"Heather Dale's songs express something that honors tradition, but in keeping with the best of traditions they break new ground." WDVR FM (USA)
Medusa
Heather Dale Lyrics
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Then she would cry all night
Nobody thinks that really they're being cruel
When they suggest that I should try to look like them
As if God loved the pretty ones best
Damn 'em all - I create my own perfection
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection
My garden's full of pretty men who couldn't stay away
Notice the ones who all like to criticize
Are the ones trying to hide
Why would I sell my soul to be one of them
Better to love the me within behind the skin
I choose to be a goddess inside
Damn 'em all - I create my own perfection
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection
Damn 'em all - well this dog will have its day
My garden's full of pretty men who couldn't stay away
Damn 'em all - I create my own perfection
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection
Damn 'em all - well this dog will have its day
My garden's full of pretty men who couldn't stay away
Damn 'em all!
Heather Dale's song "Medusa" is a powerful anthem about self-love and acceptance. The opening lines "Mother would tell me I was a pretty girl / Then she would cry all night" suggest that the singer has internalized conflicting messages about beauty and self-worth from a young age. She then reflects on society's narrow definition of beauty and the pressure to conform to it, calling out those who suggest that she try to look like them as being cruel, oblivious to the harm they cause. However, despite this rejection and criticism, she refuses to compromise herself for their standards, instead choosing to create her own definition of beauty and uphold it as a goddess inside.
The song also sheds light on the hypocrisy of those who criticize others for not conforming to societal beauty standards. The singer notices that these critics are often the ones trying to hide their own insecurities and flaws, and ultimately decides that it's better to love the person she is on the inside rather than selling her soul to be one of them.
Taken together, "Medusa" encourages listeners to embrace and love themselves for who they are, rather than trying to fit into an ideal that is impossible to achieve. It is a powerful message that resonates with people of all ages and backgrounds, and speaks to the need for greater acceptance and understanding in our society.
Line by Line Meaning
Mother would tell me I was a pretty girl
My mother used to call me beautiful, but it didn't mean much since she would cry all night.
Then she would cry all night
Despite my mother calling me beautiful, she still cried all night for some reason.
Nobody thinks that really they're being cruel
People don't realize how hurtful it is when they suggest I try to look like them because they think they're being helpful.
When they suggest that I should try to look like them
People suggest I change my appearance to look more like them, as if that's the only way to be pretty.
As if God loved the pretty ones best
People act like God loves those who are conventionally pretty more than the rest of us.
Damn 'em all - I create my own perfection
I don't care what others say about my appearance, I decide what I want to look like.
Damn 'em all in the face of their rejection
I refuse to let others' negative attitudes towards me change the way I see myself.
Well this dog will have its day
I will prove to everyone who ever doubted me that I am worthy of respect and admiration.
My garden's full of pretty men who couldn't stay away
I have attracted many men who find me attractive and appreciate my true self.
Notice the ones who all like to criticize
People who criticize me are often insecure themselves.
Are the ones trying to hide
People who criticize me are usually hiding something about themselves they don't want others to see.
Why would I sell my soul to be one of them
I would never change who I am just to fit in with a certain group of people.
Better to love the me within behind the skin
It's better to focus on loving who I am on the inside instead of changing how I look on the outside.
I choose to be a goddess inside
I choose to see myself as a powerful and beautiful goddess on the inside, regardless of outside appearances.
Damn 'em all!
I refuse to let others' opinions bring me down and will continue to be confident in myself.
Contributed by Carter G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Absolute Nobody
There are, essentially, three main variants of Medusa's backstory. 1: Medusa is, and always was, a Gorgon, one of three Gorgon Sisters, monsters born and raised. This is the oldest version of her, at least as far as I know. In this version, Perseus (I think it's Perseus) killing her is a-ok, morally speaking, because she's just a garden variety monster.
2: Medusa was a human who was raped by Poseidon and transformed into a Gorgon by Athena as punishment for defiling her temple (Athena's temple, that is). Sometimes, there are added details, like Medusa being a priestess of Athena, which makes the betrayal even worse, but that's the basic outline.
This version, and the next one, is much more popular than the first, both now and long ago, for reasons I'll get into later. That being said, one of the main reasons both versions have survived and thrived up until now is that Medusa the character is much more interesting than Medusa the garden variety monster.
3: Essentially, this version of the story is the same as Version 2 but Athena transforms Medusa into a Gorgon in an attempt to save her, either from Poseidon in that moment or from future assaults.
