THE MEDUSA-GORGON OF MERENI (REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA) AND HER MYTH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/jaha.12.4.2025.1450Keywords:
Mereni burials, Gorgon-Medusa, Scythians, mirror, social identitiesAbstract
Based on an important discovery at Mereni (Republic of Moldova) – a massive mirror with a handle depicting the Gorgon-Medusa (Argos type) – we propose a critical reassessment of interpretations of the representation of Medusa and the gorgoneion (the severed head) as archaic apotropaic symbols. The mirror was unearthed in a rich Scythian burial associated with an adult woman, very likely a shaman, alongside a contemporaneous grave interpreted as that of a male warrior. The handle bears the face of the Gorgon, a choice seemingly intended to repel malevolent forces that might endanger the object’s owner. Beyond its aesthetic value as a toiletry item, the mirror may have held religious significance, serving as an attribute of priestly status – an interpretation supported by the presence of a divination kit, a whip, a horse, and other ritual paraphernalia found in the same funerary context. Thus, the burial at Mereni, dated to the late 5th century BC, offers a compelling opportunity to revisit the world of shamans, the myth of Medusa, and its distant reverberations far beyond the Mediterranean cultural sphere that gave rise to it.
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