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NEW EPISODE · IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
I Knew Medusa Before She Was A Monster
This one's a departure. Come Closer is usually true crime. But with a resurgence of male bloodlust in society these days, I wanted to revisit one of the most famous examples.
This time I made my case with no police report. Just two poets, centuries apart, and two very different endings to the same woman's story.
I knew this one personally. Slightly, not well. Turns out nobody knew her well, which is kind of the point.
If you missed the episode, this is the recap. Full episode's at the bottom.
Poseidon Got a Free Pass
The version you already know: a priestess serves in Athena's temple. Poseidon wants her. He doesn't ask, because she doesn't want him. She runs to the one place she thinks is safe, Athena’s temple (the goddess Medusa serves), and Poseidon assaults her there.
Athena is the one who reacts. Not to Poseidon, but to Medusa.
The goddess Athena punishes Medusa for desacrating her temple by letting herself be violated. As punishement:
Medusa’s hair becomes snakes, and her face turns anyone who looks at it to stone.
"It's important to note that Athena did not punish Poseidon, even though he is pretty much entirely responsible for this crime."
Poseidon, brother of Zeus, ruler of the entire ocean, gets nothing. No trial, no exile. People kept building him temples for another 800 years.
Athena banishes Medusa to the edge of the world, where the light doesn't reach.
The First Restraining Order That Actually Worked
So why did Athena really do it? The traditional read is jealousy, or outrage over her desecrated temple. Here's the reframe that's stuck with me — and I'll say upfront, there's no ancient source for it, this is a modern retelling: Athena couldn't touch Poseidon. He's an Olympian. There's no court above him. So instead, she took the thing that made Medusa a target — her beauty — and turned it into a weapon. To the other gods, it reads as punishment. For Medusa, it means nobody ever touches her again.
"The snakes aren't a sentence, they're kind of the first restraining order in history that actually works."
Whatever Athena's actual intent was, it's the one thing every version of this myth refuses to answer. What every version agrees on: Poseidon walks away clean, Medusa dies, and Perseus keeps using her head long after she's gone.
"The story of Medusa asks a devastatingly sad question, which is, what do you do when the harm committed against you is profound and potentially permanent? What do you do when the man who harmed you is untouchable? What do you do if nobody's coming?"
For thousands of years, Medusa’s face got carved onto shields and doorways to ward off evil. More recently, she's become shorthand for something else entirely: rage, endurance, what the male gaze actually costs a woman. Because after that day, nobody ever touched Medusa again. Not once. Not ever.
You can be safe, or you can be looked at. You apparently can’t have both.
Watch the full episode below. Both versions of the myth, and my verdict on who actually deserved to be turned to stone.
Come Closer. It's darker than you think.
— Rae
For more visit RaeReview.com