WEBVTT - From the Vault: Medusa, Part 1 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.760 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.559 is Robert Land and I'm Joe McCormick, and I was 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.840 about to say it's Saturday, but it's not Saturday though. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.200 Today is a vault episode. Rob and I are out 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:17.600 this week for spring break, so we are sharing with 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:22.360 you an episode that originally published April. This is part 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:24.960 one of our Medusa series. Yeah, this is a lot 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:40.120 of fun. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.920 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And hey, 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.240 it's Halloween in April. I'm so excited because we decided 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.280 it's got to be monster time here on Stuff to 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.199 Blow your Mind, even though it's not October yet. You know, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.320 we we can't put all the monsters in October. There's 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.000 too much monster. Yeah, what would we talk about the 0:00:58.000 --> 0:00:59.880 rest of the year if we didn't occasionally check in 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.880 with the monstrous denizens of the dark. And we have 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.800 a great one here for a couple of episodes. Because 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.560 there's there's just so much about it, so much about her. 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.240 We're going to be talking about the Gorgon, the most 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:18.080 famous of the three Gorgons, Medusa. Now Medusa is just 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:23.480 fascinating and enthralling figure, often above and beyond the source material. 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.360 But perhaps it's the perfect balance of the sort of 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.160 counterintuitive aspects in her being, or or sort of the 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.319 the shadow archetypes that seemed to resonate behind her. But 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.360 she is a long burning monstrosity in the minds of humanity. 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.360 Oh yeah, I mean this is I'm so excited about 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.000 this pair of episode. So just to give you a 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.360 little bit of a roadmap, I think in this first 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.400 episode here we're going to be mostly discussing the ancient 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.800 Greek myths of Medusa the origins of those myths, and 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.000 then later on in in part two, we're going to 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.320 explore more of the later interpretations of Medusa and how 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.920 she might apply to some interesting scientific and cultural topics. 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.640 But this, this is such rich territory. I don't know 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.320 if there is a richer monster out there than Medusa, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.040 other than maybe the vampire archetype. Indeed, this is this 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.520 is fertile soil. And we we've talked about doing an 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.960 episode on Medusa for years. Uh it's one we've kind 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.200 of uh kicked around, but this time we're covering it 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.720 because uh, my son urged me to do it. So 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.120 here we are he's about to turn eight years old, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.079 and since we couldn't actually go anywhere for spring break 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.720 due to the pandemic, we did kind of a makeshift 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:35.880 camp here at the house. We did a myth and 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.160 mushrooms camp. So my wife did a lot of mushroom 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.760 related crafts and activities with them, mushroom growing kid and 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.440 going out and you know, looking for mushrooms. And then, uh, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.440 we both partook of a lot of mythology with him, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.400 given the boy's recent enthrallment with it due to the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.240 Percy Jackson novels by Rick Ryerdon I've heard of those, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:57.920 but I don't know anything about them. So they have 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.920 something to do with with great myth. Oh yeah, they're 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:02.720 They're full of Greek myth. You know. It's it's sort 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.480 of a post Terry potter um world where you have 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.480 a you know, a boy, a young boy slash teen 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.040 by the name of Percy Jackson who is Percy Us 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.680 and he's encountering all the gods and monsters you would expect. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.520 And yeah, it's the book seemed to be a lot 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.080 of fun, uh for the kids. And more to the 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.400 point it it gets them into mythology. I was talking 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.080 with Alison louder Milk about it and she said there 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.480 her son had gone through a phase of being just 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:34.120 super into Greek mythology because of it. Um, so, uh, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.760 you know, we were, you know, we really got into 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.760 the mythology and Medusa really stood out to him. So 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.480 of course we watched the original nineteen eight one Clash 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.400 of the Titans, which features a very memorable Medusa sequence. 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.600 We also watched the nineteen nineties series Jim Hinson's The 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.119 Storyteller Greek Myths, which is excellent and features an episode 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.360 about the Gorgon's actually just watched this last night at 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.920 your recommendation. It's uh, it's streaming right now on the Yeah. 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.800 The episode about Perseus and the gorgon medusas is just 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.160 wonderful and it has great narration by Michael Gambon. Is 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.119 that Yeah, he plays the storyteller in this one. Uh. Yeah, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.280 all four episodes are as of this recording anyway on 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.360 Amazon Prime. So yeah, they're they're they're wonderful, fun you 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.599 get what. Orpheus is one of the episodes of the 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.280 Minotaur and uh and Icarus and Datalus and of course 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.400 you know. With with my son, we also were reading 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.200 a lot of Carol Rose, one of my favorite monster 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:33.279 chroniclers and Folklori's and the boy himself absolutely demolished Deal 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.039 Larry's Book of Greek Myths, that nineteen sixty two illustrated 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.400 book that I know a lot of us grew up with. 