Medusa with the head of Perseus

“Manhattan, Collect Pond Park, October 2020. A seven-foot-tall bronze statue is unveiled. It is Medusa with the Head of Perseus, by the Italian Argentinian artist Luciano Garbati. Medusa holds Perseus’s head in her right hand, and in her left, the sword by which she killed him. She has snakes for hair and a resolute gaze. She stands tall—and nude—in front of the New York Criminal Court, where Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape. Cast by Garbati in 2008, the statue suddenly went viral on Instagram in 2020, when it was reposted by an Italian scholar and proclaimed a symbol of the #MeToo movement. Greek mythology has long been a byword for elitism and social conservatism. Is it really a good idea—or even possible—to use its images for contemporary gender justice? As a classicist, I am always skeptical about institutionalized enterprises that choose a classical example as a symbol for social inclusivity. But, then again, to see Medusa’s head still on her shoulders is itself unusual enough to pique my interest.” “What Garbati’s Medusa shows us is that to talk about social justice when appropriating someone else’s story, even when the story in question is a millennia-old myth, serves to perpetuate such injustice. By publicly choosing this statue as the symbol of #MeToo, the Art in the Parks program adopted a Pygmalion strategy: unhappy with the actual women around them, they crafted their own—both beautiful and unthreatening (even when brandishing a severed head).”—When Medusa Meets #MeToo

Hermetic Library Omnium Medusa With the Head of Perseus 4apr2023

Also, from 2018, “Maybe you’ve seen her in your social media feed. A woman in the midst of an unsavory, unrequested task, she stands naked, her hair a tangle of serpents, a sword in one hand, a severed head in the other. Her gaze is not triumphant, exactly, but resolute. This vision of a re-imagined Medusa myth is a sculpture by Luciano Garbati, a 45-year-old Argentine-Italian artist based in Buenos Aires who has watched in amazement lately as a piece of art he made in 2008 has gone viral across social media, as the perfect avatar for a moment of female rage.”—”The story behind the Medusa statue that has become the perfect avatar for women’s rage“

Consider also:

  1. “One could go on for hours describing the fatuity of the movie men. It is not that their ideas are necessarily wrong in themselves, but that they are inappropriate–and in bad taste. They forget that the author has thought out all his contrasts and values, and even a better author could not alter them without destroying them utterly.”
  2. “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely. They’re beastly to one. Do you know, they shut me out of absolutely everything? When the other boys were sent out to spend the night on the mountains—you know, when you have to dream which your sacred animal is—they wouldn’t let me go with the others; they wouldn’t tell me any of the secrets. I did it by myself, though,” he added. “Didn’t eat anything for five days and then went out one night alone into those mountains there.” He pointed. Patronizingly, Bernard smiled. “And did you dream of anything?” he asked. The other nodded. “But I mustn’t tell you what.”
  3. “No whispered sigh, No change of breast, love’s posture perfectly Once gained, we change no more. The fever grows Hotter or cooler, as the night wind blows Fresh gusts of passion on the outer gate. But we, in waves of frenzy, concentrate Our thirsty mouths on that hot drinking cup Whence we may never suck the nectar up Too often or too hard; fresh fire invades Our furious veins, and the unquiet shades Of night make noises in the darkened room.”
  4. Son Of The Staves Of Time
  5. The man who discovered the ‘abyss of time’