Week 7 Outside of Class

For my stop motion animation, I am going to do an animation on The Story of Medusa and Athena. 

Medusa was a beautiful maiden who lived in Athens, Greece. She was a priestess to the goddess of wisdom and battle. In order to be a priestess to Athena, you must be a virgin and give your life to the goddess. In the 'kids' version of this legend, it was said that Medusa constantly boasted about how beautiful she was. She boasted about her beauty to anyone who would listen. She admired herself in the mirror for hours each day and when she saw her own reflection. Apparently she boasted to everyone in front of Athena that she was more beautiful than Athena, which made Athena mad. The lesson was that not everything is about looks. Athena curses Medusa by turning her into a monster - She was given chicken legs, giant metal wings, cracked skin, madness, and her signature snake hair and stone eyes. She was banished to an island where men would come to try and kill her. When she would look at them, she would watch them turn to stone. 

But apparently, in other versions, Medusa didn't boast about her looks or anything like that. She was ravishingly beautiful maiden who was admired by lots of men. But because she was a priestess to the goddess Athena, she was not allowed to marry. One day, Athena's rival and the God of the Sea, Poseidon, decided to come by and rape Medusa on the steps of Athena's temple. He did this because he wanted to humiliate Athena. 

Vulnerable and weak, Medusa prayed to Athena for guidance and forgiveness. Apparently in those days, gods claimed their mates as their partners forever. (I guess by having sex with them?) So since Medusa was raped by Poseidon, she was now his wife. (Which I really think shouldn't count due to the fact that she was raped, but whatever.) Anyway, Athena finds out Poseidon raped Medusa and gets very angry at Medusa. She claims Medusa betrayed her, which results in Athena cursing Medusa and turning her into a monster. Anyone she looks at is turned to stone, and no men want her now. She's banished to an island, where men are sent to try and kill her, but because she's angry at the gods for cursing her, she takes her revenge out on the men sent to the island to kill her. 

Years later, Perseus shows up at her island, outsmarts Medusa, and beheads her. Apparently Pegasus and Chrysaor emerge from her body. Perseus takes Medusa's head back to Athena, and Athena turns it into a shield with Medusa's face in the center, so it terrifies enemies when they look at it. 

Maybe I could change this storyline around. Maybe after Medusa gets raped and is cursed by Athena, Athena realizes that it's stupid to get angry at Medusa because Poseidon raped her. Since she can't reverse the curse, she brings Medusa back from the island, and they team up with Medusa's two immortal sisters,  Stheno and Euryale, to get revenge on Poseidon for what he did. 

I think the materials I am going to use for this project are different colors of construction paper, glitter glue, hand-lettering, and other techniques I can think of to incorporate in the project. I will post pictures later on today.