The Perseus and Andromeda myth is so important that I decided I wanted to try to re-draw my earlier attempt to depict the scene, in order to make the figures more dynamic.
Above is today's version of the earlier drawing, the earlier version of which was included in the previous post from two days ago.
That previous post included some discussion of the celestial foundations of this particular scene, including a star-chart juxtaposed with the original inspiration for this particular arrangement of the figures, from an illustration by William Hogarth which was done in the 1700s.
You can also view an ancient Roman painting of this same mythological episode, preserved within the famous villa of Boscotrecase, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius Mons in AD 79. Importantly, that ancient Roman artwork appears to me to be patterned upon the constellations Perseus and Andromeda and Cetus, rather than upon Aquarius and Sagittarius and Cetus as in the case of the composition by William Hogarth.
For further discussion of Vesuvius, Pompeii, and the very obvious celestial patterns found in other ancient artwork preserved among the ruins buried by the eruption of that volcano, please see "Ancient mosaic with esoteric celestial elements discovered during recent Pompeii excavations" and also "The Divine Spark descends to the Mortal Realm."
Sadly, you won't find any of these celestial connections to myth or ancient artwork discussed in any academic settings, despite the fact that I have tried to inform various university professors and scholarly publications about these patterns at various times over the past years and have thus far been met with general apathy.
In order to add greater dynamism to my depiction, I decided to try to add more twisting between the three "major blocks" formed by the head, the rib-cage/upper torso, and the hip-bones in each figure, following the recommendations and illustrations of George Brant Bridgman (1865 - 1943).
I also increased the immediacy of the threat from the approaching Ketos, while reducing some of the background detail in order to try to improve the focus of the scene.
Previous discussions, including this video, have explored some of the immensely important messages that the ancient myths involving Perseus, Medusa, and Andromeda may be trying to convey to us.
The message of this myth-cycle clearly has much to do with the proper relation between the infinite or immaterial realm, and the finite realm of matter within which we now find ourselves sojourning for a time.
In my 2014 book The Undying Stars, I wrote:
If the ancient Gorgons and Medusa images depict some aspect of cymatics -- in which normally-invisible waves of energy take on visible, physical form -- then they must fall into the same category into which Dr. Waller believes Stonehenge falls: the ancient depiction of the "petrification" of wave energy, an acknowledgement that all that is physical is actually a form of wave energy made "static." How appropriate that the dreadful power of Medusa and the Gorgons was to turn to stone all who gazed upon them!
[. . .]
It is worth examining more closely the belt of intertwined serpents worn about the waist of some of these ancient Medusa figures, very suggestive of the intertwined strands of DNA (many have noted the similarity of the serpents on the caduceus to the double-helix of DNA, but the connection between Medusa and DNA may be equally significant). It is through the action of DNA that information is turned into matter -- the coded information in the twisted strands telling the proteins to make the parts of the body that will become an elephant, a palm tree, or a man or woman. Thus DNA is very closely related to the mythological function of the Gorgons -- it takes "potential" and "freezes it," just as the electrons in the famous double-slit experiment leave the realm of "pure potential" and "choose" a form, becoming a particle, and thus becoming a particular thing.
The clear connections between the depictions of Medusa and the action of DNA, and between the depictions of Medusa and the wave-interference patterns which make possible the creation of holograms (but only after the invention of lasers), are simply astounding.
[. . .]
The Gorgons and Stonehenge depict the petrification of wave energy -- perhaps a metaphor for the imprisonment of the spirit in the physical. The techniques of ecstasy and the knowledge depicted in the celestial sacred scriptures and traditions of the world pertain to the opposite end of this process -- the release of the spirit from the illusory bounds of the apparently static, of the physical, of the holographic. 122 - 123.
Thus, as discussed in the video linked above, the quest of Perseus is in fact a metaphor -- a metaphor for a quest which each and every one of us must face: It is a quest to avoid being turned to stone.
The plunge into this world, in which spirit is immersed and entwined in the realm of matter, confronts us in this life with forces working relentlessly to promote the lie that the material is all that exists, working relentlessly to try to reduce us and everyone else we meet to the sum of our physical and material nature.
As I have written many times in the past, the attempt to deny the spiritual and divine nature within ourselves and others defines the very nature of cursing and the very opposite of blessing.
The dreaded power of the Gorgons in the ancient story of Perseus can be seen as personifying this persistent and pervasive tendency of the world, to try to reduce us to the merely physical.
The sea-monster called "the Ketos" in some ancient tellings of the Perseus and Andromeda story can probably be seen as yet another manifestation of the same relentless downward-drawing opposition we face during this journey through the material realm -- the lower realm, associated with the lower elements of earth and water (in contrast to the upper elements of air and fire, associated with spirit).
Our bodies, after all, are composed of a mixture of earth and water (thus, the mortal clay) -- the great majority of which is water.
The stories of both Medusa and Andromeda can easily be seen to involve the mistaken elevation of the physical and mortal beauty to a rank above the spiritual and invisible realm -- a frequent error described in the ancient myths, and one which always meets with swift and terrible punishment from the divine powers.
In Andromeda's case, the culpability appears to lie entirely with her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, rather than with Andromeda herself (it is Cassiopeia who boasts that Andromeda is more beautiful than the very Nereids of the sea, resulting in the retribution of the gods in the form of the monster Ketos, sent by Lord Poseidon). Thus we see the principle illustrated which shows that inversions of the proper order between matter and spirit, committed by parents or by those in authority -- even if well-intentioned, as the pride of Cassiopeia in her daughter Andromeda's beauty almost certainly was well-intentioned -- can lead to negative consequences which impact the innocent party.
We saw the same lesson illustrated in the story of the disastrous consequences of the insulting treatment of Chryses by Agamemnon, in the first book of the Iliad, consequences which impacted the Achaean warriors who had all with one voice called upon Agamemnon the king to honor the request of Chryses to release his daughter from captivity, but who nevertheless bore the retribution of the god Apollo for the king's behavior.
So how do we apply the lessons of the ancient myth of Perseus, who succeeds in his quest to defeat Medusa without being turned to stone himself, and who also rescues Andromeda from being chained to the rock (another metaphor for our human condition) and from being devoured by the sea-monster?
Well, as we see in the action of the myth, Perseus would most certainly have failed in his quest if he had not been attentive to the instructions given to him by the wisdom-goddess Athena and the messenger-god Hermes.
Perseus listens to the gods: he is attuned to the divine realm.
And the gods provide him with resources -- the very gifts he will need in order to successfully defeat the power of the Gorgons.
Without assistance from the divine realm, from the invisible realm, we cannot hope to successfully negotiate our own encounter with the Gorgons.
And yet despite the fact that they provide Perseus with the resources he will need in order to be successful in his quest, Perseus still must act himself. He himself must face the Gorgons. Hermes and Athena equip him with everything he will need, but they do not go slay Medusa for him. This too is a picture of our situation here in this mortal life.
A major aspect of the message of this myth, I am convinced, has to do with the recovery of our relationship with our own essential self, from whom the weighty forces of this world work most incessantly to separate us.
We have access to everything we need -- if we avail ourselves of the resources available to us in the infinite realm, which is always present, no matter where we are and no matter what circumstances we face.
