Back in 1994, when I made decent money as an editorial illustrator and had extra for personal projects and crazy promotional material…in the days before digital files, websites and steampunk, I created this little ‘deck’ of illustrated Fortune Cookie cards. It was indeed meant to evoke Victorian Orientalism, but was also inspired by Max Ernst collages and Edward Gorey, mixed with my own, somewhat goth-infused sensibility, for which I was then recognized.
I had at my disposal only J. G. Heck’s ‘Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration’, some 1960s Letraset stock imagery, a Xerox machine, scissors and a Rotring Rapidograph. Oh yes, and a bag of fortune cookies. It was actually one of my Aries Mum’s whim suggestions pulled out of her magic hat, and I thought it sounded like a hoot.
Perhaps it was an early prototype of sorts for the Tarot deck I would begin work on 4 years later, which also uses mixed media, old art, scissors, paint instead of ink and has turned into a Magnum Opus. But the two have little else in common. (I had also completed a deck of illustrated cards (non-Tarot) in 1988, which I may get around to posting at some point).
Maybe in the future (had better see what the crystal ball says), I will do a real deck of ‘fortune telling’ cards, it seems to be a popular thing and might be fun.
One thing at a time. ~rb
The mystery of Medusa’s mythos is so deep, convoluted and extensive, it’s no wonder most people are happy to just accept the classical version : Beautiful, young Medusa is caught in the act – either by or against her will – with Poseidon, in Athena’s temple. Unforgiving Athena turns her to a snake-haired monster so frightful, her gaze can turn men to stone. Solar hero Perseus decapitates her (presumably also putting her out of her misery), en route to rescuing chained Aethiopian princess, Andromeda from the sea-serpent, Cetus. Neither Perseus or any of his incarnations were fond of reptiles, it seems. The myth of Perseus slaying Medusa first comes about in the 7th c BC, when the Greeks were establishing colonies in North Africa, but the Andromeda rescue operation seems to have been added, later.
Athena Polias, from her temple and illustration from a ceramic vessel
Athena had long been a major, scale-clad, snake-wielding Goddess, in her own right. Most Goddesses of any clout had a relation to serpents, for obvious reasons – in antiquity, snakes, who dwelt in the ground, among the rocks and in crevices of temple ruins they ‘protected’ were believed to be the children of Mother Earth. The oldest religion was snake worship.
However, the Olympian, virgin Athena was born motherless and mess-less, from Zeus’ mind, his contractions merely a bad headache. Her power over life and death was based in rational judgement, not the voices of chthonic, belly spirits. Likewise, the Greeks distinguished themselves from the ‘barbarians’*.
Why have you hated me in your councils? For I shall be silent among those who are silent, and I shall appear and speak. Why then have you hated me, you Greeks? Because I am a barbarian among (the) barbarians? For I am the wisdom (of the) Greeks and the knowledge of (the barbarians. I am the judgement of (the) Greeks and the barbarians.
– from The Thunder : Perfect Mind (Nag Hammadi Texts)
First known image of Medusa
At first, Gorgons were not imagined as having a massive wig of writhing serpents. They had some mixed in with their plaits/dreads, plus a pair interlocked as a girdle around their waist. In the first depiction we know of, Medusa is a centaur with no sign of snake hair, but possibly wearing a snake skin/skirt. Medusa appeared on the temples of other deities and the Gorgon face** was an apotropiac, used on buildings, shields, jewelry, etc…or to protect a mystery. Suffice it to say that Medusa is the face of Athena, once you’ve had a few cups of ergot wine.
Minoan ‘eye’ octopus jug, bronze volute krater handle, 500 BC (Taranto), Corinthian alabastron depicting Athena Owl flanked by lions creating a Medusa face/wings, 595-500 BC, Greek hydria with Gorgon face, sphinx and turkeys or vultures
There’s so much more to her tale than ‘meets the eye’, but perhaps more than any other myth, the decapitation and demonization of Medusa, who was likely a Libyan seer-queen, signifies the final and often brutal conversion from Goddess worship to patriarchal religion. Also, the white-washing. For this ‘Orientalist Fantasy’, I drew inspiration from the romanticized face of the ancient Goddess, subject of symbolist painters and goth horror. But the title, like ‘Lilimoth’, harkens back to natural source, the Sun’s too-powerful gaze, which snakes like basking in.
Medusa mosaic, Turkey
Fun fact: The Gorgon also had another three sisters, the Graiae (essentially the Fates), who shared one, prophetic eye and one tooth between them, also taken by Perseus. Interestingly, in the Perseus constellation, Ras al-Ghul or ‘Algol’, the blinking star in Medusa’s severed head and most feared star in the sky, is in fact not just a binary, but a trinary star system. One theory is that two of the Gorgon sisters were immortal and one mortal (Medusa), because of the three day period of Algol’s variation – the star ‘winks’ out on the third day. We’re the ancients aware of three stars dancing around each other, like Fates?
Nazar ‘evil eye’ amulet (detail)
dread; fearfulness, but also (archaic) the emotion aroused by something awe-inspiring (awful) or astonishing, fear of God (Rasta).
astonish; to stun, to render senseless as by a blow, to strike with sudden fear or wonder (from Latin ‘attonare’ – to strike with lightening/’tonare ‘ – to thunder).
North African hairstyles, Theda Vamp and Prudence Hymen as ‘The Gorgon’ 1964
*To Hellenists, a ‘barbarian’ was anyone who didn’t speak Greek, typically from North Africa (the word comes from ‘Berbers’).
**Robert Graves, in The White Goddess, also suggests there was never any Medusa Gorgon, but that the face had always been a mask worn by the Goddess. He claims Perseus takes it to protect what’s in the sack, her magical alphabet.
