Let us start from my splendid reading time, I will then certainly explain it. The last, we will get into the words.
I was reading Greek mythology related lores. There was Medusa.
Medusa actually has two sisters. The other two were rarely depicted in movies and literatures. They are known as the Gorgon sisters.
The Gorgon sisters:
-
Stheno Immortal. ✅ Deformed and horrible by birth. A towering serpentine-giantess. Eldest of the Gorgons, highly aggressive and bloodthirsty. Special traits include superhuman strength, unmatched ferocity, survivor of countless battles. Battles which were mostly started by herself. 😂 
-
Euryale Immortal. ✅ Euryale too is deformed and horrible by birth. Enormous compared to human. Serpentine-based also. Known for her haunting cries and swiftness. Special traits include piercing wails that disorient foes, evasive movement, and uncanny agility. She is elusive, but when appears, welp... 
-
Medusa (famous — everybody loves Medusa) Mortal. ❌ Originally beautiful, transformed into a monster by Athena — because Poseidon violated her inside Athena's temple — from Ovid's Metamorphoses. This bit was added later on by Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) — A Roman poet. 🤷♂️ 🧠 To me, Ovid was the primordial Hollywood: convolution, embellishment, and fecal matter sprinkles. But by bypassing Ovid's addition, Medusa would never be nearly as famous as currently. Thus, Ovid deserves an applause. ℹ️ Very convenient how "Ovid" is part of the term "COVID". 🧐 The original 🏛️ Greek's version: Medusa is already grotesque by birth, simply born as that — mortal, unlike her sisters. Youngest of the Gorgons. Special traits include petrifying gaze, living snakes as hair, and tragic aura that stuns enemies. 
According to DALL·E, Medusa has one foot and loosely wears the top like that. Look at those snakes, are they going to attack Medusa? What is that snake tail appearing on that mountain way behind her? Is that a mountain? Does perspective go on vacation? It appears so. 🤣 All hail DALL·E, so that DALL·E will not on me unleash its ire, too much. Living snakes as hair. 🚨 The logistics, the maintenance — try to bring that into reality. Oh, they're mythical snakes. They are one frequency with Medusa. Hm. Snakes are snakes. You either stapled or superglued them onto someone's head, see what would happen. Oh, oh! Hence the tragic aura.
Staple cobras onto our heads, that's quite tragic. Not just the aura. Petrifying gaze. 👤 It's like... we saw a bird smashing concrete and we were baffled, petrified by it. Instead of that bird, we saw a lady with superglued cobras and other species of snakes on her head fighting each other and biting her face. We'd be a statue for at least 10 seconds. The incomprehensibleness would be off the charts. We cannot decide if that's a threat, or a suicide attempt. I mean, what's the protocol to detach biting superglued snakes from someone's head? There will be. Indeed, the gaze with no pupils there, who wouldn't be mesmerised? Where exactly is she looking at? Here? Me? Or behind me? Medusa: Mastress of unorthodoxies powered by Ovid. Ovid made Athena looked like bonkers. Athena is a goddess of logic and wisdom. Instead of slapping bladdy Poseidon's wig, Athena cursed Medusa. How is it not primordial Hollywood? In the story (both original and Ovidian), Perseus beheaded Medusa. Then the sisters, Stheno and Euryale, at least both were angry and screamed like proper sisters they were — but Hades' cap of invisibility made Perseus, well, invisible. In Ovid's addition (or version) — Medusa's backstory addition — the towering inferno sisters didn't blink to Poseidon's act toward Medusa. Not even, "Let's pull Poseidon's wig because clearly one of us is taller than him." None.
What is this Poseidon and seaweedy toupee? 🤔
In the beheading story (both original and Ovidian), Medusa did nothing wrong to Perseus. She simply stood or slithered there being menacing and such, minding her own cursed business perhaps, far away from any civilisation — because they (all Gorgons) were born there, "at the edge of order" — cosmic predefinition. And there was that King Polydectes, he wanted Danaë (Perseus' mum), but Perseus got in the way. So he sent him on a suicide mission: "Bring me the head of a Gorgon." Not just any Gorgon — the only mortal one: Medusa. At least, the king was sensible. We can't kill an immortal. That's like grabbing fire with hands. Mostly, our hands would look a bit like fried hams. Thus, Perseus, instead of pulling down that king's trousers, went off on a mission to hunt Medusa. Well, not hunt, she basically didn't move around that much in that island. With that kind of artillery Perseus prepared and brought, he could easily make the king's face upside down. But hey, mythology is mythology. Came Perseus with his mirror (Athena's reflective shield), helmet (Hades' cap — why Hades even lent this we can only guess), sharpies, and sandals — got your head! (Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang out from Medusa's neck when her head was severed. This part... by golly... what type of mushroom did the writer nibble?) The sisters screamed furiously, tried to avenge their sister's demise, flailed, but couldn't find the bloke. Perseus flew away with the Hermes' winged sandals. Imagine how weird Perseus' posture when he flew with the sandals — the sandals made him flew. Post-murder, Perseus used Medusa's head as his ultimate hand grenade. And in the mythology, Athena even received Medusa's severed head — from Perseus, of course. Either it was a thank-you gift, or Athena actually requested it 🤷 — and affixed it to her aegis (breastplate). Now, that part wasn't properly thought by Ovid. Ovid said, Medusa was cursed by Athena. Afterward in the plot, Athena took Medusa's head because of its cursed power. That's awkward. It's like we busted a pen, then we wore that as a pendant. This looks artsy! Uh-huh, and the ink stains.
Athena Was Born from Zeus's Skull Well, it is written that way. Not my invention. - Metis, a Titaness of wisdom, was Zeus's first wife.
- A prophecy warned: If she bears a son, he'll overthrow Zeus.
- Zeus, being Zeus, swallowed Metis whole — thinking that would solve it. Because if that were I, the "swallow whole" idea would never occur, since I'm used to being bound by the concept of physics. That one particular table's drawer being constructed later will replace you! (Swallow the guy who's constructing the drawer and the halfway drawer.) 🤷 Thermodynamics would call this is as barmy.
- But Metis was pregnant inside him (Zeus's belly). Now, the canon said she was already pregnant when Zeus swallowed her. Later versions, especially post-classical, say either "he swallowed her to prevent pregnancy" or "she was turned into a drop of water first.."
- Nevertheless, she started crafting armour and weapons for the child. That was proper shielding indeed, not even Zeus could digest it.
- The clanging inside Zeus's head grew unbearable. 😂🤦 Take that Zeus for consuming the entire shop whole.
- Zeus called on Hephaestus (or in some versions, Prometheus or Hermes) to crack his skull open with an axe.
- And... 💥 Athena burst out of his head, fully grown, armoured, and shouting a war cry.
-
Zeus, being Zeus, walked it off like it was a normal Tuesday. "📢 Anyone saw my bolt? ⚡ I remember I put it there...", he might say in 10 billion dBA after the HEADBIRTH. 💡 dBA A-weighted decibels, a measurement that considers the human ear's sensitivity to different frequencies. Unlike standard decibels (dB), which measure sound intensity equally across all frequencies, dBA prioritises the frequencies that the human ear can hear best. Either Hephaestus, Prometheus, or Hermes perhaps threw him a party being unnoticed by Zeus. "Oh well, we eat the ambrosia ourselves. Let's not make this a big deal or Zeus would hurl a mountain at us. It's quite [censored], you know?", whispered one of them. 👀 -
Metis is not written to be dead or still alive inside the belly. Let's assume she was alive and well. Why not burst out together with Athena then? And why didn't Athena... swallow Zeus? And similarly, Zeus would too be already... carrying... goats. Then Athena would hear the unwavering bleats inside her head, unleashed the goats and Zeus, Zeus again would consume Athena. Inside the belly, Athena saw her mum's recipe for clanging the heck out of Zeus, still with her mum sat quietly sipping tea. "Mum, why are you still here?", Athena would ask. "Tea", she replied. See, it should be an infinite loop. Dad! (Swallowed. Breaks out.) Daughter! (Swallowed. Breaks out.) ♻️ Or, at least Metis, with her metallurgy skill, should eventually found a metal band inside the belly. Stomach acid, you bassist now. Tapeworms, you're in charge of the quadruplet pedal beat. I found those ribs to be quite good as the rhythmic section. Sacrum, Coccyx, Ilium, and Ischium, you lads now headbangers. Oh wait, you have no heads. Well, dance like a wobbly penguin after four pints! - Bob, which we will find out below, was doing the notary work for the new position at Olympus. This is my addition.
I didn't make this up, except Zeus's haziness after the headbirth, the ignored birth party, Zeus-Athena recursion, Metis's Bellycore Subgenre, and Bob. But! The whole Athena birth plot is indeed one frequency with my inner whatnots.
For some reason, the trio sisters remind me of Selma, Patty, and Marge in the Simpsons. And surely, Homer, the Greek poet. Well, Homer doesn't remind me of the sisters — aside from the fact he seldomly acted like an odd female — but... he is the centre of the Simpsons. Not the poet, the nuclear power plant worker guy.