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.240 So there's something I always wonder about with with ancient mythology, 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.000 including Greek myth and and that's that I I since 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.240 a couple of things are intention when you're you're exposing 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.160 children to them. Uh. One is that I feel like 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.240 kids are naturally drawn to mythology, like they just eat 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.320 it up, they love it. But at the same time, 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.680 a lot of ancient myths are just full of obscene 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.599 cruelty and stuff that like, uh, you know, the stuff 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.360 that that I don't always remember from the tellings of 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.800 those myths that I got when I was a kid, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.719 I must have gotten some kind of sanitized versions of them. 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.599 Often do you find that a lot of that is 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.240 going on? And oh, yeah, yeah, Because on one hand, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.000 some of the versions that he's he's reading, you know, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.000 they they've sanitized it to a certain extent. You know, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.520 certainly with Percy Jackson. Uh, certainly with this this really 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.400 cool comics series called The Olympians that I also recommend 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.320 um and then also the Book of Greek Myths does 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:34.120 that as well. But that he'll also come up and 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.120 he'll he'll tell me about some just awful detail from 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.200 a myth where somebody, you know, killed their parents or 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.520 their sign or something, and I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.720 Greek myths, Uh, a lot of horrible stuff happens in them, 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.240 and and a lot of these tales are are tragic. 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.159 And then of course one of the ironies of these 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.520 episodes is that, uh, as we really dive into the 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.760 origin story in the varied origin stories of Medusa, like 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.640 some of them are just very brutal in in a 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.960 way where I probably can't let him listen to these episodes. Yeah, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:05.880 and I understand that. I mean, I think we'll try 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.040 not to dwell on the most obscene and cruel aspects 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.320 of these myths, but they are ancient myths. A lot 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.359 of ancient myths have obscene in cruel elements, So do 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.920 be prepared that kind of thing is coming. Yeah, So 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:18.840 if you're listening with children at cetera, Yeah, I know 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:20.520 that this is it's going to get into some really 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.679 dark territories, so you might want to scout it out first, 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.120 is all I'm saying. Yeah, now, you know we've mentioned 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.120 Jim Hinson Clash of the Titans. These are examples. Will 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:30.800 come back to it again and again because a lot 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.719 of times these are these are introductions to these worlds. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.880 Percy Jackson uh is often an introduction to Greek mythology, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.479 for for for younger folks these days. Um, Dungeon and 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.120 Dragons is another big one. Medusa has long resided within 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.159 the Monster Manual, where she's sort of she sort of 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.320 becomes a species unto herself. Oh, can you play as 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.800 a Medusa? I'm I'm sure somebody there's I'm sure there 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.039 have been some homebrew rules at some point, or even 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.320 some official rules for playing a gorgon. Yeah, but um, 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.560 but I'm not aware of them offhand. It would be 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:05.840 It's one of those things would be kind of hard 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.280 to h if you really have petrifying gaze, Like how 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.720 do you run like that in a tavern? I'm a 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:20.240 gorgon bard So all these audiences hate me. So all 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.120 of these are very much downstream versions of the myth 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.760 of Medusa, and some of you might, you know, you 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.200 might have have this sort of instinct to criticize any 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.720 discussion of the mythic creature, to begin with via such 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:36.080 recent pop culture expressions like Percy Jackson or Clash of 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.040 the Titans, which you know at times certainly plays fast 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.720 and loose with the myth. But one thing we have 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.200 to keep in mind is that pretty much all versions 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.560 of Medusa or any mythological tale are a downstream product, 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:53.280 the result of centuries upon centuries of oral tradition, various 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.960 tellings and retellings, various written accounts and references, cross references, 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:03.280 continually and perpetual reshaping the myth and the monster itself 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:08.360 to tell better stories, to impart specific cultural ideas, or 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.640 to merge with other tales or other belief systems. So yes, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.640 while watching Clash of the Titans, which uh, you know 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.600 that was that was big for me, introducing me to 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.280 a lot of mythological ideas because it was always on 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:23.400 td S or T and T back in the day. 