Medusa

Investigación sobre la raigambre inconsciente que la emoción del miedo a Dios (o lo anterior al
origen) supone. El horizonte de esta indagación fue trazado por la realización de un Taller de
Dibujo en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Víctor Larco Herrera, el cual desencadenó un grupo de preguntas
que, volcándose paulatinamente al plano consciente, aluden a la realidad espiritual.

This article contributes to the scholarly discussion of the relationship between cinema and dance using Giorgio Agamben’s understanding of dance as gesture. To render Agamben’s critical framework operative, however, one needs to consider his reference to the concept of phantasmata (images) taken from Domenico da Piacenza’s Renaissance treatise on choreography. Agamben returns to this treatise to support his argument that dance is concerned first and foremost with time and memory rather than space and the present. To notate dance as a sequence of moving images is not simply to make visible on screen a series of bodily movements in space. Rather, it means acknowledging that dancing is primarily a mental activity. Taking Agamben’s reflections on dance and using Maya Deren’s work on screen dance as a case-study, this article discusses how cinema and dance together prompt us to undo the economy of bodily movements, restoring the body to us transfigured.

This article attempts to show whether, and if so, to what extent, John Milton’s portrayal of Sin in Paradise Lost is underlain by Lucan’s so-called “Medusa excursus”. Scholars have shown beyond reasonable doubt that Milton’s depiction of Sin alludes to one particular English hypotext, namely Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. However, although the Lucanian character of Milton’s epic is now generally acknowledged, the “Medusa excursus” has, to date, not been considered to be a possible Latin hypotext for Milton’s depiction of Sin.

Leaving aside the indisputable similarities between Spenser’s Error and Milton’s Sin, the author shows that for all their apparent differences, Sin and Medusa actually have much more in common than it would seem at first glance. Firstly, both monsters are allegories of some primeval evil that, having set in motion a never-ending process of destruction, is portrayed as being a deadly, oxymoronic fertility that brings forth death instead of life. The morbid procreative prolificacy of both Medusa and Sin is triggered by a crime, which, once it has violated their bodies, renders them eternally “fertile in death”. While Medusa, having been mutilated by Perseus, posthumously “gives birth” to poisonous snakes, Sin, violated by Satan, literally becomes the mother of Death.

Although it is highly likely that the motif of monstrous fertility has itself been taken directly from Spenser, it would seem that Milton may also have been inspired by Lucan. The name of Cerberus, which is present in Milton and Lucan, but absent in Spenser, is a telling detail. Milton’s depiction of Death, which is described as being shapeless and similar to a substance, brings to mind Medusa’s poisonous blood. The subsequent rape of Sin by Death results in the birth of a pack of infernal dogs. This element also follows the Lucanian pattern of a crime triggering a deadly procreation by a wronged party.

Interestingly, Spenser’s depiction of Error itself contains certain motifs (for example that of “black poison” or that of the killing of a monster by a warrior) that are also present in Lucan’s Medusa excursus. This, together with some possible allusions to Hesiod’s legend of the rape of Medusa, as well as Ovid’s account of Scylla, leads us to conclude that the relationship between the discussed passages of Paradise Lost and their Lucanian and Spenserian hypotexts are quite complex, as they seem to reflect a process of elaborate contamination.

It is shown that Lucan’s depiction of Medusa may also have inspired Spenser himself. The connection between the portrayals of Medusa and Sin is not limited to the seemingly vague and superficial similarities that mainly concern the physical appearance of the two monsters, but is deeply rooted in the moral concept of a crime that triggers a perpetuum mobile of destruction. Although Milton and Spenser both share Lucan’s idea that one wrong leads to the “birth” of innumerable wrongs, only Milton consistently follows this line of thought by providing his monster with horrendous procreative powers that are also eternal and (literally) deadly. Seen against the background of Milton’s familiarity with the work and ideas of the Roman poet, it would seem that all the similarities between Sin and Medusa are far too striking to be attributable to mere coincidence.