Version 2 is popular among people with a bone to pick with the gods, which happens to include a lot of people. They see it as proof of their views on the Olympian Gods, which characterizes the Gods as selfish, arrogant, uncaring towards consequences or human life, and just generally bad or deeply, deeply flawed people.
Of course, since we're talking about the Olympian Gods, there's a lot of proof backing those views, which is another reason this version has remained so popular.
I personally think Version 3 is, if not the more popular version, certainly the more interesting one, because of the effects it had. Version 3 saw a dramatic shift in Medusa's characterization, to the point that people, especially women, prayed to her for protection and justice, specifically protection from men and justice for crimes perpetrated by men.
There are even, to the best of my knowledge, small (and mid-sized) temples devoted to Medusa that were effectively safe zones for women.
Nicole Swisher
Mother would tell me I was a pretty girl
Then she would cry all night
So what I'm getting from this is that Medusa was born ugly as opposed to cursed with homeliness by a raging Athena. And that growing up, she felt constantly oppressed by the weight of others' judgments and expectations of her, leading her to eventually declare...
Why would I sell my soul to be one of them?
Better to love the me within, behind the skin
I choose to be a goddess inside
Basically, "it doesn't matter if I'm ugly on the outside; I know I'm a beautiful person worthy of praise within." Quite a healthy mindset to have... Unfortunately, it seems that Medusa was unable to convince herself that she wasn't bitter, hurt, and angry by everything she had endured as a result of others' hypocrisy and ignorance -- and that that same bitterness led to her taking a rather poetic form of revenge on those who used to shun, criticize, and ostracize her for her appearance.
My garden's full of pretty men
Who couldn't stay away
Damn 'em all!
By immobilizing and preserving the visages/bodies of beautiful men (presumably those who had come to slay her), Medusa creates her own twisted version of beauty: the kind she'd always envied, the kind they'd always judged her for not possessing. "Oh, aren't you just the loveliest thing... I think I'll keep you. Here -- you see what happens when you're beautiful?! You see what happens when you have a pretty face, with pretty skin and pretty hair?! Truly, is it better to adhere to the whims of aesthetes?! Your beauty is only skin-deep... so allow me to preserve it for you -- forever!"
This is a very interesting version of the myth. I've never heard it told that Medusa was born with a vile face and snakes for hair -- I quite like it!
/pseudophilosophicalrantoffmybad
Zeph
+MySerpentine Hello :) Blessed Be, goddess
I agree and disagree, though ~ Athena has been portrayed as the one who engineered the cowardly assassination and beheading of Medusa by the hero Perseus. This is a false story. One must never believe any kind of patriarchal fable especially any one that deals with the rape, denigration, banishing, beheading, baby-killing, one Goddess turning against another, etc. You know exactly what I mean.
The thing is that Athena and Inanna (let's take these two Goddesses as examples ) were both USED by patriarchal scribes, to illustrate the takeover of the patriarchal religions from the Goddess religions. One can identify the same pattern all over the ancient world, as previously venerated Goddesses, and especially Dark Goddesses, were deliberately diabolized so as to justify the idea of supreme male deities and either subservient, subordinate Goddesses within all-male dominated pantheons, given suitable new characters and roles which suited the warrior cultus; or they were really demonized and cast out, both literally and figuratively.
This process included the vandalism and destruction of Goddess Temples and the destruction of the cultural heritage of the human race. The tales of heros slaying Dragons are actually tales of patriarchal mobs and soldiers, directed by priests, who would chop down the sacred groves and destroy everything remotely Pagan. The slaying of the Dragon also refers to the murder of Druids and the Priestesses of the Goddess Temples, as initiates of old call themselves serpents and dragons, when reborn in Spirit after their initiation process and the raising of the Kundalini.
Inanna and Lilith are twin sister Goddesses; much as Nephthys and Isis, and Athena and Medusa. Inseperable twins of Light and Darkness, Summerlands and Netherworld, Life and Death, Sun and Moon, action and potential, dark matter and rock crystal...
So in retrospect I agree with you in a sense but lets say that my critique of Athena is reserved only for the false way in which Athena was portrayed by the patriarchal Pagans in classical Greece.
Athena is really also a Serpent Goddess - Kundalini Shasti - and as Lilith, is still very much misunderstood. Originally the Gorgoneion was the primary symbol of the Goddess religions - it is the Caduceus of Wadjet after all - and Athena had the symbol on Her shield not because she was somehow helping the male gods gain ascendancy over the spirituality of humankind but simply because Medusa is Athena;s dark side. Medusa is our Dark Lady of the Netherworld and the Gorgoneion is a very ancient protective symbol, used to warn off any would be attackers on any level by devotees.