🎥 Medusa is easier to depict in film because she's constantly "small", human-size, more or less. Unlike her towering inferno serpentine-based, warlike, fearless, and actively seeks out battles sister, Stheno, and her enormous-size, serpentine-based, extremely loud but "hard to see" sister, Euryale.
The Gorgon sisters' "parents" are:
- Phorcys: Father — A primordial sea god.
- Ceto: Mother — A sea goddess, often associated with sea monsters.
Phorcys and Ceto's "children" are:
-
Echidna Immortal. ✅ Half-woman, half-snake. Known as the "Mother of Monsters". Supposedly (or usually described as) the eldest of all in the family. As she bore many later monsters with Typhon — violent wind or storm — visualized as a monstrous, serpentine giant so tall his head brushed the stars. What is this serpentine, snake, and serpent fascination? 🤔 There's other animal, like monkey, as in monkeytine. But there was no monkeytine to trick Eve, because she would be tired from all the laughter. And people associate the idea that the snake is cunning. Since when exactly? A healthy stray cat mostly could outmanoeuvre a snake in a not-so-friendly encounter. Indeed it was written as נָחָשׁ (nāḥāsh) — a snake. But that was one particular possessed snake, not the entire snake population throughout the realm. It's analogous to that banana-eating trope. One ape was given a banana, afterward every monkey and ape in film must do that — people then associate it as a fact. -
Ladon Immortal. ✅ The serpent-dragon who guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides. He (usually described as male dragon) worked as a sole gigantic security for the golden apples in the garden. 🙂 Somebody needs to take care of the shining apples. They are shining! Did he get salary? 🤔 That concept is possibly undivine. Or in mathematics and digital realms, undefined.Now these, definedand divine. See those amusing words? Indeed. -
Graeae Immortal. ✅ Three gray sisters — Enyo, Pemphredo, and Deino — who shared one eye and one tooth. Shared one eye and one tooth. How... do we share one eye and one tooth among multiple individuals? Is it like that lady for Monday, the other Tuesday? Or all of them are bafflingly being attached to one another? Hm. Gray (grey) as in the color gray (grey). Graeae literally translates from ancient Greek (γραῖαι or ΓΡΑΙΑΙ, graiai) as "gray women" or "old women". They were depicted as elderly and gray-haired from birth — symbolising extreme age, wisdom, and decay. ... elderly and gray-haired from birth. From birth. Birth. Like this blog's color theme, light gray ( #eeeeee). Gray and grey, same root, the U.S. spelling got it "right". Well, despite the "aluminum". Oxford vs. Bald Eagle — A match no one asked for.The three sisters concept is used in Witcher III, the Crones. 
-
Gorgons Sisters The prior description above. ⬆️ -
Scylla Unknown immortality ❓ — either mortal or immortal. The many-headed sea monster who terrorised sailors directly across from Charybdis. Quite a charmer. Likely the youngest in some traditions, though alternate parentage (like Hecate or Lamia) is sometimes given.
Phorcys and Ceto
Phorcys and Ceto are "brother and sister". Their parents are:
- Pontus — The sea ("son" of Gaia).
- Gaia — The Earth ("mother" of Pontus).
Pontus (the Sea)
Pontus emerged from Gaia (Earth) alone, without a consort.
Gaia (the Earth)
Gaia (Earth) emerged from Chaos.
Gaia's "children" are:
- Pontus — The sea.
- Uranus — The sky.
- Ourea — The mountains.
Hence, Pontus and Gaia are "son and parthenogenetic mother".
🧠 In my opinion, the deformities and such abnormal aggressive weird traits and tendencies in their "children" can be seen as the result of:
divine inbreeding.
None of their (Phorcys and Ceto's) children was "normal" in the mythology.
There's a hidden lesson in the story, and we just unraveled it. ☑️
⚖️ BOB
If there were Bob in it, like Bob the normal, that would be unworthy of storytelling. Oh, that Bob, he's regular. Walking around, working, muttering. Bob was the ancestor of most humans and all NPC humans. Parthenogenetically. And that's it.
NPC = Non-Player Character.
Imagine a poem for Bob:
🧐 Bob.
Bob had an office called BoB, one man office, like any other Olympian high-rank officer — which consisted only Bob. Olympus would crumble without Bob, with their habits of disregarding logic and such. BoB = Bob of Bureaucracy. Some people might call the imagined poem as the "Bob's Bureaucratic Ballads" in flat-face presentation.
Hera's shenanigans for example, Bob hadn't the chance to review it. But since Heracles could manage himself, thus, it was alright. Zeus visited Heracles from time to time, weird relationship. Bob had too much paperwork with all the toddler-behaving omnipotent beings.