RESEÑAS:
"El medusario que construye Velebita Koricancic en su texto, derivado de escritos de Louise Bogan, May Stanton, Ann Stanford y Sylvia Plath revisa las apariciones textuales del personaje de este mito en las que se intenta completar el vacío de una figura que no suele ocuparse de su propia agencia, Koricancic nos muestra que “los contenidos del mito no están en reposo sino en constante flujo.” Si “Bogan escoge la mudez de Medusa, Stanton y Stanford la identifican con la voz lírica, mientras que la hablante de Plath necesita expulsarla para constituirse en la subjetividad”.

Irene Artigas Albarelli: "De medusarios, robinsonadas y otros equívocos", 23 de febrero de 2012, XXXIII Feria Internacional del Libro del Palacio de Minería (extracto de la reseña del libro)

http://letras.comp.filos.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IreneArtigasAlbarelli_DeMedusariosRobinsonadasYOtrosEquivocos.pdf

"Cuando Velebita Koricancic aborda el tema de la medusa en cuatro autoras, lo hace con varios propósitos, siendo el principal averiguar qué explicación le da cada una de las cuatro poetas occidentales elegidas. De esta manera, se parte del mito clásico y se lo transforma según la necesidad de dar una imagen de la mujer adaptada a la visión de cada escritora."

FEDERICO PATÁN. Extracto de la reseña “Gabriel Weisz y Argentina Rodríguez, Ficciones de la otredad.” Anuario de Letras Modernas. Vol. 17 (2012): 271-273, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

http://ru.ffyl.unam.mx/handle/10391/4253

A partir de la comparación entre fuentes iconográficas y literarias, se tratará de ofrecer una panorámica de la evolución del mito de Perseo y Medusa para tratar de dar razón de los cambios que se suceden a lo largo del tiempo, especialmente en la figura del héroe.

Résumé

Ce travail doctoral consiste en une exploration comparative des œuvres de Diamanda Galás et de Kathy Acker, deux artistes américaines contemporaines régulièrement qualifiées d’extrémistes, voire de terroristes. En effet, les expérimentations radicales auxquelles elles se livrent sur le corps, la voix et le texte visent à transgresser les limites normatives pour s’opposer à l’autorité d’un pouvoir dominant. L’enjeu principal de ce travail est ainsi de dévoiler comment les artistes remettent en question des structures basées sur la hiérarchie et l’oppression, puis de montrer qu’elles proposent des alternatives, sans pour autant aboutir à une nouvelle forme d’autorité et de domination. Nous avons donc, dans un premier temps, observé comment les performances radicales et iconoclastes de Diamanda Galás et de Kathy Acker constituent des stratégies de résistance « à corps et à cris », puis comment l’aspect viscéral de leur approche fonctionne comme agent subversif qui participe à une réhabilitation des exclus du discours dominant. Nous nous sommes ensuite intéressés à leur recours à l’abject, suivant la définition proposée par Julia Kristeva, pour engager une réflexion sur les possibilités de contre-pouvoir de ce concept. Enfin les diverses dynamiques d’intertextualité à l’œuvre nous ont permis d’envisager l’ouverture de nouveaux champs d’expression. Une telle exploration a appelé la confection d’une carte théorique qui déborde de tout cadre unique et défini. Nous avons par conséquent choisi d’adopter une approche kaléidoscopique et discursive qui puise autant dans les théories post-structuralistes et féministes, que dans la psychanalyse. Nos outils empruntent quant à eux aux analyses des mythes grecs et aux réflexions sur le théâtre pour aborder les thèmes centraux au pouvoir : le sujet et le langage. Finalement les travaux de Acker et de Galás nous apparaissent comme des œuvres dissidentes et révolutionnaires s’inscrivant dans une tradition de résistance et de lutte pour l’émancipation.

