Smart man, sane man, strong man, I
liked to think I was immune
to enchantments and charms until I met you.
First enticed, then entwined, enchanted now.
Waters of time flow, never ebb around me.
But you--
You never seem to change.
Your enchantment holds me here,
always. Salt-pillar man, Medusa's
spiteful eyesore, I,
this strong, sane, smart man,
bettered by a force stronger than magic.
Medusa [detail] -- Benvenuti Cellini
According to Goethe, Faust thought he saw Margarita but Mephistopheles warned him that it was actually Medusa and explained that "magic deludes every man into believing that he has found his beloved in her." Publius Ovidius Naso reported that she had been a beautiful woman who was seduced by Poseidon and then punished by Minerva for violating her temple by transforming her into a monster. Anyone who gazed at Medusa turned to stone. Her name came from an ancient Greek verb meaning "to guard or protect" and her face was frequently used on shields; Homeros thus depicted her visage on the shields of both Athena and Agamemnon. The Orphic poems referred to the full moon as the Gorgon's head. According to Donatella Versace her brother Gianni adopted Medusa as his fashion logo because "whoever falls in love with Medusa can't flee from her." Nietzsche remarked that "Great thought is like Medusa's head: all the world's features harden, a deadly, ice-cold battle."
ReplyDeleteYes, Duane, yes!
ReplyDeleteThank you!