- Apr 12, 2018
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I kinda remember a Version where Poseidon had fallen in love or rather was love struck with medina/medusa and his wife got jealous and cursed her so her most prominent feature, aka her beautiful hair turned into snakes which also turned men into stone.Yup, Ovid fabricated it in his "Metamorphoses." But the classical Greeks also shifted away from Medusa being ugly/hideous. The earliest concrete evidence is Pindar's Pythian Ode 12 from 490 BCE ("fair-cheeked Medusa"), and she was depicted as attractive/beautiful on many vases starting about 40-50 years later.
Roman society was simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by the idea of incest. It was considered "incestum" (not pure/impure) behavior. Generally you couldn't get away with it unless you were powerful...if you weren't, you got socially ostracized, or worse. And among the elites alleging your political opponent practiced incest was very damaging if there was anything that appeared remotely inappropriate.
Even at that it applied mostly to your direct ancestors, descendents, and siblings including half- and step-siblings or by adoption. But once you got to third-degree consanguinity (ex: uncle+niece) it started to get distasteful-but-allowed, and more acceptable as the degree of separation got larger.
"Incestum" covered a whole lot of other things as well. I remember something about a Roman senator getting charged with incestum by sneaking into an female-only religious ceremony dressed in drag. He didn't do anything sexual, just snuck in to witness it.
I am pretty sure that in that version medina was the highpriestess of Poseidons wife aswell.