Abstract

This dissertation aims at providing a comparative case study approach as well as an in-depth exploration of the bodies of work of Diamanda Galás and Kathy Acker, two American contemporary artists commonly tagged as extremists and even terrorists. Indeed, their radical experimentations with the body, the voice, the text and the image are designed as an attempt to go beyond the normative limitations thereby striving to oppose a dominant authority’s power. The main issue at stake in our work will be to unveil the various strategies the artists adopt in order to question and challenge hierarchical and oppressive structures at play in our society, to then demonstrate they can actually offer other alternatives without creating a new form of authority or domination. In the first place, we have thus considered to what extent Diamanda Galás’s and Kathy Acker’s radical and iconoclastic performances use the body and the voice as instruments for strategic resistance and that the visceral aspect of their approach acts as a subversive agent to rehabilitate all those excluded from dominant norms and discourse. We then focused on the artists’ resort to the abject, according to Julia Kristeva’s theory (of abjection) in order to reflect upon the potentialities of such a concept as a counter power. Eventually, the dynamics of intertextuality at work enabled us to contemplate opening up new areas of expression. Such an insight called for the constitution of a theoretical map extending beyond any definite and pre-determined framework. As a consequence, we have chosen to embrace a kaleidoscopic  and discursive approach, not only drawing on post-structuralist and feminist theories, but also on psychoanalysis. As for our analysis, the tools we chose bear the stamp of Greek myths and derive from our reflections on theatre to address the central issues of power: subject and language. In the end, the works of Kathy Acker and Diamanda Galás strike us as being dissident and revolutionary in line with a tradition of resistance and of struggle for emancipation.

The essays on Aesthetics of philosopher Günther Anders are still almost unknown; for his part, painter George Grosz' production from the 1930s and during his American exile has been mainly despised by art historians. Both Anders and Grosz considered themselves as holding up an unmerciful mirror to society. The aim of this paper is to offer an analysis on the short but poignant texts which Anders wrote on Grosz' artistic research, providing some of the most vitriolic social criticism of his time. The studies of Anders show unpredicted connections, unveiling in an unprecedented way the deep unity of Grosz' wide oeuvre marked by an absolute pessimism, and therefore particularly near to the philosopher's "negative ontology". Moreover, these texts raise key questions concerning modern art itself which are still central in our time, among others: the political engagement of artists, their relationship with the market, and their clairvoyance, the ethical use of montage practice, and the thin line between life and art.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo propor
que a história de Medusa e Perseu foi utilizada
para compor e reforçar uma visão hegemônica
do mundo, dos sexos e dos gêneros.
Apresento, brevemente, algumas imagens e
excertos dos mitos; em seguida, demonstro
minha hipótese de que a objetificação da
Medusa aconteceu de duas formas, que
eu chamei de mito da monstruosidade e
mito da beleza. Na sequência, desenvolvo,
a partir de excertos teóricos, os papéis dos
mitos na construção da subjetividade e do
lugar da mulher na concepção de Simone de
Beauvoir. Depois, procuro aproximar alguns
acontecimentos comuns do mito da Medusa
com o que se passa nos dias de hoje: cultura
do estupro, rivalidade feminina, isolamento
das vítimas de violência, gravidez do
estupro, silenciamento. Por fim, proponho a
reconsideração, o deslocamento e a subversão
da interpretação dos personagens de Medusa
e de Perseu sob um olhar descolonizado e
desmasculinizado.

An analysis of the use of Medusa in the feminist revisionist poetry of Ann Stanford and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. In this essay I address the creation of the (in)famous Gorgon as a monster by traditional patriarchal narratives, before analysing the ways in which Stanford and DuPlessis seek to deconstruct this image by focussing on the part of the Medusa myth that makes her a victim - her rape at the hands of Poseidon. Using the work of Stanford and DuPlessis, I will demonstrate how feminist revisionist mythmaking has turned Medusa into a source of power as an icon of the female gaze and sexuality.

'Drone Poetics' considers the challenge to the theory and practice of the lyric of the development of drone warfare. It argues that modernist writing has historically been influenced by aerial technology; drones also affect notions of perception, distance and intimacy, and the self-policing subject, with consequences for contemporary lyric. Indeed, drone artworks and poems proliferate; and while these take critical perspectives on drone operations, they have not reckoned with the phenomenological implications of execution from the air. I draw out six of these: the objectification of the target, the domination of visuality, psychic and operational splitting, the 'everywhere war', the intimacy of keyhole observations, and the mythic or psychoanalytic representation of desire and fear. These six tropes indicate the necessity for a radical revision of our thinking about the practice of writing committed poetry in the drone age.

