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Snake-haired monster

Benjamin and Riley talk about Vincenzo Gemito's Medusa, 1911: This is from an imaginative tour at the Getty Center: The Supernatural in Art. Created by Getty Museum.

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Video transcript

(Middle Eastern music) - [Benjamin] It's just, like, crazy for someone to have snakes for hair. Hi, I'm Benjamin. - [Riley] Hi, I'm Riley. Medusa is a woman who has hair like snakes and fangs and glowing eyes. Every person who would look at her would be turned to stone. It looks like she's transforming into Medusa, and you can see a little bit of fear in her face, like she doesn't know what's going on. - It looks almost like a Spiderman transformation meets werewolf. It catches your eye, and it's like, what's she going through? I feel sorry for her at this stage because she just wants to be the beautiful woman that she was before she got cursed. Someone named Perseus defeated her by looking at her through the reflection of his shield so he wouldn't get turned to stone. Then he cut her head off. Even when she died, it could still petrify people. - [Benjamin] Medusa's head, after it got cut off, it's just lying around, and pretty much not doing anything. The snakes are still alive, and it's still slithering around. She's sad that her head got cut off. And she's desperate for any reason to get it back onto her body. (Riley hisses) - [Riley] That would be like a sound effect that she would make, 'cause I think that she may have morphed with the snakes a bit.