10. MEDUSA - Here's Looking at You, Kid
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The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other.
Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new!
…
Before Medusa was monstrous, she was beautiful. And before she was beautiful, she was powerful. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. She is a riddle that defies solution, because she comes from a time before the shape of things was settled. She laughs.
TW - rape, sexual assault, male violence
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY ***
Written and presented by Alex Andreou
Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith
Exec. Producers Naomi Smith & Kenny Campbell
Music by Marianna Sangita
Artwork by Simona Kanellou
For Cooler Heads, in collaboration with Sandstone Global
NOTES
MUSIC
Podyssey Theme: “To Margoudi ki o Alexandris”, Marianna Sangita, 2018 (with permission)
Sergei Rachmaninov: “The Isle of The Dead, Op.29”, Dimitri Mitropoulos, 1949
Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Harold Byrns, 1949
Dinah Washington: “You go to my head”, live 1954
Betty Hutton: “Why do you wanna make those eyes at me for?”, 1945
Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, Act II Finale, Adriana Guerrini & Paolo Silveri, 1952
Frances Faye: “Dummy Song”, 1953
The Mort Lindsey Trio: “Jeepers Creepers”, 1953
The Toppers: “Don’t be angry”, 1955
WA Mozart: Don Giovanni, Vengeance Duet, Maria Curtis Verna & Cesare Valletti, 1956
Gaetano Donizetti, Anna Bolena “Coppia iniqua”, Maria Callas, 1959
Leslie Hutchinson, “Close your eyes”, 1932
FILM
Clash of The Titans (1981)
Marnie (1964)
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
Revenge (2017)
Serial Mom (1984)
Carrie (1976)
Gilda (1946)
Gone Girl (2014)
Les Diaboliques (1955)
The First Wives Club (1996)
Ex Machina (2014)
The Omen (1976)
Hereditary (2018)
Midsommar (2019)
Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981)
Mars Attacks (1996)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
ART
Prehistoric figures believed to be early “gorgoneia”, Thessaly, c.6000 BCE
“Danaë” by Antonio de Correggio, c.1531
“Danaë” by Gustav Klimt, 1907
Gigantomachy pediment, Old Athena Temple, Acropolis, Athens 525-520 BCE
Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying Humbaba at the Cedar Forest, Sumerian, 19-17C BCE
Perseus beheading the sleeping Medusa, red figure terracotta pelike, by Polygnotos (attr.) c.450–440 BCE
Medusa Victorious, Archaic marble sculpture, Paros, mid-6C BCE
Archaic Gorgon, temple of Artemis, Corfu, c.580 BCE
Medusa and Centaurs, early black figure vase, by Nessos, c.620 BCE
Examples of "Gorgoneion" masks and ornaments, from 6th Century BCE
“Medusa”, painted shield by Caravaggio, 1597
“Perseus with the Head of Medusa”, Benvenuto Cellini, c.1550
“Dreadlocks”, Times cartoon, 2015
“Trump & Triumph” after Cellini, meme and merchandise, 2016
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Brasil