The figure of the Gorgon Medusa, slain by the Greek hero Perseus, has lived in the Western imagination for more than 2500 years.  Who is she, and how and when did she appear, and why was she decapitated?  This complex image that spread throughout the Greek world did not arise in a vacuum. Its roots reach deep into the Neolithic cultures of the ancient world.  This article examines the polyvalent image of the Gorgon and related female imagery, coalesced from pre-Helladic elements, in relation to the cult of the hero that came to typify Greek society.

רישומי קרבות פרש הנלחם בדרקון,  כפי הנראה היו רישומי הכנה לציור המורכב הערצת המאגים. יחד עם כתבי ליאונרדו והבנת התרבות בו הוא חי אני מפרשת את המשמעות הסמלית של פרש למול דרקון. אלו מעניקים לי מפתח לצופן החבוי בציור הלא גמור "הערצת המאגים" החושף דיון עמוק בנושא הידע, כפי שליאונרדו ראה נושא זה,  בוחנים את העולם האנושי כמצייט לחוקי הפיסיקה וחושפים ביקורת חברתית של ליאונרדו.

El propósito del presente trabajo es ofrecer una aproximación al estado actual de la investigación sobre tres figuras femeninas monstruosas de la Antigua Grecia: Medusa, Esfinges y Sirenas. Éstas, como especializaciones de las Keres, son demones funerarios que arrancan a las personas de la vida, pero, a su vez, las conducen al Más Allá. En conjunto, son entes sobrenaturales y malignos que por su naturaleza híbrida y ambigua se constituyen como  figuras de alteridad y provocan dos sentimientos contrapuestos: atracción y repulsión.

Perseus's decapitation of the Gorgon Medusa is suggested as a possible inspiration for the gruesome figurative drawings in PGM XXXVI. The same drawings prefigure an iconographic template later identified with Mars in the talismanic image magic of medieval and Renaissance Europe – one whose magical reputation persisted until very recently.

Platon dans sa République déclare: « Façonnons par la pensée une image de l’âme, pour que celui qui tient ces propos réalise ce qu’il dit. – Quelle image ? – Une image, comme celle de ces natures antiques dont les mythes rapportent la genèse : la Chimère, Scylla, Cerbère, et un certain nombre d’autres êtres constitués d’un ensemble de formes naturelles multiples réunies en un seul être». Force est donc de constater que cette volonté créatrice fait intrinsèquement partie de l’être humain.
Cette volonté créatrice est fruit de l’imagination, qui selon le Vocabulaire Européen des Philosophies de Barbara Cassin dérive d’imaginatio, terme découlant d’imago qui évoque l’effigie, le portrait. La racine grecque phantasia dont la traduction française est la lumière s’est, elle, développée dans le sens de fantaisie, fantasme. « La différence phantasia / imaginatio, dont témoignent les difficultés que les Latins ont éprouvées à traduire le grec, est celle entre la force créatrice des apparitions et la faculté reproductive des images, chacun des termes pouvant lui- même être travaillé du dedans par cette tension et les jugements de valeur qui s’y attachent.... Cette même tension détermine la place de l’imagination dans le jeu des facultés et des modalités d’être au monde. Est-ce une faculté nécessaire à l’exercice des autres facultés, entre passivité et activité, ou, comme dit Pascal, une maîtresse d’erreur et de fausseté?».
Créativité, imagination, fantaisie et fantasme, il y a un peu de tout ceci dans cette création humaine que sont les hybrides et dès lors s’intéresser à eux, à leur genèse, c’est s’intéresser aux tréfonds de l’âme humaine. D’où viennent donc les créatures hybrides ? Pourquoi les hommes ont-ils imaginé des individus nouveaux en agglomérant des parties de ceux qu’ils pouvaient voir autour d’eux? Comment leur est venue l’idée d’assembler des parties hétéroclites pour en faire un nouveau tout, une création inédite, créée non pas par la divinité mais par eux-mêmes ? Tant de questions qui vont bien plus loin que le simple motif décoratif qui ornera les palais de la Renaissance. Au-delà des Grottesches, des grotesques, dont le nom dérive précisément du fait que ces motifs sont des créations qui s’inspirent de ce que les artistes ont découvert en visitant les grottes romaines, des caves qui par effondrement des voûtes antiques donnaient un accès direct aux palais romains, dont la fameuse Domus Aurea, la Maison Dorée de Néron ornée de ces créatures monstrueuses, ces hybrides furent un des premiers indices des civilisations anciennes que virent les érudits du XVIe.

