Medusa
While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BC Pindar already speaks of “fair-cheeked Medusa”.[5]
In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many suitors,” priestess in Athena’s temple, but when the “Lord of the Sea” Poseidon raped her in Athena’s temple, the enraged Athena, choosing not to punish Poseidon, transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone.
Step Shurman has painted Medusa as an exhibit in the Alien Museum. Steps visualisations of this other dimensional space are unique, sometimes disturbing, but always fascinating.
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