Medusa
“What is it like to be a woman
listening in the dark”
Anne Carson, Autobiography of red
I. Tradition
"Come any closer and I will savage you" were her last words.
Confined in an echoed cave,
confronting a brutalized world,
condemned to perpetual horror,
combatting a perpetual exile.
Abominable and satanic.
Beautiful and pure.
Catastrophic and terrifying
Desirable and virtuous.
Many adjectives were used to describe her.
And, after what I did,
there was no single deception about her:
a long tail that crawls around
a fierce song that matches her aspect
a satanic look that will turn you into stone.
A monster, she was called.
But monsters are not born,
they are made,
and the one in this story
is only on me.
II. Power
Believe it or not
she was caught in the middle of a war
that only lead to destruction.
May God have mercy on me
because I know none of you would.
Medusa.
Let me explain.
Let me tell your story.
Let me gain your forgiveness.
Let me regain the favor of the Goddesses.
But,
Let me warn you, reader.
This story is not about Olympic Gods, monsters, and epic heroes.
No.
This story is about power.
In a place called Ireland,
our story doesn't start with her
neither with me.
It starts with the beginning of the end:
with the creation of the Old World.
III. Tuatha Dé Dannan
Mother Goddess.
Mother Earth.
Mother Life.
Mother Youth-Adult-Elder.
Mother Anu-Danu.
Anu-Danu:
love, fertility, transcendence …
abundance, mystery, death …
The Creator, the Ruler of
the Tuatha Dé Dannan.
Before God came,
before they came,
before they imposed unity.
Anu-Danu ruled over earth and heavens
And the Tuatha Dé Dannan was a sextet of dualities.
Étaín-Sulis-Olwen / Áine-Arianrhod-Cerridwen
Sun-Vision-Growth / Moon-Mask-Burial
Light-Radiance-Vivid / Darkness-Spiritual-Wickedness
Day-Horizon-Hidden / Night-Freedom-Marginal
Fire-Suffocate-Destruction / Ice-Dryness-Desolation
Étaín: passion, transformation, renaissance.
Sulis: omnipresence, law, penalty.
Olwen: excellency, aesthetics, creativity.
The triad of the
falcon.
Áine: space, fortune, summer.
Arianrhod; destiny, change, war.
Ceridwen: inspiration, wisdom, sensuality.
The triad of the
snake.
IV. Orbis Ala
The Orbis Ala.
Our ancient Pantheon.
where the fairy and the human meet,
where Medusa started her life as a druidess
where she was turned into a monster
Orbis Ala,
where we hide,
where we thought we were safe,
where the Christian God hadn't yet arrived,
where the violent invasion of the Templars was an echo.
Medusa, half human – half demon,
was born here.
She was a spirit and a druidess.
She was one of us and none at the same time.
A druid that served the ancient Goddesses and a Gorgon.
Three sisters:
Stheno, Euryale and Medusa.
Perceived as fierce and maleficent,
two of them took the path of mythological eternity.
Medusa decided to devote herself to the sanctuary.
Stheno and Euryale gave up their beauty
in exchange for immortality
because they knew something that her sister did not:
being beautiful, in a world of men,
only leads to perpetual condemnation.
Medusa was
mortal and beautiful and pure.
Till she became a monster.
One that I created out of betrayal.
Not him. Me.
And, what about me?
You may ask.
I bent the knee and welcome the new God.
What else could I have done?
What?
V. Medusa
Our world didn't end with a clash
or a whisper
but, rather,
with a scream at a time.
Her scream.
The scream of the woman who launched a hundred men.
The scream of destruction itself.
The scream that leads to condemnation.
The scream that eradicates beautifulness.
The scream that set my betrayal.
In our war, Neptune attacked first
by doing an unforgivable act
just like the one I did
-But, if you attack one of us
You attack all of us-
The land was spoiled after what he did,
after what I could have prevented and did not,
after what I could have protected and did not,
after what I could have fought and did not,
after what I could have helped and did not.
Why am I telling this tale?
Why am I asking for forgiveness
when I don't deserve it?
Will the Goddesses ever forgive me
when they condemned Medusa?
But, do they?
They gave her power, immortality…
and an appearance,
cruel as this may sound
that will prevent Neptune's episode from ever happening again.
I would have given my beauty away
just to hold,
for one second,
the fear you inspired among men.
But, again, this is not about me.
Medusa, away from the sunlight,
hid near the sacred temple
where nothing was to grow
feeling powerless against the man
who took her life away.
But, there was a person who wandered through the forest,
the man she once loved: Iphicles;
who looked for her
till he found what once was her love,
and who will never leave her side.
Turning her desperation into fury,
she enrolled her tail around her first statue,
abandoned the place that once was a sanctuary
and set up in the ruins of an abandoned city
where she let hostility invade her.
VI. Monstrosity
Stay always beside me.
Or don't ever appear.
But don't leave me alone in this
darkness
where I cannot find you.
Claims to someone who she turns into stone
to one of the petrified men:
those who came to kill her
and ended up making her company.
A constant reminder of her monstrosity.
What does define monstrosity?
Our reflection?
How are we perceived?
Or, rather, our actions?
And, how to cope with it?
VII. Incarnation
Rumors travel quickly.
A feared monster,
half reptile-half woman
with snakes for hair
haunts the old city.
The incarnation of the devil
they called her
as life did not come back for those who looked at Medusa.
You know,
that was her vengeance against the world that trapped her.
Medusa collected the statues till a Templar,
one who had the benefit of God,
killed her and brought the head to me.
You may have heard of him,
Perseus.
Believe it or not,
Perseus was not sent by me.
And, what he gave him,
was another victory for Neptune.
And, then, I lost more than a war.
VIII. Traitor
My treason to the gender stands
even in this eternal nightmare,
where I'm alone
and desperate for
mercy.