La propuesta de Hélène Cixous va dirigida a los análisis del logocentrismo occidental. Para ello recurre a elementos psicoanalíticos, semióticos y poéticos para intentar derribar la ley patriarcal y todos los procesos de exclusión femenina, a través, de la puesta en escena de lo que ella llama “escritura femenina”. Apelando al mito griego de Medusa, entre otros, se propone realizar una deconstrucción de la tradición patriarcal de occidente[1] para luego, examinar el problema de la exclusión de la mujer en dicha tradición. Destaco que su propuesta está sentada en el criterio de no ambivalencia y/o el rompimiento de los esquemas conceptuales falocéntricos del mundo occidental. El aporte fundamental que realizaré en el presente trabajo consiste en demostrar cómo la repetición de la metáfora en la expresión poética-literaria, en la llamada escritura femenina destruye las figuras paternales que se empoderaron a través de los mitos fundacionales en la cultura occidental.



[1] Cixous ataca la noción de oposiciones binarias que, en su opinión, y siguiendo los principios derridianos, constituye la base del orden patriarcal. En este modelo imperante todos los componentes se organizan en parejas de elementos opuestos, siendo uno de los miembros de la pareja «superior» al otro (Rodríguez, 2006).

Nostra Signora Dea & Il Femminicidio degli Eroi è un viaggio nel tempo che illumina la nostra società. Lo racconta un uomo anziano di media cultura, che si sorprende ad ogni passo, e ride, o si arrabbia, come un bambino.

La quarta di copertina annuncia  « Una vasta “decostruzione” di credenze archeologiche lungo il Filo di Arianna: dai templi neolitici di Malta alla Grecia dell’Età del Bronzo e del periodo Classico. Un saggio & un racconto di viaggio & un pamphlet fuoristrada, educativo e sorridente. A piccole dosi al mattino, può essere utile contro vecchi mali.»

Il percorso è riassunto dal venditore di giornali:
« Scoperta archeologica svela origine machismo, stupro di gruppo e femminicidio! »
Ha ragione, ma c’è dell’altro, e non ha letto i 13 bonus track, né risposto al quiz.

Dopo una diffusione ad personam che ha creato dolori ed esultanze in molti ambienti, pubblichiamo in esclusiva su Academia.edu questa versione di Nostra Signora Dea & Il femminicidio degli Eroi, completa e non censurata. Consigliamo al lettore di scaricarla prima che sia troppo tardi. Prima o poi, un editore avaro chiederà all’autore di ritirarla da Academia.edu dov’è disponibile in tre lingue, gratuitamente. L’autore si inchinerà, perché anche lui ama il denaro.

