Medusa: Victim or Villain? | Monstrum

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateStoried
↓ More info below ↓

With her dramatic serpentine hair, and powerful petrifying gaze, Medusa has been a prominent figure in literature and art for thousands of years. One of three Gorgon sisters, she’s been worshipped and feared in almost equal measure. Medusa once served as a symbol of protection, but became a sign of vice and seduction. In this episode you’ll learn the different variations of this snake-haired woman’s origin story from 8th century BC to 19th-century poetry and even modern films. I know what you’re thinking: ‘I know Medusa. I’ve seen the movies.’ But do you really? Watch to find out! #medusa #gorgon #MonstrumPBS

Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Stephanie Noone
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Editor:
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

Follow us on Instagram:
  / monstrumpbs  

-----------
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Adam, Alexander. Classical biography: exhibiting alphabetically the proper names, with a short account of the several deities, heroes, and other persons, mentioned in the ancient classic authors; and a More Particular Description of the Most Distinguished Characters among the Romans; the Whole being Interspersed with Occasional Explanations of Words and Phrases. Designed chiefly to contribute to the illustration of the Latin classics. 1800.

DeLong, Anne. Mesmerism, Medusa, and the Muse : The Romantic Discourse of Spontaneous Creativity, 2012.

Homer. The Iliad : A New Translation by Peter Green. University of California Press, 2015.

Homer. The Odyssey. University of Michigan Press, 2002.

Homer. The odyssey of Homer. Translated by Alexander Pope, Esq. Vol. 3, 1760.

Indiana Masterpiece Editions: Dante's Inferno, the Indiana Critical Edition, edited by Dante Alighieri. Indiana University Press, 1995.

Kaplan, Matt. The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear. Scribner, 2012.

Leerning, David. Medusa: In the Mirror of Time. 2013.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries, 1983.

Shelley, Percy. “On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery.” Romantic Circles (1824) https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/shell....

Silverman, Doris K. “Medusa: Sexuality, Power, Mastery, and Some Psychoanalytic Observations,” Studies in Gender and Sexuality .Vol. 17, No. 2: 114-125 (2016).

Wilk, Stephen R. Medusa : Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, 2000.