Natalie Haynes is an actress, author and broadcaster, and together with Professor Dame Mary Beard, might be the best-known classical lady within the UK as we speak. stone blind is his third novel to attract immediately from the properly of classical mythology, after A thousand ships And The Kids of Jocastaand in stone blind Haynes turns his gaze to Medusa, the mortal Gorgon, daughter of
Like almost all figures in Greek mythology, what we all know of Medusa (whose title is akin to μέδω, a verb which means to guard or rule) comes again to us in tantalizing asides and fragments from excessive antiquity or tragedy. traditional. tradition, these sources are sometimes confused – and infrequently clarified – within the reinventions and reinterpretations of later centuries.
Φόρκυϊ δ᾽ αὖ Κητὼ Γραίας τέκε καλλιπαρῄους
ἐκ γενετῆς πολιάς, τὰς δὴ Γραίας καλέουσιν
,
,
Γοργούς θ᾽, αἳ ναίουσι πέρην κλυτοῦ Ὠκεανοῖο
ἐσχατιῇ πρὸς Νυκτός ,
Σθεννώ τ᾽ Εὐρυάλη τε Μέδουσά τε λυγρὰ παθοῦσα.
αἳ δ᾽ ἀθάνατοι καὶ ἀγήρῳ,
αἱ δύο : τῇ δὲ μιῇ παρελέξατο Κυανοχαίτης
ἐν μαλακῷ λειμῶνι καὶ ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσιν.“And furthermore in Phorkys, Keto wore the beautiful-cheeked Graiai [lit. old women]gray-haired from start, and certainly the immortal gods and mortals who come and go on earth name them “Graiai”, well-clad Pemphredo and yellow-clad Enyo, and [she bore] the Gorgons additionally, those that dwell past the wonderful Ocean within the farthest half in direction of the Evening, the place the clear-voiced Hesperides [also dwell], Sthenno and Euryale and Medusa who suffered wreck. She was mortal, whereas they had been immortal and immortal, the 2 of them: and the Brown [Poseidon] slept together with her in a delicate spring-blooming meadow.
–Hesiod, Theogony 270-278, my very own translation.
The story of Medusa as we all know it’s summarized in just a few traces from the Theogony, the primary datable work of Greek literature (late Eighth-early seventh century BC): his start, his dying, his sexual activity with Poseidon, his dying by the hands of Perseus, the afterlife of his severed head and the youngsters born from his decapitated corpse. However his severed head, the Gorgoneion, might have an earlier worth: it’s talked about within the Homeric corpus, and it has been a typical motif in artwork throughout the Greek world since at the least the Eighth century BCE, though its recognition in monumental structure declined after just a few years. centuries: far fewer gorgons seem on non secular buildings after the top of the Sixth century BC.
Aeschylus (mid Sixth-mid fifth century BCE) describes gorgons in Prometheus Sure as winged and serpent-haired, and across the identical time (c. 490 BCE) Pindar (in his twelfth Pythian Ode) additionally provides a potted story of the dying of the “stunning cheek” (εὐπάραος) Medusa, in a proof of Athena’s invention of the flute (impressed, he says, by the cries of Medusa’s sisters once they found her corpse).
And it’s the most – not the final, however definitely essentially the most – that we hear of Medusa till Ovid tells the story of Perseus within the Metamorphoses at first of the primary century CE, the place he provides that Medusa was raped by Neptune/Poseidon within the temple of Minerva/Athena, and that Athena punished Medusa by turning her hair into snakes consequently. Shortly after Ovid’s Latin model, (Pseudo-)Apollodoros contains the homicide of Medusa by Perseus within the Greek Library of Mythology, which is usually believed to this point from the first or early 2nd century AD.
Most trendy novels that take a mythological determine as their centerpiece reinvent or reinterpret the parable, including or subtracting in response to their argument and the conventions of the trendy novel, which prefers a construction fairly completely different from historic literature. Haynes, nonetheless. : his story is a matter of emphasis and empathy, filling silences. A change of perspective.
As a novel, then, it’s a explicit type of beast, for it has the construction of Greek fantasy: episodic, typically elliptical, the place the sturdy and the intelligent are overpowered by likelihood or the sworn enemy, destiny or gods, or a stronger, smarter adversary, and the place a personality’s final finish owes nothing in any respect to what a contemporary viewers may contemplate to be what they deserved.
The factor about Greek mythology is that it displays a world outlined by clearly hierarchical energy relations – slave and grasp, disciple and lord, mortal and god, and let’s not overlook so as to add the hierarchical division between the sexes – through which essentially the most highly effective males can act with impunity in opposition to those that are protected neither by one other highly effective man nor by the worldwide energy of social conventions.
So the Greek gods are for us…must be– appalling. The identical goes for heroes and demigods, whether or not monstrous or stunning in kind. Their ethical universe obeys completely different guidelines from ours. In stone blind Haynes captures the essence of this distinction by humanizing the quintessential monstrous Gorgons: Sthenno and Euryale, who discover their mortal sister deposited on the shores they declare as their very own. By elevating somebody mortal and changeable, he too adjustments. They be taught empathy for somebody completely different from themselves. Medusa grows into maturity, not eager to hurt anybody, and he or she too has empathy for mortals weaker than herself. Even raped and remodeled – twice wounded by the gods – she nonetheless does not need to trigger ache. The gods, within the background, do what they need, proud and ruthless and stuffed with self-love. Perseus, essentially the most favored mortal son of Zeus, offends a king who desires his mom as his spouse and agrees to carry house a Gorgon’s head.
Haynes is a compelling author and stylist of extremely readable prose. His mastery of mythological materials permits him to weave disparate fragments right into a linked entire, and his humorousness – sardonic, considering juxtaposition and the punching of inflated egos – shines by means of your complete guide. stone blind is partly an argument with the classical building of heroism, partly a commentary on the silences and absences of the classical mythological canon, and partly a livid diatribe in opposition to Perseus. It’s piercing and poignant. And whereas I am not fully certain of the standard of works for a reader much less aware of the traditional Greek world, it’s an entertaining and bold challenge.
I favored that.
stone blind is revealed by Harper.
Liz Bourke is a grumpy queer one that reads books. She holds a PhD in Classics from Trinity Faculty Dublin. His first guide, sleep with monsters, a set of evaluations and evaluations, was revealed in 2017 by Aqueduct Press. It was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Awards and was nominated for a 2018 Hugo Award within the Finest Associated Work class. She was a finalist for the inaugural Ignyte Critic Award 2020 and was additionally a finalist for the BSFA Non-Fiction Award. She lives in Eire with an insomniac toddler, his spouse and their two very decked out cats.
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