychoanalysis and mythology.
Psychoanalysis sees mythology as a concretization in the form of an
unconscious fantasy of the wishes of childhood. Derivatives of these
fantasies are projected on to some historical, mythological figure of the
past, who in the myth acts out a direct or symbolic representation of the
unconscious wishes shared in common by the members of the community
who sustain the myth (1982, p. 187).
The Myths of Athena and Medusa
The virgin goddess of wisdom Athena, born from the brow of her father Zeus,
is generally portrayed bearing a spear and wearing the image of Medusa's head on
her shield or breastplate. She has been regarded (Balter, 1969) as a phallic woman.
However, the story of the conception of Athena makes her a far more complex and
interesting figure.
Athena was originally conceived in the womb of the goddess Metis, with
whom Zeus had one of his many affairs. However, Zeus received a prophecy that
the child of Metis, whose name means ‘council’, would be very powerful. His
solution to the problem was to swallow the pregnant goddess. Subsequently he
gave birth to the child Athena from his brow.
The image of the snake-haired female monster Medusa, one of three sisters,
the Gorgons, is familiar to everyone. Medusa's hideous face had the property of
turning to stone anyone who gazed upon it. She was slain by the hero Perseus with
the assistance of Athena and Hermes. Perseus used the petrifying power of her
severed head to secure his promised bride Andromeda. Athena is later portrayed
wearing the visage of Medusa on her breastplate or shield.
The severed head of Medusa attracted Freud's attention. He regarded the
hideous face of Medusa as representing the horrifying penisless female genital, in
particular the genital of the mother (Freud, 1922). The multiple snakes of her hair
both disguised
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and expressed the mother's terrifying state of castration. There is, however, a tragic
prehistory of Medusa, not addressed by Freud. This early history of the monster
sheds another light on her story and expands its latent meanings.