This is cringey, horrid boomer-humour, objectifying not just any woman, but the woman who, above all others in Greek mythology, was most literally objectified. Not only is the other commenter absolutely correct that it is sexualizing a victim of rape, but she spends the vast majority of her involvement in any version of Perseus’ story as a gory trophy of murder turned into a tool of expedience.
Letting all that aside, this is nothing more than making light of catcalling and sexual harassment with a fucking pun. Even the user-submitted title is tasteless trash, since the answer is clearly 'because they’re staring at her ass"
Disgusting and creepy.
ETA: Pandora’s Jar should be required reading in secondary school in every anglophone country.
But it’s FUNNY to make jokes about sexualizing women!!1! /s
Medusa was a rape victim, but ok.
Can you quote that? Wikipedia only has a mention of Ovid and not a Greek story.
In some accounts, such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses(written about 8 CE), Medusa was not born hideous and was, in fact, renowned for her beauty and most admired for her hair. Her loveliness became her undoing when she was pursued by an enamored Poseidon, who violated her in the very refuge to which she had fled—a temple to Athena, whom Medusa served as a priestess. (In some versions, Poseidon’s seduction of Medusa was consensual, rather than an assault.) Enraged by the desecration of her sacred space and the breach of custom—as a priestess, Medusa was required to remain chaste—Athena meted out a cruel punishment: a curse that left the once beautiful woman with a head of snakes instead of hair and a face that turned all those who looked at it into stone.
Thanks. Difficult to make a judgement call as Ovid really isn’t that ancient or Greek. Some people state that ovidian literature is not a retelling of oral tradition but stories based upon them. Remembering my latin courses from school this seems to ring a bell. After all Shakespeare also wrote theather based on some of the very same myths and legend.
It’s still a common retelling of Medusa’s story and I think it’s crass to joke about sexualizing rape victims.
It might, but I didn’t recall it and I have no indication that OP made a rape joke. It’s just a bad pun.
It’s objectification of women at best and making fun of a rape victim at worst.
Do Stheno and Euryale exist in this Roman version?
Do Stheno and Euryale exist in this Roman version?
They do. In all versions, they are different than their sister Medusa in that they are true immortals.
The Gorgons Stheno and Euryale were immortal, whereas their Gorgon sister Medusa was mortal.[8] The only story involving them is their pursuit of Perseus after he had beheaded Medusa. The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles (c. late seventh – mid sixth century BC) describes the two Gorgons’ pursuit of Perseus, as depicted on Heracles’ shield:
Perseus himself, Danae’s son, was outstretched, and he looked as though he were hastening and shuddering. The Gorgons, dreadful and unspeakable, were rushing after him, eager to catch him; as they ran on the pallid adamant, the shield resounded sharply and piercingly with a loud noise. At their girdles, two serpents hung down, their heads arching forward; both of them were licking with their tongues, and they ground their teeth with strength, glaring savagely. Upon the terrible heads of the Gorgons rioted great Fear.[9]
While the “great Fear” rioting upon the heads of the Gorgon, in the passage from the Shield quoted above, might possibly be a vague reference to hair made of snakes, the poet Pindar makes such a physical feature explicit, describing the two Gorgons, just like their sister Medusa, as having “horrible snakey hair” (ἀπλάτοις ὀφίων κεφαλαῖς).[10]
According to Apollodorus’ version of their story, all three Gorgons had the ability to turn to stone anyone who looked upon them. And when Perseus managed to behead Medusa by looking at her reflection in his bronze shield, Stheno and Euryale chased after him, but were unable to see him because he was wearing Hades’ cap, which made him invisible.[11]
Euryale’s lamenting cry, while chasing Perseus, is noted in two sources. Pindar has Athena create the “many-voiced songs of flutes” to imitate the “shrill cry” of the “fast-moving jaws of Euryale”.[12] While Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, has the fleeing Perseus “listening for no trumpet but Euryale’s bellowing”.[13]
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