Gorgo. - Medusa: solving the mystery of the Gorgon

MEDUSA

SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF THE GORGON

Stephen R. Wilk

Oxford New York
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Copyright 2000 by Stephen R. Wilk

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilk, Stephen R.
Medusa : solving the mystery of the gorgon / Stephen R. Wilk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-534131-7
1. Medusa (Greek mythology). 1. Title.
BL820.M38W55 1999
292.13dc21 99-10739

The Muse as Medusa 1971 by May Sarton, from Collected Poems, 19301993
was reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Eve Meets Medusa from Gardens of Eden: Poems by Michelene Wandor
(New York: Random-Century, 1990) was reprinted by permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

IT IS IRONIC THAT, although writing a book is a phenomenally antisocial activity, the result of hours in the library or hunched over a computer keyboard, the author still finds himself indebted to a huge number of people. Part of the reward you get for all the effort of putting together a book like this is that it gives you a legitimate excuse for elbowing your way into the affairs of people you would otherwise never get to meet. The oddball trajectory of this book shows just how wide a range of people and specialties you can encounter. Classical scholars and museum curators, forensic scientists and doctors, animal behaviorists and architects, motion picture aficionados, astronomers, entomologists, artists, and theologians. It has been an interesting journey. I am immensely grateful to those who talked with me, suggested ideas, offered articles or illustrations, and expressed curiosity about my theses. My including their names in this list does not mean that they agree with any or all of my ideas. Some expressed skepticism about the possibilities I raised, which is as it should be.

First and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Jill Renee Silvester, who put up with my frequent disappearances into the den with a stack of books, not to mention my trips to libraries and conventions. She was also my best critic, pronouncing the first draft of this book as dry as a thesis. No one will read it, she declared. Suitably chastened, I rewrote it completely, casting it in a more familiar style. You have her to thank that this book is not an involved recitation of facts, heavily larded with footnotes.

I also thank and apologize to Carolyn Renee, my daughter, who arrived in the middle of rewrites. I have to thank my parents, Joseph and Mary Wilk, for too many things to mention. And I thank my sister, Cynthia Wilk, for many small services and for filling my house with gargoyles. And I note my debt to Maggie and Midnight, our cats, who kept me company in my self-imposed exile and who served as test subjects in my private researches on the usefulness of gargoyles and daruma dolls.

I especially want to thank Professor Jerome Y. Lettvin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was his 1978 article The Gorgons Eye that propelled me into what I thought would be a short article of my own, but which turned into this book. After I had started writing I looked him up and spent many hours discussing his own work on octopodes. He critiqued the relevant portions of through 7 so that I did not misrepresent him. Again, I emphasize that any mistakes and all harebrained speculation is due to me.

I owe thanks to Professor Emily Erwin Culpepper of Redwood College, who allowed me to quote generously from her article and her thesis. Professor Sarolta Takacs of the Classics Department at Harvard University offered much of her valuable time to discuss some of my ideas with me and to suggest further directions for research.

Id like to thank my employer, Stephen D. Fantone, president of Optikos Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He allowed me to use the facilities at Optikos for printing out my manuscript and put me in touch with some useful resources.

Ron and Ann Tanguay both gave assistance. Ron published the first article I wrote on the astronomical significance of the myth of Medusa in his magazine, Double Star Observer, and answered some unusual questions. Ann was able to help with library issues.

David Mruz, former editor of journals on animation art, was able to get me information on the elusive film Metamorphoses, going so far as to locate a video copy. He also mailed me a copy of the Twilight Zone magazine with the Gorgon story.

Professor Ronald Prokopy of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Professor Michael J. Conover of Utah State University both sent me copies of their articles on bird deterrents.

Id like to thank Professors Mary Valentis and Anne Devane of the State University of New York at Albany for letting me quote from their book Female Rage. Professor Jane Caputi of the University of New Mexico discussed her book Gossips, Gorgons, and Crones: The Fates of the Earth over the telephone with me.

Elizabeth Harding discussed Kali with me and sent me literature on her organization in California. Kali worship is alive and well, in the United States as well as in India. I hope my theories in this book do not offend devotees. It seems to me that my interpretations are not inconsistent with ideas expressed by believers, but I am on the outside looking in.

I owe great thanks to Janet Mattei and the American Association of Variable Stars Observers (AAVSO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Not only did they give me a forum to express my astronomical theories at their annual meeting, but they published my article in their journal. They also let me have free run of their extensive library. AAVSO is always looking for members. If you are intrigued by the idea of observing variable stars, write to them at 25 Birch St., Cambridge, MA 02138 USA; (617) 354-0484.

I want to thank Professor James T. Costa of Western Carolina University for his help in obtaining the illustration on sawworm larvae and for telephone discussions.

Professor Owen Gingerich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics provided the illustration from al-Sufi. His name is legendary, and I thank him for loaning me his original photograph. I note that he was somewhat dubious of my thesis but was interested enough to wish to see the book. I hope that I have not made any major errors in the astronomical chapters.

Doctor William H. Hartmann of the American Board of Pathology helped me to obtain information and put me in touch with other people whom I must acknowledge without naming. I understand that their profession attracts the morbid, whose attentions they do not want to encourage.

I want to thank Donald Trombino of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Deltona, Florida, for providing the illustration of Rahu. My thanks to Hilary Mitchell for the astronomical illustrations.