The publication is dedicated to a bronze vessel found in a robbed burial of the second half of the 4th century BCE in the Burial-mound no. 1 of the Chastye Kurgany group on the outskirts of Voronezh, excavated by the Voronezh Scientific Archive Commission in 1910. A vessel with a handle attachment in form of a mask under the edge on the outside and a gorgoneion-medallion at the bottom inside is a patera with a handle lost in antiquity. Such pateras with similarly shaped edges of the bowl and handles ending in a ram's head are known after a very small number of finds of the second half of the 4th century BCE almost all of which come from Macedonia and Thrace. Given the fact that lion's paws are depicted on the sides of the neck of the person shown on the mask, there is every reason for its attribution as the head of Herakles. A similar iconography is typical for vessel attachments from Northern Greece. The treatment of hair strands, in particular symmetrical curls over the forehead (anastole / ἀναστολή), resembles the hairstyle in the portraits of Alexander the Great and imitations of them. Taking into account this observation, it is hardly possible to date the patera from Chastye kurgans earlier than the last quarter of the 4th century BCE. In the North Pontic region, bronze vessels of this shape have not yet been known, despite the fact that the finds of bronze vessels of the Macedonian-Thracian circle of the 4th century BCE are represented both in Scythia and in the Bosporus. Taking into account the known finds of bronze vessels of the Macedonian types at the Elizavetinskoe fortified settlement and in its necropolis at the mouth of the Don, it can be assumed that such vessels could have reached the Middle Don in this way. At the same time, given the relative rarity of bronze (silver) pateras in Macedonia and Thrace in the second half of the 4th — early 3rd century BCE and their finds in very rich complexes, including in the royal burials in Vergina and Golyamata Kosmatka, one cannot exclude the possibility of a different way for the patera from Chastye Barrows. In Macedonia and Thrace, such pateras, together with the oinochoai, were part of the banquet sets, therefore, in this case, the patera, which, perhaps, originally had a pair (oinochoe) could also be a diplomatic gift. In any case, the patera from Chastye Burial-mounds fits into the circle of finds of Thracian horse-bridle pieces and Thracian and Macedonian toreutics found in the burials of the Scythian nobility in the Middle Don region.

Our Lady Goddess & The Femicide of the Heroes is a time travel illuminating our society. The tale is told by an old man of average culture, exclaiming in surprise at each step, and laughing, or getting angry, like a child.

The back cover announces « A vast “deconstruction” of archaeological beliefs along Ariadne's Thread: from Malta’s Neolithic temples to Bronze Age and classical Greece. An essay & a travel log & an educative, smiling, off-road pamphlet. Small doses every evening can help solve old problems.»

The newsboy makes a long story short:
«Archaeological find unveils origin of machismo, gang-rape and femicide!»
He is right, but there is much more to it, and he did not read the 13 bonus tracks, nor answered the quiz.

After a distribution ad personam that caused great pain or exultation in many fields, we publish here, as an exclusivity for Academia.edu, this full, uncensored version of Our Lady Goddess & The Femicide of the Heroes. We advise the reader to download it before it is too late. Sooner or later, some greedy publisher will ask the author to remove it from Academia.edu where it is available in three languages, for free. The author will bow down because he, too, loves money.

Of all the ancient myths where rain plays an important role, the impregnation of Danaë by Zeus through a golden rain is perhaps the one most often depicted in art. This essay is dedicated to the artistic afterlife of the myth, with special focus on the painting of Danaë (1527) by Jan Gossaert van Mabuse (1478-1532).

Gossaert’s Danaë is a sophisticated articulation of outer and inner discourse: the hard, dry, background, with its eclectic architecture, in contrast with the sweltering, moist, foreground with the figure’s naked body. This essay develops Gossaert’s complex phantasmata surrounding architecture, decoration, and the female body in three spaces: the intimate space of impregnation, the psychosomatic space, and, third, the petrifying space of Medusa.

Barbara Baert writes:
“Danaë is the living emanation of painting as the uttermost exhibitionistic medium. Her unveiled skin fragile exposed in the midst of an overwhelming symphonic outburst of details, facades, windows. Danaë: martyr of glossy materials - marble and flesh - unable to disappear in her own skin; held hostage within a medium of walls. Her only desire is to disappear in the ultimate thin membrane, to vaporize beyond the harsh brocks and, then, at the very end, leave the medium of textile too. There were threads become drippings, lines become tears.”