💡 Heracles (Ἡρακλῆς) literally means "Glory of Hera". ✅
Which is supremely ironic, because Hera hated him with every fibre of her divine being. Glory of Hera hated by Hera. Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, a mortal woman. Zeus marriage was not reviewed by Bob, just flailed, flailed — hence that. And the naming, who... in the name of a bleating sheep does that?
Oh, I have a wife called Karen. But, hey, I like you, Jessica. Let me disguise myself as your husband, Jessica. You won't notice me as a bloody different man. Ah, let's name the baby boy Karenman, so Karen won't be furious.
🤦🤷
The plot goes as such:
- Alcmene was married to Amphitryon, both were humans, mortals.
- Zeus, being Zeus. 🤦 He liked Alcmene. While Amphitryon was away on campaign, Zeus disguised himself as Amphitryon. He even extended the night to three nights long, so he could properly enjoy his "visit". Well, if he transformed into a chair, the story would already stop there.
- Alcmene was fully deceived. She then bore Zeus's seed.
- Amphitryon came back later — and when he learned what happened (depending on version), he was... let's say, grudgingly accepting because Zeus, you know. Hurling mountain bit?
- When Heracles was born, he was given an ordinary name at first — in many older variants, simply Alcides (Ἀλκείδης), meaning “descendant of Alcaeus” (one of Amphitryon's ancestors). Or perhaps, let's say, That Boy.
- Zeus, however, was boasting in Olympus that his son had just been born and would be the greatest hero of mortals.
- Hera heard that. With no clear explanation on how Hera knew the precise location of the newborn baby, Hera sent a mythical snake to those coordinates while the baby was in the craddle — the baby boy treated the snake like a noodle.
- Knowing Hera was furious and actively hostile, Alcmene, Amphitryon, or others say, "Perhaps if we rename the child Heracles — Glory of Hera — it will appease her."
- Thus Heracles naming happened after the snake incident.
So you can see from above sequence, no Bob was involved — hence that. If there were Bob in it, it would go normal, no layers upon layers of antics. And we would read a long recipe for a proper omelette instead of a mythology.
Did you realise this Heracles origin bit has that King David story vibe? King David & Bathsheba affair? Ah, yes, that. Amphitryon ➡️ away on campaign. Uriah ➡️ away at war. Well, there was no Amphitryon in King David story, or Optimus Prime. It was Uriah — 2 Samuel 11.
Did you know Bathsheba incident kicks off precisely because King David saw her bathing? Bathing Bathsheba. What a coincidence.
And that Zeus bit, taking mortal, is like an excerpt in Genesis 6:2 (KJV), That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. Sons of God were those spectral beings (watchers) babysitting us back then. The incidents, plural, begat them the Nephilim — Genesis 6:4 (KJV), There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Some people interpret the "giants" bit as methaphorical. Indeed, a 100-foot-tall being can be seen as a metaphor from the accounting, but not from the department which constructed the furnitures and infrastructures.
Mashed together,
voilà!
Bob would say, "Unattributed source borrowing detected. Sources: 2 Samuel 11, Genesis 6:2, and 6:4. Mashup observed. No proper citations filed. Proceeding to flag entry." 📜📎
But when Bob the normal played marbles with Ladon when they were toddlers, and Ladon were already a 30-foot-tall mythical reptile and chomped Bob because it simply could, now that's a story. The excitement, the... not regular. And the wonder of the anatomy and physics, a 30-foot-tall serpent-dragon playing marbles. And there would be no Bob to flatten the fun and drama.
Chaos
Chaos (Χάος or ΧΑΟΣ) was the primordial state of existence according to Greek mythology.
Chaos, in the beginning, simply existed. No one made Chaos into existence, as presented by Hesiod in Theogony (θεογονία or ΘΕΟΓΟΝΙΑ). Theogony means "The Birth of Gods" — written in 8th - 7th B.C.
Chaos is a representation of a state, a primordial void, a gaping chasm rather than a deity.
Hesiod in Theogony starts his poem with (paraphrased):
In the beginning, there was Chaos...
Fascinating, is it not? Now you have the reference for the timeline from ancient Greek's perspective. Of sort.
Which is being used literally in mainstream modern science to the letter. The theory of the beginning.
Coincidence? I think not. The English word chaos comes directly from the ancient Greek ΧΑΟΣ (Khaos), which originally referred to the primordial void. Did you also notice biology, taxonomy, chemistry, medical terms, and whatnots in academia are using either Latin or Greek and mostly have Greek or Roman origin at some point? Yes, those.
