Feminist Reclamation of Women from Greek Myth A L E X A N D R A PA R A D Z I C K
was
Medusa is perhaps one of the most well-
steeped in misogyny, and as women were being
known mythic monsters of the modern world.
mistreated in real life, so were female characters
In the ancient world, the story of her murder by
in their mythos. Even as these characters were
Perseus was known as a true hero’s story, with
forced into the role of wives or mothers, or
the dashing young man killing the beast and
punished for crimes committed against them, or
saving the young princess. When taking into
killed for a moral lesson, women in modern day
account, however, that Perseus killed Medusa
have started to reexamine these characters and
in her sleep, some modern audiences have
rewrite them to be more empowering. Of all the
taken a problem with it. An example of the
various women in Greek myth, modern female
“modern Medusa” was made by Matt Rhodes in
audiences have latched onto two: Medusa and
2013, in which Medusa is depicted as an injured
Artemis. Both of these characters have been
woman hiding in her own home from Perseus
taken into the feminist fold, and now symbolize
in a work of digital art. The hero in question
something many women experience: sexual
is presented in the background, hulking and
assault and lesbianism. While examining how
angry, hunting down the bleeding and crying
these women’s stories were used to put down
woman in the foreground. Medusa’s backstory
the female population of Greece, it is important
also gives some credence to this idea of her
to recognize how the very ones meant to be
being a victim. The story goes that Medusa,
oppressed have taken these myths and changed
a devout priestess of Athena, was raped in
them into something much more powerful.
Athena’s temple by Poseidon. In response to
SOCIETY
IN
CLASSICAL
GREECE
A L E X A N D R A PA R A D Z I C K is an English Major at Loyola Marymount University, graduating this year with the rest of the Class of 2022. The following essay was written for Professor Christopher Gibson’s Classical Myth class in the Fall Semester. She had been interested in Greek Mythology since a young age, and read not only the original myths, but many modern adaptions put out as fiction novels. These adaptions became the inspiration for the paper’s topic, in which she decided to explore which myths woman had decided to adapt, and why these specific mythological women were so fascinating to the modern audience.
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