Many parts of the myth suggest, through its underlying darkness, the tragic nature of Medusa. Although the gift that Medusa received was Athena's gift to Asclepius of two drops of Gorgon's blood. One of the drops has the power to heal and even resurrect, while the other is poisonous. However, it is up to literature and the arts to reveal the close relationship between opposites and the "innocence" of the victim. In this sense the myth of Medusa is revealing. In his study The Mirror of Medusa (1983), Tobin Siebers identified the importance of two elements, namely the rivalry between Athena and the Gorgon, and the motif of the mirror. According to Ovid (Metamorphoses, IV. 779 ff.), the reason for the dispute lay in the abduction of Medusa by Poseidon inside the temple of the virgin goddess. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The goddess supposedly punished Medusa by transforming her face, making Medusa an innocent victim for the second time. However, another tradition, used by Mallarmé in Les Dieux Antiques (1880), emphasized a more personal rivalry: Medusa had boasted that she was more beautiful than Athena. Everything suggests that the goddess deemed it necessary to distinguish herself from her negative double to assert her own identity. There are numerous common characteristics. For example, serpents are the attribute of Athena, as illustrated by the famous statue of Phidias and indicated by some Orphic poems which call it 'the Serpentine'. Furthermore, the hypnotic gaze is one of the characteristics of the 'blue-haired' goddess. -green eyes', whose bird is the owl, depicted with a fixed gaze. Finally, because he has attached Medusa's head to his shield, in battle or in anger he takes on the terrifying appearance of the monster. Thus, in the Aeneid (11, 171), he expresses his anger by letting flames come out of his eyes. These observations intend to demonstrate that Athena and Medusa are the two inseparable aspects of the same sacred power. A similar claim could be made about Perseus, who retains traces of his association with his monstrous double Medusa. Using his decapitated head to turn his enemies to stone, he spreads death around him. And when he flies over Africa with the trophy in a bag, due to a sort of negligence, drops of blood fall to the earth and transform into poisonous snakes that reduce the lethal power of Medusa (Ovid, op. cit., IV. 618) .Two famous paintings illustrate this close connection between the hero and the monster. Cellini's Perseus resembles the head he holds in his hand (as demonstrated by Siebers) and Paul Klee's L'esprit a combattu le mal (1904) portrays a complete role reversal: Perseus is painted full-face with a terrible expression, while Medusa turns aside. In this game of doubles, the theme of reflection is fundamental. It explains the process of victimization to which Medusa was subjected, and which falls within the scope of the superstition of the "evil eye". The way to respond to the "evil eye" is to use a third eye - the one that Perseus cast at the Graiae - or to deflect the evil spell using a mirror. Ovid, in particular, underlines the significance of the shield in which Perseus could see the Gorgon without being transformed into stone, and which was given to him by Athena. Everything indicates that the real weapon was the mirror. This is how Calderón and Prevelakis interpreted him, but also Roger Caillois in Méduse et Cie (1960). It was Ovid who established the link with Narcissus, a myth he made famous. It seems that the same process of victimization is taking place here. The individual is considered the victim of his own reflection, which absolves the executioner (Perseus, the group) of any guilt. This association of the two myths (and also the intention to assign blame) appears in a.