The apple pie was done just after midnight. Wine really slowed down that process, but it was a lot of fun! Now it's bright and early and the pecan pie is cooking in the oven. Mmmmm...pecan pie. I used pre-made crusts this year (gasp) which makes the pecan pie prep time all of ten minutes. I just hope it doesn't suck.
So while that's baking, I feel like blabbing.
Medusa seems like such a tragic figure to me. There are many different versions of the Medusa story. I would say that I'd consult my Bulfinch's Mythology, but I'd rather not. What a dry and boring look at Mythology that was. That thing reads like Cliff's Notes, but, hell, that's not even true because Cliff's Notes were generally interesting!
Anyway, back to the lady with the bad ass 'do. In ancient times Medusa was regarded as hideous to behold, but by the time the fifth century rolled around she was portrayed as both terrifying and beautiful. According to Wiki, Ovid had written that Medusa was a beautiful woman who was raped by Poseiden. That apparently pissed off Athena so much that she turned Medusa into a sight so terrible to behold that people who gazed upon her would turn to stone.
So wait, hold up a minute. Poseiden raped Medusa and Athena then took out her rage on... Medusa? How fucked up is that, ladies? Talk about a blame the victim mentality. She must have been asking for it, right? Those ancient Greeks were dicks. Oh, and it's not just the ancient Greeks, you can count Ovid as part of that group of dicks as well - he thought Medusa's punishment was appropriate. WTF?
Ok, now this is kind of funny and probably true. Here's a snippet from Wiki:
2002's The Rape of Medusa in the Temple of Athena: Aspects of Triangulation in the Girl by Dr. Beth Seeley, analyzes Medusa's punishment for the “crime” of having been raped in Athena's temple as an outcome of the goddess' unresolved conflicts with her father, Zeus.
Sounds like my own therapist!
At least in the 70's she became a symbol of female rage. Excellent.
Another interesting bit from Wiki is that Medusa has become a symbol of truth and scientific determinism in contrast with romantic idealism. In this interpretation, looking into Medusa's eyes represents the "depressing reality that the universe is meaningless". This is illustrated by Jack London in the Mutiny of the Elsinore.
I cannot help remembering a remark of De Casseres. It was over the wine in Mouquin's. Said he: "The profoundest instinct in man is to war against the truth; that is, against the Real. He shuns facts from his infancy. His life is a perpetual evasion. Miracle, chimera and to-morrow keep him alive. He lives on fiction and myth. It is the Lie that makes him free. Animals alone are given the privilege of lifting the veil of Isis; men dare not. The animal, awake, has no fictional escape from the Real because he has no imagination. Man, awake, is compelled to seek a perpetual escape into Hope, Belief, Fable, Art, God, Socialism, Immortality, Alcohol, Love. From Medusa-Truth he makes an appeal to Maya-Lie."
Alright folks, the pie is done, enough of this silliness. Happy Turkey Day to everyone!
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