Medusa in the Romantic Era
The Head of the Medusa, painted by Peter Rubens was used by many artists during the Romantic Era to instill fear into the spectators.
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During the Romantic era, there were many opposing viewpoints on who Medusa was, or even what she was. Something that most Romantic authors did agree on however is that she was fascinating. For example, Pazz, an author who considered Medusa a universal symbol for horror, still admits that all her qualities are fascinating. Other authors during the same time period, such as Shelley and Goethe have this dark love for Medusa. Shelley, actually paints Medusa in a more humanizing lights than his other romantic counterparts. He considers her to be a victim of her society and Minerva, the goddess of culture, who transformed her golden hair into snakes the perpetrator. She is victimized by many authors because in reality, she was punished for something that was not her fault. She was raped by Poseidon, and got transformed into a gorgon for that. On the other end of the spectrum, authors such as Swinburne saw Medusa as an evil re-incarnation of Venus, the god of love. As varying as romantic interpretations may have been, it is important to note that she is seen as an object of admiration and desire by a majority of romantic poets, and authors( McGann).
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