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Jennifer Maestre - “Medusa”
Category: Body adornment.
Amulet bag with snake for lid.
Peyote stitch, brick stitch, right angle weave and invented stitch on some of the snakes.
Medusa is a creature from Greek mythology. She was once a beautiful maiden whose prized asset was her luxurious head of hair. As so often happens in the Grecian myths, her pride was her downfall. She dared to compare her beauty to that of the goddess Athena. Athena punished Medusa by transforming her hair into a mass of writhing, hissing snakes. Medusa became so hideous that any beast or human who saw her instantly changed to stone, and her dwelling was surrounded by her victims.
The great hero Perseus was commissioned by king Polydectes of Seriphus to destroy Medusa. Since no one could look directly at her without turning to stone. Perseus cleverly slew her as she slept by looking at her reflection in the polish of his golden shield. He decapitated her and proudly carried her head as a trophy to king Polydectes.
Bullfinch's Mythology mentions that Medusa was known as a Gorgon. Gorgons were female personifications of the "white-crested" waves of the sea. This association with the sea may account for the depiction of Medusa's gushing blood from her severed head as coral in art works such as Benvenuto Cellini's famous statue "Perseus and Medusa" which stands in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy.