Since the days of early Western civilization, when myths were forged in fire and stone, society has been fascinated with the ancient Greek imagination. Tales of gods, Titans, and giants fill children’s fairy tales, while a variety of mythological monsters have captivated viewers on the big screen. No female character, however, is perhaps as popular as Medusa, the monster who could turn men to stone with a single glance.

Some versions of the story claim that Medusa went from being a beautiful woman into the famous monster, whose eyes sparkled with light that, when you looked at them, they turned you into stone. It was all due to Athena’s anger; she was a warrior goddess with the gifts of strategy, wisdom, and ability.

Medusa’s beauty dazzled Poseidon, who then seduced her. But when he saw that his interest was not reciprocated, the god of the sea attacked her and raped her inside a temple devoted to Athena, which awakened her anger. After that offense, Athena punished Medusa and turned her into a heartless monster, with snakes instead of hair, and gave her the curse of turning into stone whoever looked at her.

Medusa was exiled and sent to live in the hyperborean lands, where she discovered that she was pregnant after Poseidon’s attack. This situation fueled Athena’s anger, who immediately asked for Medusa to be killed.

Perseus, son of Zeus and the mortal Danae, was in charge of making Athena’s order come true. Wearing a pair of winged sandals given to him by Hermes and a bright shield, he waited for Medusa to fall asleep. With the help of his winged sandals, he hovered over Medusa and cut off her head. When Medusa was decapitated, the giant Crisaor and the winged horse Pegasus came out of her neck; they were the offspring that resulted from Poseidon’s rape.

Unlike other figures of Greek mythology, most of us know Medusa—even if we can’t recall the details of her myth. A quick character sketch might well include snakes, deadly eyes, and a taste for destruction.

The patriarchal tendency to punish the victim of rape rather than the perpetrator has, as we can see in the myth of Medusa, ancient origins.

One of the messages in the myth, the real story of Medusa, is her powerlessness as a woman. In neither her rape or its consequences does she have any agency. She has no choice but to submit to the hand of fate.

Medusa is silent in the myth.

She’s blamed for the sexual violence dispensed to her. There is no mention of her suffering, no discourse on her trauma. This reflects the true experience of many women forced to submit to sexual violence. Many women report feelings of self-hatred and self-blame after the experience of rape, and that they cannot, dare not, speak out against their aggressors.

What’s clear from the changing faces of Medusa is that there is no universal truth to her myth. Beautiful victim, monstrous villain, powerful deity—she’s all of those things, and more besides. Perhaps it’s that mercurial nature that makes her an endless source of fascination. She is, in a sense, a site for our collective projections of both fear and desire: simultaneously a symbol of women’s rage and a figure sexualized by the very patriarchal forces she is seeking vengeance against.

We all are well known with the tale of Adam and Eve. The first man and woman, however a very less among us are aware of the belief that Eve wasn’t the first woman. It was someone else. According to legend, Lilith was Adam’s first wife. Exiled from Eden for her refusal to submit to him, she was known for centuries as a baby-snatching demon. But contemporary feminists and religious scholars insist there’s more to the story.

Lilith has a curious and complicated history, even as spiritual beings go. If you search her name today, you’ll come up with hundreds of images of scantily clad demon women. She’s been a subject of debate for centuries, and of appreciation and homage in recent years.

The Tale relates that God created Lilith from the earth, just as he had created Adam.
When the first man, Adam, saw that he was alone, God made for him a woman like himself, from the earth.God called her name Lilith, and brought her to Adam. They immediately began to quarrel. Adam said: “You lie beneath me.” And Lilith said: “You lie beneath me! We are both equal, for both of us are from the earth.” And they would not listen to one another. As soon as Lilith saw this, she uttered the Divine name and flew up into the air and fled. So, God sent three angels to bring Lilith back, but Lilith didn’t return.

The Lilith of this story confronts both Adam and God: she defies patriarchy, refuses a submissive status,and in the end refuses marriage altogether, preferring to become a demon rather than live under Adam’s authority.
Some believe that Lilith was a demon who used to steal children’s souls at night, which she does out of envy for not being able to birth her own child. All she could birth according to history, are were demons.

However in the modern period, the tale of the put-upon wife who flees to a place of liberation became a celebrated paradigm. Numerous modern Jewish poets and authors, female and male, wrote accounts of Lilith that use old stories to express new ideas. Modern feminists celebrate her bold struggle for independence from Adam. Her name appears as the title of a Jewish women’s magazine and a national literacy program. An annual music festival that donates its profits to battered women’s shelters and breast cancer research institutes is called the Lilith Fair.

In 1976, Lilith Magazine was launched, proudly billing itself as “Independent, Jewish & Frankly Feminist”. In its first issue, Jewish feminist and activist Aviva Cantor Zuckoff wrote an op-ed explaining why a modern magazine would name itself after an ancient demon. “Lilith is a powerful female… By acknowledging Lilith’s revolt and even in telling of her vengeful activities, myth-makers also acknowledge Lilith’s power,” she said. “Even if we accept Lilith’s vengeful activities… we can regard them as having originated in self-defense against male domination and as a consequence of having to fight on alone, century after century, for her independence.

If the first male had only agreed to serve under the first female half of the time (that is all she asked of him) Lilith would have been Eve and the history would have been completely different than what it actually is.

The tale of Hades and Persephone is actually the way of the ancient Greeks to explain the change of the seasons, the eternal cycle of the Nature’s death and rebirth. According to Greek Mythology, Persephone, the queen of the underworld, was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility.
      
The myth begins with Aphrodite (Venus) the goddess of love looking down from Olympus. Aphrodite was apparently a wee bit concerned about the mother/daughter relationship of Demeter and Persephone. Among other reasons, Aphrodite was reportedly concerned because there was no man involved in the picture so she sent Eros (The Cupid, love God) to strike the dark powerful god of the underworld, Hades, with an arrow of love and desire for Persephone.
   
Then one day Persephone was picking flowers and saw an incredibly beautiful one she wanted. She went to pick it, and as she did, a crack in the earth opened and Hades came out in his chariot and grabbed her. He put her in the chariot and drove into the Underworld while Persephone called out for her mother and father.
    
Hades and Persephone lived in the underworld while Demeter started searching everywhere. Demeter was extremely distraught by the loss of her daughter, so distraught and angry that she decided to take drastic action. Demeter decided to take away her life-sustaining gifts and command the earth die and mold until someone brought Persephone back or told her where Persephone was. The cries of the people who were suffering reached Olympus and the divine ears of Zeus. The mighty god finally realized that if he wouldn’t do something about Demeter’s wrath, all humanity would disappear. Thus he tried to find another solution to both calm Demeter and please Hades.

However when Persephone was in the underworld with Hades, he gifted her with six pomegranate seeds to eat, and she did. In Greek mythology, it was believed that if one ate food given to them by their captor, they would always return. Zeus decided that Persephone would split her time between her mother and her husband. Since she ate six pomegranate seeds, Persephone would spend half the year with her mother at Olympus and the other half with Hades.

The changing seasons :

Many believe that the Demeter and Persephone story explains the seasons of the year. During the time that Persephone spends away from her mother, Demeter  causes the earth to wither and die. This time of the year became autumn and winter.

Persephone’s arrival to be reunited with her mother signals a renewal of hope causing Summer and Spring. It represents the rebirth of untold splendor and abundance. The earth once again becomes fertile and fruitful.

In many ancient versions of this myth – Persephone was actually quite happy and satisfied to be with Hades. And together they conceived a child.