Medusa was a monster, one of the Gorgon sisters and daughter of Phorkys and Keto, the children of Gaea (Earth) and Oceanus (Ocean). She had the face of an ugly woman with snakes instead of hair; anyone who looked into her eyes was immediately turned to stone. Her sisters were Sthenno and Euryale, but Medusa was the only mortal of the three.
She was originally a golden-haired, fair maiden, who, as a priestess of Athena, was devoted to a life of celibacy; however, after being wooed by Poseidon and falling for him, she forgot her vows and married him. For this offence, she was punished by the goddess in a most terrible manner. Each wavy lock of the beautiful hair that had charmed her husband was changed into a venomous snake; her once gentle, love-inspiring eyes turned into blood-shot, furious orbs, which excited fear and disgust in the mind of the onlooker; whilst her former roseate hue and milk-white skin assumed a loathsome greenish tinge.
Seeing herself transformed into such a repulsive creature, Medusa fled her home, never to return. Wandering about, abhorred, dreaded, and shunned by the rest of the world, she turned into a character worthy of her outer appearance. In her despair, she fled to Africa, where, while wandering restlessly from place to place, young snakes dropped from her hair; that is how, according to the ancient Greeks, Africa became a hotbed of venomous reptiles. With the curse of Athena upon her, she turned into stone whomever she gazed upon, till at last, after a life of nameless misery, deliverance came to her in the shape of death, at the hands of Perseus.
From this point, we started looking into Perseus. This is the story below.
According to the myth, there once was a king named Acrisius, who had a beautiful daughter named Danae. The Oracle of Apollo told Acrisius that there would come a day when Danae's son would kill him; so he locked Danae in a bronze tower so that she would never marry or have children.
The tower had no doors, except for one very small window. Danae was very sad, until one day, a bright golden light came through the small window; a man appeared holding a thunderbolt in his hand and although Danae knew he was a god, she didn't know which one. The man said, "Yes, I am a god and I wish to make you my wife. I can turn this dark prison into a wonderful, sunny and blooming land."
Indeed, the horrible prison turned into fields as beautiful as the Elysian Fields themselves, but one day Acrisius saw light coming out of the small window. He told his men to tear down one of the walls. When he entered, he saw Danae smiling and holding a baby on her lap. This was Perseus. Acrisius was furious, so he locked Danae and baby Perseus in a large chest and cast them out to sea.
We then decided to look into Sirens, as mermaids are intriguing to us both and we have both watched documentaries about them in the past.
The Sirens were beautiful but dangerous creatures that lured the sailors with their beautiful voices to their doom, causing the ships to crash on the reefs near their island. They were the daughters of the river god Achelous, while their mother may have been Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope or Chthon. Although closely linked to marine environments, they were not considered sea deities. The texts mentioning the Sirens provide different opinions as to their number and their names; some mention two or three; others mention more.The Sirens were probably considered the companions of Persephone, daughter of goddess Demeter. The latter had given them wings in order to protect her daughter; however, after Persephone's abduction from Hades, Demeter cursed them. The Sirens' song was a beautiful, yet sad melody, eternally calling for Persephone's return.The Argonauts encountered the Sirens but successfully evaded them; Orpheus, who was on board, started playing his lyre so beautifully that the music completely drowned the Sirens' song. Another well-known encounter is that described in the Odyssey; Odysseus, advised by Circe, plugged the crew's ears with wax and ordered them to bind him on the mast of the ship. He also told them that no matter how much he begged, they should not untie him. When they passed near the Sirens' island, Odysseus started begging his shipmates to let him go, but none heard him; instead, they tied him even more. After they passed, Odysseus let them know that they were now in safe waters.
Looking into individual stories of myths and legends was really interesting and we looked at a lot more than I have put here, however we thought it would be better to make a list of all of the myths and legends we know, as the brief we want to create can't be too obscure as the concept wouldn't be as obvious.
This is why this mind map was created about all of the myths and legends that we could think of, and how this could be developed into solving a problem.
This is why this mind map was created about all of the myths and legends that we could think of, and how this could be developed into solving a problem.
The mind map is based on the different mythical creatures and stories that myself and Dan could think of. We don't want to research into any specific creature or myth at this particular stage as we want stories and creatures that lots of people will already know, as the concept of the project has to be very well thought out, but also not so obscure that nobody would understand it.
From this mind map, we have decided that the best routes to go down would be The Lost City of Atlantis. We decided this route as it relates to the ocean, which is a very current topic in terms of climate change due to the rising sea levels, the volume of plastic found in the ocean, and also the fact that the great barrier reef is currently dying. It's also relevant due to microbes recently being banned from cosmetic products.
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