I watched and did the whole “I know of this guy but don’t really know him” thing to my husband.
It was very good. I’ve been enjoying the series as a whole. When I was a kid, I liked to read greek myths, but haven’t in a long while. I couldn’t place the Athena cursing a priestess thing from my memory of the basic stories, but from this thread know it’s a more recent invention.
The face paint thing puzzled me for a bit too, but I theorized it as representing the players masks in an actual Greek play, kind of a nod to tradition.
Very, very cool.
snip
LOL - me too. I got my duaghter to watch it with me and I was like “I know one of the guys who’s on here - well I don’t really know him…”
First of all, great job Cal. I enjoyed your contribution to the program, and they gave you lots of screen time.
As far as the facepaint, the producers have divided up the ‘teams’ visually: the humans get the weird face paint, the evil gods get the white contacts and - I forget who gets the blue contacts, is that the demi-gods or the beneficent gods? If you watch multiple episodes, they’re consistent with these visual cues. I may have mis-named the categories because my memory sucks, but I watched a couple in a row on dvr and stand by my basic theory.
Just finished this - I was out of town for 10 days - and enjoyed it. I too am struck by how very similar the carvings are from all over the world. However, I think it is more likely that Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is right and that what we are seeing is proof that actual beings from other planets traveled the world in their space ships contacting all these various cultures… well maybe not. 
Congratulations and fine job!
This bothered me - they implicated the human Medusa served in the Parthenon in Athens, but that wasn’t built until the 5th century BC, WAY after the Medusa myth started. I’d never even heard the beautiful-women-turned version at all, but I’ve never picked up Ovid, so there you go.
I had fun saying to the husband - “Hey! I kind of know that guy!”
Medusa is showing neext on Saturday September 26 at 8 AM on the History Channel:
http://www.history.com/search.do?action=scheduleSearch&searchText=Clash+of+the+Gods
I found it interesting that the Greeks used to use the Medusa face as sort of an ancient “Mister Yuck” symbol.
It wasn’t just the ancient Greeks – people all over the world used a very similar face for very nearly the same purposes (and I devote quite a bit of my book to just that). The Gorgon face was used as a shield device not only in Greece (and Rome), but also among the Classical Maya, and among the Iatmul of New Guinea. The Gorgon face appears not only on Graeco=Roman Aegis, buton armore in China and MesoAmerica. It shows up on tile antefixes in the Classical Mediterranean, but also in China and Japan.
One question I wanted to answer was – “why the same face?”
“Chariots of the Gods.”
:rolleyes:
I still don’t see amny other dates besides the 26th listed, but I had a thought.
Until now, I’ve said that I have a quasi-Bacon number of three, since I’ve appeared onstage in two productions with someone who has a Bacon number of 2.
Now I have a less-quasi Bacon number. I’ve been on TV with people who have appeared in films with people who have appeared with Kevin Bacon. I think that counts, even though i haven’t been in a movie. The guy who does the makeup and has appeared in several of the Clash of the Gods episodes – Tate Steinseik – has a Bacon Number of 3, giving me a Bacon number of 4. I have to look through the credits and verify that he was in this particular episode – I know that he’s been in two or three others (He’s the Minotaur in Theseus)
Although the History Channel seems to have disabled the video, I see that it’s up on other video sites, including YouTube. This might not be legal, and I don’t know how long it will last, but here are the YouTube links:
Clash of the Gods: Medusa on YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4
Part 5
The show will be on this Saturday at 8 AM (why so early?) on the History Channel.
It’s also scheduled for two times on Monday, October 5:
http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=477242
9 AM and 3 PM
Just a bump because the show’s on again in half an hour. Also at 3 PM (or possibly at 2 PM – I’ve found that time listed somewhere as well)
I don’t see any other listings for broadcast, but they’ve re-enabled the show on the History Channel site, and it’s playing on YouTube and other sites as well.
I just found Clash of the Gods on Wikipedia!
No scheduled re-broadcasts of Medusa listed yet. It looks like they took off Columbus Day as a holiday, just like they did with Memorial Day.
They have, at long last, sent me my copy of the show.
I don’t see any scheduled re-broadcasts for the foreseeable future, which seems to be two weeks. I’ll bet they run a marathon on Halloween or Thanksgiving or something.
Lack of exposure is getting to you, huh? Launch a giant balloon or something.
I just got around to watching the episode on my DVR.
So, if he is shown without the shield in the artwork, then how did he find her and kill her? I always thought that looking into the shield was the key ingredient to his success.
Here’s a fan wank for ya, based on no evidence whatsoever and no knowledge of the body of mythology… anyway, if I had to make up an explanation, I would say that he somehow managed to use that eye he stole. He’s carrying it in the star formation, isn’t he? It’s sort of simultaneously Medusa and the eye. That seems kind of interesting and suggestive.
The single eye, in addition to his pre-existing two eyes, also reminds me of the third eye. Did the Greeks have a concept of the third eye?
I’m completely blathering, but I’m curious and intrigued.
Only if I can be aboard.
I know – but look at the old artwork. He’s almost never shown looking at her in his shield. In fact, he’s rarely shown with the shield. He’s never shown without his harpe, though - his sword. Or his flying sandals.
It is interesting, and one I’ve never heard before. Maybe you can use it in a story or something.
Here’s a modern wrinkle I’ve seen in more than one place – Perseus uses his shield to reflect Medusa’s image back to her, and she turns herself to stone.
Not as far as I know.
That’s okay – in the free association of blathering you might hit on something new, or something forgotten. There’s great positive value in blathering. But only if it’s followed up by good detective work. Hare-brained ideas are a dime a dozen, but corroborated hare-brained ideas can be very valuable.
OK, but if he doesn’t have a shield, then how does he do it? Are there other recorded versions of the story that shed some light on the artwork?
BTW, my 575 page Ph.D. diss. with copious footnotes is my credential that I can, in fact, painstakingly corroborate my ideas. I reserve my blathering and wild speculation for anonymous message boards. 
It’s been a while since I’ve read the originals, but I’m certain that some say that “Athena guided his hand”. For the most part, though, the texts wimp out and have him behead a sleeping Gorgon. The artwork shows him with face averted cutting off Medusa’s head. Some show Hermes nearby, which might suggest that he guided Perseus, but none of them show anybody holding Perseus’ hand while he cuts.