painting
I’m fascinated by the myth of Medusa, particularly as an allegory to better understand epigenetics and trauma. Medusa was a priestess for the goddess Athena and it was in her temple that Poseidon raped her. Blamed for her own defilement, or perhaps because Athena couldn’t take offense with the more powerful god, she took out her wrath on the victim, Medusa, whose frightening visage was then cause for her beheading by Perseus (ultimately to pay tribute to Athena who bore the head on her shield). As I come to understand more about trauma and how it affects us physically and psychologically (such as from the book the title references by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk) the less I take for granted the healing in something as seemingly simple as taking a bath and disconnecting from the world.