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cave through which we reach the Underworld, which may be compared to the womb of the
birthmother” (Dexter 39).

Sigmund Freud wrote about Medusa from a new perspective. Freud discusses the fear
Medusa provokes in people from the perspective of phallic and yonic imagery. He claimed that
Medusa was terrifying to man because she represented castration. Freud argued that decapitation
was seen as synonymous with castration for men, stating that:

The terror of Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something.
Numerous analyses have made us familiar with the occasion for this: it occurs when a
boy, who has hitherto been unwilling to believe the threat of castration, catches sight of
the female genitals, probably those of an adult, surrounded by hair, and essentially those
of his mother (Freud 264).
Freud believed that the hair on Medusa’s head was phallic imagery. Upon seeing Medusa’s face,
the onlooker, typically a man, becomes “stiff with terror,” he turns to stone (Freud 264). The
phallic symbolism is present here as well as in how “becoming stiff means an erection” (Freud
265). In becoming stiff or erect, the onlooker is actually consoled, for while Medusa may
symbolize castration, his erection reminds him that he is not castrated (Freud 265). This fear is
not only of castration, though, but also of female sexuality. Man fears being overpowered by
women in all spheres of life; therefore, when women express their sexuality outside of the realm
of male pleasure, anger and fear ensue (Dexter 39).
Women’s bodies and sexuality have been both powerful weapons and horrible curses for
them. There are stories of mighty warriors who ran in fright when surrounded by women holding
up their skirts: “An abundance of female nakedness can overcome even the mightiest warrior”
(Dexter 39). In Rabelais, it is told how a woman held up her skirt, exposing her vulva when

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