Medusa´s Daughter

 

Inspired by the Greek myth of Medusa - punished by gods for being seducted in the Temple of Athena to have her hair changed into snakes - the third collection of poetry by Jane Rosenberg LaForge explores topics like freedom and inheritance of fate through the dynamic of the relationship between mother and daughter.

The force of the myth is transmutated into contemporary approaches. Is the myth an inspiration for the contemporary take? Does it make any sense to use the myth for the contemporary rendition? It is not too pompous to use mythology nowadays, even it has to do with the perfect freedom of poetic purposes?

It is not unexpected - at least, not for me - to use the myth and in fact, the constant reference to the Medusa across various poetic episodes added extra layers - particularly dramatic ones, to the poetic account. At a certain extent even matches the motherly reference, although a Medusa is the least one may expect from a mother figure. 

However I´ve feel sometimes the shadow of the Medusa too heavy and compelling the prose to attain a resemblance of Greek myth. Maybe I need to revisit the story of the Medusa and its literary reverberations but nevertheless it was an intellectually rewarding (poetic) challenge because it brought my anti-classical mind very far away from the comfort zone, at least twice - the second being on a poetic ride. 

But freedom is a matter of words too in the end, and the snaked-haired Gorgon may be a good background for a relationship that is always expected to be challenging. Medusa´s fate was sealed by the gods, but was it her fate and her mother´s also pre-determined by inheritance and genetics and the laws of the outside occurrences? LaForge is Jewish and there are references about it scaterred across the stories as allusions to inheritance of fate.