Tag: chthonia

Medusa is well-known in literature, art, and film as the snaky-haired woman who turns anyone who looks at her to stone. But Medusa, like similar monstrous ancient female beings, represents two different things to the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The Erinyes are often viewed as ladies of punishment, or manifestations of guilt, with their snaky hair and monstrous appearance. But the Erinyes were not originally monsters, and have a beneficent side as well.

This episode explores the origins of the term “nightmare” and its connection to the feminine “demonic”, and the phenomenon of sleep paralysis (also called Night Hag Syndrome) from a mythological and psychoanalytical point of view.

Explores the folklore behind the alleged first wife of Adam, who is associated with seduction, temptation, and producing demons with unsuspecting men on one hand, and is a symbol of feminine autonomy on the other.

We look at Babylonian, Akkadian and Sumerian goddesses of love, war, and the underworld, with a particular look at the ancient story of the Descent of Inanna.