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.440 But but watching that it can be frustrating because we 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.560 inevitably recoil from you know, at the tale being told 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.560 one way and not another. Of liberties being taken the 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.840 influence of modern ideas and narratives like Star Wars, uh, 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.920 you know, obviously being in play in the creation of 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.880 this movie. But to a large extent, this was always 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.920 the way with myths. This there is often this illusion 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.760 of solidarity with the Greek, with Greek mythology, because all 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:55.240 these various tales come to be largely canonized within certain 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.680 major works uh, such as those of say Hesiod and 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.560 Ovid who will discuss us and then much later in 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.160 key modern mythology books. So much in the same way 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.760 that there is no one unchanging you. There is no 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.520 single unchanging Medusa. It is a creature that spans the ages, 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.640 altering its form along the way, sometimes slightly, sometimes in 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.880 major ways, while retaining certain aspects that resonate with us 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.280 on a on a truly universal level. Yeah, I mean, uh, 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.400 it's a very good point. The same way that modern 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.959 authors are sometimes cleaning up myths for you to make 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.440 them more palatable to children, or to make them more 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.880 acceptable to the morals of the day, or even not 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:37.920 not even just the moral Sometimes myths I think are 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.720 altered just to sort of make them more acceptable to 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.559 the narrative logic that's dominant within a within an era 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.760 um that was going on back then too. Yeah, So 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.520 it's just all I think, always something to keep in mind. Boy. 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.000 It's a hard thing to explain to to a young 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.080 person though, because like my son really wants he wants 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:02.000 the cannon version of the tail and he's they're into correcting, uh, 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.880 film adaptations and all, and I have to kind of 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.280 explain to them. It's like, well, you know, there's not 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:12.000 really just one story. There's no you know, there's this this, 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.560 This is a great point. I feel like children are 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.760 naturally cannon pedants? Why is that? Why is it that 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:20.840 when you're I was when I was a little kid, 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.880 and now I abhor that kind of thinking, but that's 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.360 absolutely how I was when I encounter all kinds of 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.720 mythology as a child, with Star Wars, with you know, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.160 with everything. Why why are kids obsessive about cannon and 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.040 turn always turned to cannon pedantry? I guess A part 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:38.240 of a big part of it is, you know, you 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.160 look to your parents and authority figures you know, adjacent 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.120 to your parents, as as being the providers of truth 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.080 of telling you how the world works. And it's it's 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.160 only later that you really begin to understand that it's 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.720 not so cut and dry that your parents didn't have 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:57.720 it all figured out, that you have to figure some 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.920 out the stuff out for yourself, and something are beyond 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.120 figuring out or just sort of amorphous, like uh, you know, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.840 the true nature of a mythological being. And then certainly 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.040 if they're if they're really into something like say Harry Potter, 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.760 like there is one version of Harry Potter, you know, 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.079 I mean, it is, it is, it is whatever J. K. 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.480 Rowling says it is. You know. So, um, it's hard 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:26.320 to compare. You can't really compare that to Greek myth. Well, 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.920 so maybe the place that we should start with here 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.240 is to try to give a basic retelling of the 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.680 main myths of the Gorgon, the main myths and Medusa 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.560 and Perseus um. What with the understanding that there are 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.160 a lot of different versions of these myths, and different 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:43.920 things will come in that we can explain as we 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.959 go on, but it probably makes sense to start with 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:52.400 a coherent version of the story. Absolutely, yeah, what uh? What? 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.000 Author David A. Limming in Medusa in the Mirror of 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.400 Time two thousand eighteen book referred to as quote, what 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.400 can reason to be called a canonical myth of Medusa. Yeah, 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.120 I think that's a decent way of putting it. And 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.840 that David Lemming book you mentioned Medusa in the Mirror 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:09.439 of Time, that that's going to be one of our 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.240 main sources over the course of these episodes. That's that's 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.800 a great, short, succinct book that captures a lot of 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.600 what's interesting about the Medusa myth. Uh, And so we'll 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.760 be referring to him a lot throughout these episodes. Yeah. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.560 David A. Lemming is a Narritus Professor of English and 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.560 Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, and he's an 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.760 author of various works on myth. Yeah, and his his 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.680 this book is is well worth checking out. Before we 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:35.960 do that, however, we're going to take a quick break, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:42.000 but we'll be right back. All right, we're back, So 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.880 it's time to tell the story of Medusa. Now. Of course, 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.360 as we said earlier, there are a lot of versions 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.840 of the Medusa story. This is a theme that evolves 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.200 over time, and we'll discuss the shifting canon as we 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.680 go on, but at the beginning here, it would probably 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.840 be best to start with the most commonly received version 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.600 of the myths of Medusa and Perseus. And I'll try 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.360 to summarize the story as best I can, um, relying 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.640 a lot on on work by David Lemming that we 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.120 mentioned earlier, but also with a bit of poetic color 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:16.040 from Ovid's telling in the Metamorphoses, the Garthen Dryden translation. Uh. 