Inspired by the myth of Medusa - and many recent re-tellings of it - I dived into Greek mythology. As we all know it, Medusa's myth tells about a woman transformed in a monster with snakes as hair, who can turn into stone whoever look into her eyes. But this is just one way of telling this story: a way that centers the hero and make of Medusa the monster to be killed.

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In recent years, many scholars and authors re-wrote the myth centering Medusa as a powerful woman who can defend herself (not to forget is the meaning of the word Μέδουσα, Médousa which in Ancient Greek means "protectress", "keeper",  from μέδω, médō, "protect").

As Medusa's myth, many other stories in Greek mythology tell about female figures that are too angry or too voracious, too ambitious or too wild, too skillful or too curious, too wise or too beautiful (i.e. Scylla, Charybdis, Aracne, the Sirens). Common thing is that they all deserve to be contained, punished and/or transformed into something other than human, something monstrous. Monstrous is not only the body, but also those very feelings, desires and behaviors that don't belong to femininity.

In those depictions the body is never fully human, parts of it are considered monstrous or belong to the animal kingdom or have supernatural powers: their full humanity is denied.

What interests me in this context is the display of the body in parts. Parts that instead of being the monstrous thing, become the protagonist and the hero of the story.