Medusa: What a Monster Can Do for the Humanities.

Hi all! Last week, I finally started my PGCE course (after much deliberation!). It is a little frustrating that while I can teach in a university, many colleges require some form of teaching qualification. However, as someone who enjoys teaching a range of groups with varying abilities, I decided the PGCE was a good option. For the course, our first task was to deliver a five-minute speech on something we’re passionate about. I opted for Medusa, and I chose the Gorgon because she’s the main figure within my research but also because I wanted to highlight how she can be used to engage and attract students to ancient history as a subject.

This got me thinking…

Right now, arts and humanities departments across the UK are struggling. This is due to a lack of funding caused, in part, by a gradual change in attitude regarding university degree choices. There is this growing idea that undergraduate students should be enrolling on university degrees that directly lead to a high-paying career (i.e., STEM subjects). Many in positions of power hold views akin to Rishi Sunak, who included cutting down on ‘low value degrees’ as part of his bid to become the new Conservative leader (what even is a ‘low-earning degree’ according to a billionaire!?). Thus, with remarks such as Sunak’s, it becomes suggested that humanities subjects are for rich students who can afford to embark on degrees that are ‘interesting’ rather than ‘practical’, and the notion that the classics are an elitist subject reserved for rich white men is upheld. This is extremely problematic, and as a working-class woman from South Wales, I can offer my own reasoning. Below I copy my PGCE speech that touches on my own experience, as well as my argument that Medusa can be used to attract students with diverse backgrounds to the study of the ancient world and highlight the importance of studying an arts and humanities degree. Do note that this is not an academic speech but is intended to be accessible for those who have no prior knowledge of Medusa or ancient history, thus very much in keeping with my message.

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Hi everyone. I’ve chosen to discuss the ancient mythical figure of Medusa for my 5-minute presentation not only because she’s a cool monster with snake hair from Clash of the Titans, but because I use her in my ancient history classes at Cardiff University to help engage students and make the ancient world more accessible.

So, I’d like to start right at the beginning and discuss my first engagement with ancient Greece and Rome when I was young. I wasn’t taught ancient history as a subject in school or sixth form simply because it wasn’t offered. Instead, and like many of you, my first taste of the ancient world and Greek and Roman mythology was through popular culture, and by that I mean tv, film, music, adverts and so on. If I quickly draw your attention to the slide, you can see what I mean. These are all everyday examples of the way Greek or Roman mythology is used in the modern day, and you may not even have picked up on some of these before (I included a slide here with different examples such as Nike, Hermes, Versace and Wonder Woman).

So popular culture was a) where my interest in myth and the ancient world originated and b) led to a series of opportunities. I chose to study ancient history at university because of it being brought to my attention through various forms of popular culture. In turn, by successfully completing a degree in a subject for which I was passionate, I have been able to speak at conferences internationally, publish chapters, and eventually (hopefully!) a book on the subject.

And this made me think a little bit. The classics (which is what we call the study of the ancient world) has historically been thought of as elitist. It’s the subject our ex-prime minister, Boris Johnson, studied at Oxford University and it’s gradually become a subject associated with those who can afford to study a subject that interests them rather than one that leads directly to a specific career. Yet, that’s not all true for me. I’m a working-class woman from South Wales. No one in my family had ever been to university. Yet here I am with a PhD and with that a range of opportunities my working-class parents could only have dreamed of.

This brings me back to Medusa. Here is an immediately identifiable monster from the ancient world who pops up again and again. Not so long ago, Rihanna graced the front of GQ as Medusa, Cardi B, an incredibly famous female rapper, also dressed up as this particular monster for a recent photoshoot. Medusa, who can also be referred to as the Gorgon, is everywhere – whether it’s pop stars appropriating her image, her use by Versace, films such as Clash of the Titans and so on. So yes, she’s a figure that continues to fascinate because she’s a cool concept for a monster, but she has also come to symbolise much more, and this is largely because there is not one version of her myth. Rather, in the spirit of the ancient world, different ancient authors continued to change or build upon her story. Therefore, while many (largely) men use her in their vitriol against women in politics (Hillary Clinton was often shown as a decapitated Medusa head that was held aloft by Trump who took the role of Perseus in images created by Trump supporters, see below), in the modern day, Medusa holds various meanings. She is viewed by many feminists as a potent female figure subjugated by a violent male, others take Ovid's version of her tale to read her as a silenced rape victim, and she has also been used as a symbol of Black female power.[1] In regard to this latter point, this connection between Medusa and race is an interesting one. Historically, Medusa has been used as a racial slur directed at Black men and women because of a perceived similarity between snakes and afro-textured hair. In response, Black women, such as the poet Dorothea Smartt, have since reclaimed Medusa as a figure that symbolises Black female power.[2] Be it race, gender, trauma...I have simply scratched the surface of the different meanings Medusa holds to modern receivers of her myth and they're all visible in the way she is portrayed in pop culture.

Therefore, by drawing from different uses of Medusa and pointing to her significance and relevance in the modern day, she can be used to attract students from diverse backgrounds. The ancient world does not simply belong to white upper-class men, it belongs to us all. Students can then engage with ancient history while also incorporating other disciplines and to frame discussion around wider issues surrounding race, gender, sexuality, ageism, disability etc. If we can do this with Medusa, we can do it with other mythical figures, too.

End of presentation.

The role of popular culture cannot be underplayed. While this may be viewed as low-brow material, the way ancient myth is appropriated reveals much about how we use narratives from the past to reveal modern anxieties. It also teaches students to critique and not to receive information as fact. For example, the ancient world has repeatedly been adopted to denigrate Black people and to uphold white supremacy. Be that John C. Calhoun, a former vice president and later senator from South Carolina, stating that he would not ‘believe that the N**** was a human being and should be treated as a man’ until he ‘could find a N**** who knew the Greek syntax’ (Withun 2017), or Hitler marvelling at the white marble body of the Discobolus of Myron (even if statues in the ancient world were polychromatic). The way the ancient world is filtered down to us must be considered, as is the need to question through whose lens are we viewing it. Humanities degrees such as ancient history therefore teach students to critique, to analyse, and not to be passive recipients of information - transferable skills that can be applied during one’s career and other aspects of life.

In sum, while I may have been a well-rounded student who could have taken a science or maths subject if pushed, this was not where my heart lay. It would have led to doing a degree I had no interest in and, in turn, would likely have led to me either withdrawing or receiving a considerably lower mark than I eventually did. For students such as myself who have had very limited guidance from a family who didn’t understand the university process or future career options, the ancient world was a lifeline. Therefore, like I say to my college students, if you don’t know what subject you want to study at university – that’s fine (18 is far too young to know anyway). But what I do gently suggest is that if you’re feeling lost, enrol on to a subject that you enjoy. This can only lead to better results, a greater retention-rate, and, like it did for me, open doors you didn’t know existed. G.

[1] According to Ovid, Medusa is raped by Neptune (Poseidon) in Minerva’s (Athena’s) temple. The goddess thus turned the beautiful Medusa into a terrifying snake-haired monster. [2] Indeed, the ancient world has repeatedly been used to denigrate Black people and to uphold white supremacy (see below).