Nel saggio l'autore propone una nuova lettura globale della decorazione marmorea del cosiddetto "Succorpo di San Gennaro", l'ipogeo marmoreo fatto edificare sotto l'altare maggiore della cattedrale di Napoli tra fine '400 e inizi '500 dal munifico cardinale  Oliviero Carafa. Esso fu cappella privata dei Carafa della Stadera, ma, al tempo stesso, anche il nuovo reliquiario destinato ad accogliere le spoglie del santo protettore di Napoli, da poco casualmente ritrovate a Montevergine. La presenza di numerosi riferimenti al mondo classico e a divinità pagane (alcuni dei quali posti in evidenza per la prima volta in questa occasione) sono ricondotti alla cultura umanistica del colto e potente cardinale napoletano e utilizzati per proporre una chiave di lettura in cui il mito di Medusa s'intreccia e si sovrappone con il mistero della liquefazione del sangue del santo beneventano.

In memory of Prof. Margarita Tacheva, who also looked into the problems of Thracian warfare and had the topic of the Gorgonieon as a favorite.
The bronze fragments, found in Golyamata Mogila, near Duvanlii are defined by B. Filov as a neck guard, cheek pieces and parts of decorated calotte. According to him, all of them belonged to a helmet, the upper part of which was made of genuine leather (Fig. 1, I-3; 2, I-III). However, indisputable evidence allow to define the object as the back collar of a bell cuirass (Fig. 1, I-3). The collar is attached to the upper part of the back plate through some rivets. The rest of the bronze fragments (Fig. 2, I-III) are interpreted by Filov as cheek pieces of a leather helmet, but so far there are no other known cheek pieces as those from Golyamata Mogila. Analysing the helmets with their details and elements from 8th to 3rd centuries BC prove that the finds from Golyamata Mogila are not cheek pieces. Undoubtedly, the so-called by Filov “iron belt” is the conical extension of the bell cuirass (Fig. 1, I-1). The bell cuirasses from Bashova mogila, Svetitsa, Kazanlak (Fig. 1, II) and others have an identical iron extension. The gilded silver applications with Gorgon Medusa and lion heads (Fig. 2, IV), are a decoration of bell cuirass proven by their shape, workmanship, thickness, openings and iconographic scheme. Such identification is supported also by the bell cuirass from Chernozem-Kaloyanovo (mound № I), in which the application with Gorgon Medusa is golden and the heads of lions are replaced by golden hemispherical applications (Fig. 1, III). The dating of the Golyamata mogila in the middle - the third-quarter of the 5th century BC, when the Thracian warriors wore only armours, supports the identification of the discussed elements. The images of Medusa are used in Thrace as apotropaic symbols of life and the Hereafter and accordingly, it is natural to have images of ketos on the some bell cuirass. Keto is the mother of the Gorgon Medusa. Their depiction on the bell cuirasses in Thrace is related to their mythological functions as protectors and leaders of the souls of the dead warriors on the way to the Hereafter.

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE AMENDMENTS IN PUBLISHED VERSION. 

Starting from a reassessment of a monumental tomb, the historical importance of which has been overlooked due to its collapsed state, this paper shows how such monuments, including their artistic and architectural details, form essential data in modelling the history of places, and how attention to them can also expose gaps in research on landscape and economy that could make significant contributions to understanding the impact of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in ways not so far explored.

"In its day the collapsed, massive rock-cut tomb known as the Broken Lion Tomb, or Yılan Taş, located in the Köhnüş Valley north of Afyon, would have been one of the most impressive tomb monuments in Asia Minor.  Now lying in a pile of confused blocks that sheared off the edge of the cliff face into which it was carved, its original form is hard to imagine and its past glory and status not widely appreciated.  The style of its once rich relief sculptures suggests it was erected in the Achaemenid Persian Period, possibly in the first half or middle of the 5th century BC.  Contemporary occupation in the Phrygian Highlands is not well understood, but settlement remains seem modest, and although there may be some elements of continuity, overall the religious status of the area seems to change through the Persian period, the main locus of Matar worship shifting at some point to Pessinus further east.  This paper considers the appearance of the tomb and poses questions about its context, which can contribute to the history of the Phrygian Highlands and Achaemenid Empire more broadly."

