TITLE:
Medusa’s Gaze as a Tool for Criticism and Personal and Social Transformation—The Role of Hades’ Helmet, Athena’s Shield, Hermes’ Sandals, and the Muses’ Bag in the Transformative Function of Imaginary Space/Time
AUTHORS:
Pasquale Scarnera
KEYWORDS:
Psychoanalysis, Anthropology, Semiotics, Perseus, Medusa, Athena, Personal and Social Transformation, Multidisciplinary Integration
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.7,
July
21,
2026
ABSTRACT: The myth of Perseus and Medusa has stimulated the imagination of numerous artists, who have developed variations on both the reference symbols and the styles and content of its narrative, employing different languages, from poetry, sculpture, and painting, to contemporary cinema, beginning in the 8th century BC. This work, therefore, aims to identify the possible determinants of this persistence, employing a model that integrates psychoanalysis, anthropology, and semiotics, placing its use also in the context of the historical transformations that the symbols and content of the narrative have undergone over time and space.