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.680 That we should note that though Ovid's telling is far 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.040 from the earliest, it's where some of the best known 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.240 aspects of the story come from today. Absolutely, And Uh, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.079 one other thing I want to point out that will 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.880 become obvious is that, you know, we tend to refer 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.640 to this story is that of of Perseus and Medusa, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.800 and that it is you know, that is that the 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.240 key conflict, uh, that we tend to focus on, and 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.400 it's the conflict that is brought out in these various 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.720 cinematic adaptations. But I think in some respects it's almost 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.240 more fair to consider it the story of Athena and 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:54.160 Medusa featuring Perseus. And we'll get into that as we go. Yeah, 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.760 And it's weird how Perseus can, sometimes, even though he's 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.040 ostensibly the hero of the story, feel kind of like 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.560 a little like Paul on or game piece that's being 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:06.280 moved around by various powers. Yeah, we're just a character 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:10.240 of chaos that is just occasionally nudged in different directions 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.600 by more powerful entities. Yeah. Okay, So, according to some 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.720 of the most ancient sources of the actual Medusa myth 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.800 as opposed to just sort of like the imagery of Medusa. Um, 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.720 this will be especially the Greek poet Hesiod, who would 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.240 have been writing in the seventh or eighth century b c. E. 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:34.200 Medusa was originally descended from a family of primordial gods 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.800 and monsters. The original being in this lineage of gods 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.080 and monsters was Gaya, who is the personification of the 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.400 Earth itself. And at first Guya was without a mate, 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:53.760 so she conceived a son parthenogenetically meaning virgin birth, much 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.000 like an island stranded komodo dragon. And this son that 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.400 she gave birth to was no as Pontus, and he 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.200 became her counterpart. She was the personification of the Earth 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.280 and Pontus was the personification of the ocean. Yeah, and 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.080 this is the sort of thing is not uncommon among 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.440 primordial mythic beings. Uh. So, then together Guya and her 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.240 son Pontus conceived more children, including the two figures who 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.680 would become the parents of Medusa. And these figures were 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.760 focus the sea god, who Homer called the Old Man 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.120 of the Sea. He's sometimes depicted with claws. He was 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.000 generally kind of a fishman, crab person type thing. So 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.000 it's kind of like the Crabby character on a SpongeBob basically. 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.640 I'm actually not familiar with SpongeBob canon. I can't go 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.480 in there, but there's a fishman, crab person monster. Yeah. 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.720 The character is Mr Crabs who runs um runs a restaurant. 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:54.000 And he's voiced by Clancy Brown. Oh wow, Clancy Brown. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.240 He was on SpongeBob. Oh yeah, he's he's a major 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.480 part of it. Well, I'm glad to hear he's doing voicework. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:03.800 he has a great voice. It's a great to see that. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.560 You know, he lends it to a number of different projects. Okay, 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:08.880 so we gotta focus the Old Man of the Sea. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.720 And then on the other hand, we've got Ketto or Keto, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.760 which is where we get our classic terminology for whales, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.320 the idea of the ketas or the SETAs, and and 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:22.080 Keto was a giant sea monster and together focus and 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.720 Ketto produced a whole mess of monsters from their union. 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.600 So first of all, you've got the gray and this 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.640 is a set of triplets who were all born with 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.880 gray hair. They're described as hags who share one eye 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.120 and one tooth between the three of them, and their 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.360 gray hair was believed to embody the foam of heavy 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.360 seas during a storm. Yeah. They are often depicted in 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.000 TV and film adaptations of them De Deuce's story. You 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.480 see them in Clash of the Titans, Hintson, Percy Jackson 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.000 and others. My son is really into them, and the 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.320 other day he quizzed me on what their names were, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:00.920 at which I had no idea, uh, but then he 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:05.760 spouted them off. They are Dino, Inyo and the Fredo. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.320 When there are three anyway, so in some tellings there 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.359 are only two. Yeah, and I think their names I 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.000 don't recall exactly what they translate to, but they have 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:15.879 something to do with the qualities of the sea. Their 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.000 names translate to things like depth and terror and stuff. Now, 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:23.720 another offspring of this union of of Forcus and Kato 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.760 or Quito is Thusa, who became the mother of Polyphemus. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.719 Polyphemus of course, is the Cyclops in the Odyssey who 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.360 discus stabs in the eye. Uh. And then you've got 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.320 a kidna, the she Viper. This is a woman who 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.240 was half snake. Yeah. And sometimes she's credited as being 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.320 the mother of Monsters and other tellings, mother of Medusa 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.720 even and I guess you know, there's a little bit 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.399 of a kidna in the recreation of of of the 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.000 gorgon Ian Clash of the Titans Ray Harry Housen's fabulous sequence. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.760 Oh is she half snake in that? Yeah? She's she's 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.840 depicted as being um a snake from the waist down, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.360 you know, having been kind of a serpentine centaur uh 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.879 and and then being more traditionally a gorgon from the 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.840 waist up, but without the wings. Okay. So another one 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.359 of the offspring here is one that's familiar to us, 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.199 is going to be Scilla, the the sea monster with 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.600 many heads, who swallowed sailors who came too close to 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.239 her rocks. And she's classically the counterpart of Charybdis. Right, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.359 So you've got this pair of hazards in the ocean 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.560 that is difficult to thread a pathway through. Charybdis of course, 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.840 is like a whirlpool. Yeah, and then, of course, finally 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.199 you've got the Gorgons, and the Gorgon's are a trio 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.760 of sisters whose name comes from the word gor ghos, 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:48.439 which means frightening or terrifying. Medusa is one of the 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.040 three Gorgon sisters. The names of the other two are 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.840 Thinno and Urially, and curiously, we are told by multiple 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:01.120 ancient sources that while the other two Gorgon sisters are immortal, tragically, 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.159 Medusa is not immortal. Hes He had writ specifically that 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.000 her fate was a sad one, for she was mortal, 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.200 though it's I'm not sure if it's ever explained anywhere 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.399 why specifically she and only she was mortal. Yeah, nothing 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.480 ever seems, at least in anything I've read, seems to 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:22.040 be really made of that fact. Like it's not like, oh, well, 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.640 that means that Perseus is forever hounded by these immortal 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.159 gore guns or anything like that. It's just kind of 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.800 here's the facts. It seems like one of those things 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.200 that might have been when people were trying to stitch 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:38.280 together disparate versions of a of a myth cycle that 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.280 that had incompatible facts. You might just paper that over 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.960 by inserting a little like, by the way, she was 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.480 mortal for some reason. Yeah, yeah, if someone was like, 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.760 well I thought they were immortal. No, No, she was mortal, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.960 so she's dead. She was the only one though. Yeah. Anyway, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.200 according to a fragmentary document called the Shield of Heracles, 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.080 the three Gorgon sisters would talk about with serpents hanging 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.680 from their girdles. So imagine a kind of Batman utility built, 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.320 but all the pouches are replaced with snakes, and the 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.479 belt snakes would lear and they would flick their tongues 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.240 that anyone who beheld them. Yeah, and I have to 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.840 say depictions of this are cooler and grizzly are looking 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:25.400 than it sounds, because that sounds cool enough for you. Well, yeah, 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.520 I know it doesn't sound cool when I read it initially, 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.000 because it's like, oh, and that she had they had 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.359 snakes for belts. That just sounds kind of, I don't know, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:34.080 kind of lame. But then you see an image and 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.080 it's like these snakes you're hanging off and you know, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.199 and maybe writhing a bit, and there's there's perhaps a 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.480 sense of the we won't get into this until the 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.520 second episode. But uh, you know, you get into some 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.480 of these Freudian concepts of what Medusa is all about, 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:51.800 and you look at an image like that and you 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.040 can you can see it. But again, more on that 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.159 in the second episode. Yeah, it should not come as 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.920 a surprise that some people, especially Freud, read a lot 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:04.240 of genital sygnificance into the depiction of the snake bearing sisters. 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:09.119 Here now, writing of the three Gorgon sisters, Apollodorus says 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.760 that their heads were twined about with the scales of dragons, 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.840 and that they had golden wings or I've also seen 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:21.040 it said sometimes bronze wings, and also great tusks, like 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:25.439 a swine's tusks. Yeah, those wings are often forgotten in 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.399 art and you know, other depictions, cinematic or otherwise. I 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.000 think in part because that's just one more thing you 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.000 have to try and bring to life, either with effects 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.520 or otherwise. Though Hinson does have the wings in his version. 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.320 I think also sometimes, as with the Clash adaptation, there's 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.800 an attempt to focus more on those serpentine details, you know, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.159 like people want hybrid city, but they don't want to 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:54.040 deal with a chimera um uh, you know, generally speaking, chimera. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:55.320 Of course, for the most part, you don't see a 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.800 lot of like cinematic adaptations of the mythical chimera either. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.600 We want half and half, we don't want uh you know, 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.600 three different types of animal physiologies merged together. Well, yeah, 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.320 I mean, I want, at what point do you start 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.760 pushing from minimally counterintuitive into just like too complicated, too weird? Yeah, yeah, 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:15.720