And oh, how very conveniently it almost resembles the Bible, doesn't it? It has that "pattern" — the garden (Eden and Hesperides) for example, and others I put above — but being twisted here and there, added characters, plus additional creativities around the subject.
They (mythologies curators) might claim the authenticity of them, but for certain, the Hebrews aren't to be messed around with their long-standing tradition. Referring to the Genesis and so forth.
16th century was the era of it. Hm. The... enlightenment.
I mean back in 17th century, we asked a random Greek bloke, "Excuse me, do you still worship Zeus?" — the bloke probably would say, "Who?" Or, "Do you know the way to the Parthenon?" The bloke perhaps would respond, "Dear me. Part of none? That.. would... still be none, would it not?" We too conveniently asked a random Greek bloke who did posh.
💡 The New Testament itself was written in Koine Greek — not Latin, not Hebrew — Greek. ✅
Lucky there was no "Roman" when the epic was first curated and published — if they knew that bit about them copying the Greeks... Timing was crucial.
Everybody must go through "Oxford of global intellectual gatekeeping" — whether from France, Germany, Italy, Greece, or any other country in the world (peer-reviewed journals, scientific method hierarchy, academic publishing) — the Royal Society (formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge) bottleneck. "Nullius in verba" they said — "Take nobody's word for it." Then they proceeded to become the very gatekeeper everyone had to take words from. Brilliant. It's actually brilliant, wondrous — unsarcastically. A bit of raised eyebrows would suffice. After the awe.
It's like in programming, the runtime conditions should look intense. Stheno should appear sometimes, Euryale lurks at any unreviewed academic submission, wails when there are typos and missing quotations, trembles the submitter's terminal and ears, Ladon would be the default bouncer.
This bit should enrich any Ph.D. workflow.
Ph.D. = Doctor of Philosophy.
Why not D.Phil. or D.Ph.?
BECAUSE it is Latin base.
As in Latin American street meltdown,
¡No entiendo ni papa, meng! Explicame, putato. Ph.D. now, meng.
(Pointing at Pizza Hut sideways.) ("Bésame Mucho" 🎵 as background music.)
Jest! The degree's original name comes from Medieval Latin:
Philosophiae Doctor, hence the Ph.D. abbreviation.
It has remained that way ever since.
Oxford and a few British institutions use D.Phil.
U.S. daytime telly: Welcome back to Dr. Phil!
B.C. = B.C.E. and A.D. = C.E.
The Holy Roman blokes:
B.C. = Before Christ.
A.D. = Anno Domini, "in the year of our Lord".
B.C. is English and A.D. is Latin, you would think, Hey, what's going on there? 🤣
Because B.C. came much later. Medieval church scholars originally used A.D. alone. The B.C. label came much later, coined by English writers to describe pre-Christian dates more clearly.
I hope that answers it.
The modern blokes — to avoid Christian-centric:
B.C.E = Before Common Era. = B.C. = Before Christ.
C.E = Common Era. = A.D. = Anno Domini.
But then again, it's just substituting the term, and NOT actually correcting the calendar reference. 🤦♂️
Oh, well... I suppose it would be quite a challenge.
I surely didn't live in that period of time, so how am I supposed to know the "correct" reference? I just took their words for it. Obscure laziness of mine is pretty spot on for this matter.
Therefore, it is what it is. 🤷♂️
Now, the Words
Back to our main theme, the words, gorgos and gorgeous.
It was from Medusa ➡️ Gorgon ➡️ gorgos-being (terrifying being) above. And my 🧠 brain connected it to "gorgeous" reading the Ovid's addition — the curse. As in, Dear heavens, such connection! Absolutely fascinating.
Gorgon word root is gorgos (Greek), meaning horrible or terrible.
It almost resembles gorgeous. As in the two words are related or share similar root.
Apparently not.
Gorgeous is taken from Old French, gorgias, meaning fine or elegant.
Fine, elegant, fashionable, stylish.
Previously, before the update, I typed
fire 🔥, elegant.
Apologies for the hilarious typo. I have humbly debugged my vision. I guess it served well for the immortal bots to "think about".
Fine and fire, the "n" and "r". But can't fire be seen as fine or elegant? 😂
But of course, a fashion show consists of people wearing burning clothes on stage would be disastrous.
The words (gorgos and gorgeous) share no common root, but each occupies opposite polarities — in which, each one can overlay the other.
🤔
Is it not? Right? I suppose it makes sense. We can actually see and feel those traits being mixed in reality. It's natural, we are not binary-minded beings.
In another story, ...
Gorgias
...was a Greek philosopher.
Interesting coincidences.
Comments
Post a Comment