"Abstract: Of all the lost Foundation Poems attributed to Apollonius Rhodius, active at the court of Ptolemy II, the Ktisis of Alexandria must have been the most important for his contemporaries, and surely is the most intriguing for modern scholars of the Hellenistic world. Unfortunately, only a brief mention of this epyllion survives, in a scholion to Nicander’s Theriaka, relating to the birth of poisonous snakes from the severed head of Medusa, carried by Perseus over Libya. Deadly and benign serpents belong to a multi-cultural symbolic imagery intertwined with the Greek, Macedonian, Egyptian and Jewish origins of the city. This paper explores the possible connections of the only episode preserved from Apollonius’ Ktisis with the most ancient known traditions on the foundation of Alexandria —possibly even created at the time of Alexander or of the first Lagid dynasts, Ptolemy I and II."

En un artículo publicado en esta revista el pasado mes de abril  se comentaban algunos aspectos generales de la versión del mito de Perseo que se daba en la película "Furia de titanes". Hay,  no obstante, algunos temas en los que se puede profundizar y entre ellos tal vez el más interesante sea el de los monstruos. Los monstruos clásicos que aparecen en "Furia de titanes" son Pegaso, las Grayas, Medusa y las Gorgonas, y una criatura del mar que en la película llaman Kraken, nombre que, como ya dije en su día, pertenece a la mitología nórdica, aunque el monstruo aparece en las aventuras de Perseo.

The purpose of this research is to investigate, re-evaluate and synthesize earliest images
depicting the Gorgoneion (gorgon’s head) and Gorgon (whole-body). These figures refer to prehistory
covering a wide chronological frame in the Aegean World. Ten artefacts in total comprising of pottery,
masks, seals are examined simultaneously for the first time. A detailed, critical evaluation of their dating,
and the trade connections between mainland Greece and the Aegean are discussed. The issue is about
making a symbol of the deceased introduced much earlier than the Archaic and later antiquity, showing
the evolution of this form and the associated mythology has deep roots in the remote past. The forms
of the Gorgon of the Archaic period depict a monster demon-like bellows, with feathers, snakes or spiral
tentacles in the head, tongue protruding from the mouth and tusks. Snakes are the predominant element
of this gorgon, which composes the gargoyle's hairstyle. This figure is identified and appropriately
assessed from a dozen of images in pottery and semiprecious stones, in the wider prehistoric Aegean,
making the related myths on Gorgon-Medusa interwoven with myths that have had a wide reflection
throughout the later ancient times.

The purpose of this research is to highlight some characteristic examples of the golden works depicting the gorgoneio and Gorgon. These works are part of the wider chronological and geographical context of the ancient Greek world. Twenty six artifacts in total, mainly jewelry, as well as plates, discs, golden bust, coins, pendant and a vial are being examined. Their age dates back to the 6th century. B.C. until the 3rd century A.D. The discussion is about making a symbol of the deceased persist for long in the antiquity and showing the evolution of this form. The earliest forms of the Gorgo of the Archaic period depict a monster demon-like bellows, with feathers, snakes in the head, tongue protruding from the mouth and tusks. Then, in classical times, the gorgonian form appears with human characteristics, while the protruded tusks and the tongue remain. Towards Hellenistic times and until late antiquity, the gorgoneion has characteristics of a beautiful woman. Snakes are the predominant element of this gorgon, which either composes the gargoyle's hairstyle or is plundered like a jewel under its chin. This female figure with the snakes is interwoven with Gorgo-Medusa and the Perseus myth that had a wide reflection throughout the ancient times.

Pendants made of jet are rare in Roman Britain, despite the prominence and availability of the material. The jet pendant subclass depicting an image of the Medusa is even smaller, numbering only ten from this province. These pendants are assessed in terms of their stylistic similarities and, where possible, depositional conditions. Although the sample is small, it is concluded that the jet gorgoneia of Roman Britain represent a dispersed group of stylistically and contextually similar grave goods associated with adult female inhumations in the later Roman period. A further discussion attempts to assess these objects within an applied framework of magical theory.