Athena is not any male puppet, nor is Inanna- except of course if one believe in fables and fantasy stories denigrating the Divine Feminine such as the Huluppu Tree of Gilgamesh and the second tale of Creation in Genesis for example..
Poseidon was Medusa's consort until this God of the Oceans was also changed by scribes into a raping god, the same as Zeus. Again, rape is a key patriarchal alteration of the original legends, which would never denigrate our Goddesses. All gods were originally goddesses anyway.
The Gorgons are the priestesses of the Triple Goddess of the Moon. The Furies were always the winged Goddesses of Justice, until, again, this role was assumed by male gods and so the story was made up , in exactly the same way, that Athena would then subdue these Goddesses, Her own sisters.
I have sooo learnt not to trust anything that speaks badly about the Divine Feminine of infinite names. After all, every woman is a goddess. It's just that because so many believe in lies against themselves and the Divine Feminine, and Women's Spirituality as a whole, that they don't even know it yet.
I love your name! It makes me want to say something like; Isisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!
Absolute Nobody
There are, essentially, three main variants of Medusa's backstory. 1: Medusa is, and always was, a Gorgon, one of three Gorgon Sisters, monsters born and raised. This is the oldest version of her, at least as far as I know. In this version, Perseus (I think it's Perseus) killing her is a-ok, morally speaking, because she's just a garden variety monster.
2: Medusa was a human who was raped by Poseidon and transformed into a Gorgon by Athena as punishment for defiling her temple (Athena's temple, that is). Sometimes, there are added details, like Medusa being a priestess of Athena, which makes the betrayal even worse, but that's the basic outline.
This version, and the next one, is much more popular than the first, both now and long ago, for reasons I'll get into later. That being said, one of the main reasons both versions have survived and thrived up until now is that Medusa the character is much more interesting than Medusa the garden variety monster.
3: Essentially, this version of the story is the same as Version 2 but Athena transforms Medusa into a Gorgon in an attempt to save her, either from Poseidon in that moment or from future assaults.
Version 2 is popular among people with a bone to pick with the gods, which happens to include a lot of people. They see it as proof of their views on the Olympian Gods, which characterizes the Gods as selfish, arrogant, uncaring towards consequences or human life, and just generally bad or deeply, deeply flawed people.
Of course, since we're talking about the Olympian Gods, there's a lot of proof backing those views, which is another reason this version has remained so popular.
I personally think Version 3 is, if not the more popular version, certainly the more interesting one, because of the effects it had. Version 3 saw a dramatic shift in Medusa's characterization, to the point that people, especially women, prayed to her for protection and justice, specifically protection from men and justice for crimes perpetrated by men.
There are even, to the best of my knowledge, small (and mid-sized) temples devoted to Medusa that were effectively safe zones for women.
Nana
You are correct!
I'm pretty sure Version 2 and some elements of Version 3 were made by Ovid, a Roman poet who portrayed the gods are selfish and cruel, mainly because he wanted to marry this girl, but her dad, a figure of authority, did not let him. So he hated all authority, including the Gods. I think it was also to say 'Hey, those Greek gods? Terrible. Our Roman gods would never do this!' thought I'm not too sure on this one.
PyroGothNerd
Actually, Medusa was only raped in the Roman version. In the Greek one, it was consensual.
Also, you forgot the variant where Aphrodite transformed her because she pulled the classic "claim to be prettier than Aphrodite" blunder
Absolute Nobody
@PyroGothNerd Never heard those variants. Neat.
PyroGothNerd
@Absolute Nobody That last one is the one that makes it into the kid friendly Greek mythology books, for obvious reasons
Clara Bates
this song makes me feel powerful
TitularHeroine
Hell YEAH it does
Woas Hellzone
people saying she's a serial killer for the "my garden's full of pretty men"
as she in the song sees it, she is delivering divine judgement. she says she's a goddess and is spreading damnation to those who are heretical towards her
David Hoover
Depending on the story, it's not always clear if the Medusa can control her "turn people to stone" power. Sometimes she can interact with people if she wears a veil or something to hide her face, but anyone who sees her eyes get zapped. Other times, it only occurs at will. So it isn't clear if it is the fault of Medusa or the "pretty men who couldn't stay away" that they are turned to stone.
Alasha Bastin
I love this song. Her voice is gorgeous, the instrumentals are beautiful, and the lyrics have an amazing message.