Medusa, the African Queen

Medusa is an infamous name. Historically she is often tied to the Greek, particularly where she was raped in Athena’s temple, then punished for that traumatic experience by having her hair turned into snakes. Therefore anyone that looks into her eyes is turned into stone. Then we know of Perseus cutting her head off then taking her head, her goatskin cape, or breastplate, to Athena.and Perseus got his temple at Chemnis, Egypt. For many, that is all they know of this queen, but let's look deeper into her story. 

The name Medusa is a lot older than it’s given credit. Remember, it is the winners that write the history. Older lexicographers defined the name Medusa as meaning “queen’; unfortunately the lexicographers of today’s world ignore that meaning. Not to mention that many are not even aware that she had a winged body. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote in his poem titled “Aspecta Medusa”:

Let not thine eyes know any forbidden thing itself, although

Its onced should save as well as kill” but be

It’s shadow upon life enough for thee.”

To defeat Medusa, he first had to defeat Atlas, who was turned to stone ( to which he became the African Mountains) thus giving her the aspect of Mother of Mountains - a creator goddess. Then we look at the dragon Ladon that protected Atlas’s Garden where Hera was born, north of Casablanca. This is associated with the telluric current that girdles the planet, which is where the holy places were built by our ancients. So the mountains began to be seen as the creations from Medusa’s head, so the mountains were seen to aspire to the heavens, or to Paradise where the Mother gods live. It is from the great, sacred navel peaks of the Himalayas where the sacred rivers of India arose, and they are named for this Mother Goddess. It is said the sacred chant OM  that is used in Yoga is the sound of the earth being created by her - as well as the buzzing of bees that are her Priestesses. Another myth states that the sound OM is the sound that represented the grief of the two other immortal Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale who were Medusa's sisters. 

In mythology, we are the children of the sea meaning that life came from the sea; Medusa is one of them. In this story, three priestesses came from the sea which were the Hesperides (whose names are Hespere, Aegle, and Erythesis), the Gray Ones, and the Gorgons. The Gorgons were the children of Phorcys, also known as the Old Man of the Sea, and Nereid Ceto who lived on the edge of the world; more specifically it is said they they live beside a circling Stream, called the ocean, which has been renamed the Atlantic in remembrance of the giant atlas. and the days of homer there were many stories that were told about the horrors. The others have experienced a bomb in the ocean. It was the Gray Ones that were mentioned most, as it was said that no one could look up on these terrifying priestesses and live. Even the Egyptians believed that the Mediterranean was quite moody. but what we can see in a broader sense is that these were fish goddesses who were commonly worshiped at meal time on Fridays when fish were sacrificed to them. Medusa was one of these fish priestesses in the way that she comes into the Greek mythology through Poseidon. You see the black god Poseidon fell in love with Medusa. And who wouldn’t? It is stated that she wore her hair entwined with royal serpents just like those of the Egyptian queens and high priestesses. She wore a high crown that had rows of raised cobras heads that adorn her third eye. It is said that her body was circled with fish scales, also like the Egyptian sea god, and she had a well developed bosom. Now in the hieroglyphs, the symbol for water was those jagged lines that could resemble fish scales, so this is probably a confusion there. In the North Western area of Africa, where Medusa reigns, the snakes were celebrated as well as feared, especially by the Romans. It was the Carthaginians that used these venomous snakes against Roman’s during the Punic wars. There are different theories on the reason why Athena did not like Medusa. One was that she was in love with Poseidon, and she wanted Poseidon for herself and he was in love with Medusa, another one is that Medusa let Poseidon make love to her in Athens temple, and another is that Athena had to compete with Medusa in a beauty contest for supremacy over Libya. One of the aspects of Medusa that is not really talked about is that Poseidon may have just loved this beautiful priestess for her angelic, golden wings. No matter what the reason, Medusa was adored by her people. And even though Medusa had been killed on the orders of Athena, her people still adored her after death… Greeks and Romans alike. Medusa became the Gorgon guardian angel, who stood with outstretched wings protecting them. 

Medusa is said to be a part of the Libyan Amazons as well,and it is said that  it is from them that the Greeks adopted the four horse chariot, which they had to learn to drive. To me, Medusa’s story is one of another culture trying to destroy another. Even when we look back at the story of her two children, that is truly horrific. It is said that her children, fathered by Poseidon, was born from the mothers abdomen, which was split open at the hour of her death. Medusa, and Poseidon‘s children were the winged horse  Pegasus, and a golden warrior named Chrysaor. Then Athena, of course, captured Pegasus and broke him in and gave him to her solar champion Bellerophon. 

Chrysaor, the royal warrior of the golden sword, ruled the land, which was given to him from Medusa, he sired king Geryon of Spain. Then, of course, the Olympian gods sent Hercules to kill King Geryon, Medusa's grandson. Interestingly, his background was similar to Medusas as being born on a rocky island in the Atlantic ocean, called Erytheia (Red) by the Greeks. After his death, King Geryon was remembered by the people and then found his way into the Celto-Iberians; his isle is the illustrious Isle of the Dead, Avalon where he was known as Geryon Trigaranos. It was not into the temple, to which Poseidon led Medusa. The story of her people states it was in a green meadow to which he led Medusa, also known as Avalon… The Avalon isle is a necropolis intended for royal parsonages only. 

Unfortunately, etymologists can not track where her name comes from. They have compared Medusa to Matris, Mother. She joins other Mother Goddesses as being connected to the Willow tree: Artemis who held a Willow wand in her hand, Hera who was born under a Willow tree, Demeter and Persephone whose priestesses (women) who lived in temples surrounded by willow trees, and Medusa who lived on her own sepulchral isle which was enclosed by willow trees in the Atlantic Ocean. The willow tree was known to have contraceptive properties for women, meaning they prevented conception in women. You see the willow trees reproduce by themselves. 

There is really so much information regarding Medusa that is not commonly known in our main stream. Such as Medusa emerges from some awful battle scene, just like that one displayed on the shield of Hercules. She wasn’t beheaded for being a priestess, no, but because she was a warrior queen, who was very powerful and loved. She stood in line with the other Amazons. Robert Briffault says that these African female warriors have not vanished into history. In fact, British officers still used these female warriors up until 1845 through 1846. They preferred the female warriors to command the native the male troops. One tribe of these women warriors are the Berber Women, women of north Africa. Shown in museums, they are recalled as fierce combatants who were skilled equestrians, dressed in red Moroccan leather they are said to be very skilled and horsemanship and combat. We can see where Alexander the Great encountered the Asian Amazons, and Apollonius did as well, calling them the daughters of Ares who fell in love with war. 

It was not until Perseus that the Gorgons were defeated, so to speak, and later Hercules that further validated the condoning of the practice of women ruling over men when the pillars of Hercules were built. 

There are so much more to the stories than the surface, we have to dig to find the truth. When I first heard the story of Medusa, it was not one that I readily accepted, as I felt there was something missing. I, like many of you, have felt many of the myths and stories that I had heard, or read,  that there was something missing. I just had this inherent knowledge that there was more to the story. Remember, it is the winners that write the history, so, in order to find the truth, you have to dig through all of the grandiose writings of the winning faction.

Sirona Rose

Reference: Ptiestesses by Norma Lorre Goodrich