History Channel, giving “Medusa” tomorrow night at 10 pm (with follow-up at 2 AM):
http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=477242
Here’s a link to The Spectrograph with an ugly picture of me on page 13 (along with one of my artixcles for The Spectrograph):
Wow, I’ve been watching the “Clash of the Gods” all day – I’m glad I remembered to check this thread again!!! Can’t wait!!! 
Just programmed it into my DVR. Got popcorn everyone?
Two hours to go…
VCR is set.
Dang! I’m about to go to bed. Ten p.m. is too late for somebody who has to be at work at six a.m. to stay up. I really hope I can get it on Hulu or whatever later.
Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon – is this your book?
Here we go…
w00t!
Looks like the Borg Queen.
Which one is Cal?
Stephen Wilk?
At the halfway mark… you’re doing an awesome job!! I always hated watching myself on tv- would nitpick the ever-living hell out of everything- but you should be really proud of this!
Did you meet Peter S. while you were there? He’s my new TV boyfriend (don’t tell Mike Rowe!).
(and yeah, CP, that’s Cal)
What’s with Perseus war paint?
Were you the one talking about how Zeus gave that woman a Golden Shower?
(seriously, great job!)
This reminds me of Norse mythology.
Sisters with knowledge of fate, giving an eye for knowledge, nymphs/Rhinemaidens, Persius, Siegmund.
You are doing well, Cal.
Wait, wait, wait… Did Cal just bring James Bond into Greek mythology?
Again, Norse mythology. The power of Dragon blood and Medusa’s blood.
Well.
1.) I’m delighted that they put so much of my book in there. I would’ve said, at least once, that much of this is conjecture (I do in the book), but maybe it wouldn’t play well on TV to do that. In any event, I don’t assert that my theories are proven truth.
2.) I don’t sound too bad. Pepper Mill has often enough told me that I speak too quickly in public, but I tried to slow it down and speak naturally, and i think I succedded.
3.) I think the camera adds 300 pounds. My god!
4.) Among the theories original to me that showed up were:
a.) The association of Zeus' coming as a shower of gold to Danae with the Perseid shower
b.) The appearance of the Gorgon (and its parallels) with the face of a corpse.
c.) The three Gaea and their stolen eye being inspired by the three-day period of Algol.
There's a lot more in the book (The Perseid shower is associated with the Graeae as well, Algol is also associated with the Gorgons, and the behavior of the stars also helped determine the part of the story about Andromeda and the Sea Monster -- which they leave out.
5.) They fastened onto the “Medusa was a lovely woman turned into a monster” school told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid liked this sort of story – he tells others like it – but it’s not true to the oldest roots of the story. In the oldest versions, medusa is one of three monstrous sisters, just like the Graeae. In fact, they’re sisters to the Graeae. But the story of the Once-beautiful Medusa is more tragic, and it lets them wrap up the story with her head going back to her oppressor, Athena.
6.) There were a few “huh?” moments:
a.) Danae shut up in a *tower*? I have no idea where they got that. Sources say that Acrisius shut her up in a bronze chamber underground.
b.) They left out, as I say, the whole Andromeda/Cepheus/Cassiopeia/Phineus/Sea Monster story. But I can understand -- they only have so much time.
c.) Acrisius killed by seeing Medusa's head at Polydektes' wedding? (Polydektes is the tyrant of Seriphos who wanted to marry Danae) No Perseus showed the Gorgon's head to the court of Cepheus and the Court of Polydektes, but Acrisius had an unsatisfying ending -- which is probably why they changed it. Learning that Perseus is after him, Acrisius flees Argos (not Mykenae) and Perseus pursues him. He catches up with him by pure chance at another wedding. Perseus competes in the athletic games at the wedding, and tosses the discus, which strikes Acrisius and kills him, purely by accident.
7.) Yeah, I linked him to James Bond – but I was quoting three previous writers who had done the same thing. The compaison is irresistable. As i say in the book, the multiplicity of magical weapons is suspicious. My ow suspicion is that various storytellers had given Perseus only one or two magical devices, but each one was too good to leave out. By the end of the story, the “canonical” version in Apollodorus has Perseus with the Magic Helmet of Invisibility of Hades, the harpe or magic sword, the flying slippers, and the shield. He has Hermes and Athena as divine helpers (and maybe Hades, too, through the helmet), and he gets help from the Graeae and the Nymphs. Athena, in some sources, is said to guide his hand. And he comes upon the Gorgons sleeping. By that point, he’s not much of a hero. The artwork defies the written story – Athena isn’t shown guiding his hand. In most depictions the Gorgons are NOT asleep. He’s usually shown without a shield,.not looking into it. If you pare down the number of magical weapons and helpers, I think you have the Story As Told. Look at that panoply of devices as a possible list of Alternate Versions.
8.) Yeah, Zeus came to Danae as a Shower of Gold. Ha Ha. Lots of those folks who gave us terms for sexual phenomena were themselves classical folks, or at least familiar with the myths. I’m not surprised that classical allusions worked their way into sexual vocabulary.
10.)Arthur B. Cook, the great mythologist of the early 20th century, suggested that Perseus might be associated with a meteorite shower – depictions of him and Danae being sealed up in a chest by Acrisius (not a boat, as shown) almost invariably show stars on the side of the chest. Cook thought this might be a reference to a meteor shower, and that it might be linked to his birth. I’m very surprised he didn’t carry this further and make the association with the Perseid shower, the most spectacular of the meteor showers. but perhaps he didn’t know that much astronomy.
11.) The association with Algol had been noted well before me by several persons, including the one who inspired me, Jerome Y. Lettvin of MIT. He deserves a lot of credit.
Pretty cool Cal. I have to admit my education in Greek gods is pathetic. Over the years I’ve tried to read a couple very basic books on the subject but always get lost and lose interest.
Did the same thing with the first episode of this series, but had to tune in to watch you. They did a pretty decent job of keeping it simple for folks like me.
Can you recommend a simple but good introductory book on the subject?