Medusa/Medulla
- CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR...Books One and Two
The scene where Lucy and Amber unpack Dr Nadia Parom’s crates of curios is the first time we’re presented with a range of Aedean objects, so it was my primary opportunity to define the rules of how that world related to ours. It was effectively opening-night for the lore underlying the series. #nopressure
There is a lot of duality in The Mythic. Aedea/Earth. The Light/The Dark. Lucia/Knight. I wanted to symbolise that contrast, and also indicate that we were about to step through the looking glass.
The first object out of the packing crates is a marble bust of Medusa. It is familiar – a Gorgon as they’re usually depicted – human face, snakes for hair.
The next object Lucy removes is also a marble bust but it is a “serpentine-like female face with scaly skin, almond snake-like eyes and a twisted pile of small pudgy arms instead of hair”.
I chose Medusa as my familiar object because she’s iconic – both in name and form.
She was also easy to spin in a way that achieved my goal of showing the way inspiration might warp as it travels from Aedea to here. Medulla is a simple flip of Medusa’s human and serpentine attributes.
But What About Her Name?
In our mythology, Medusa has two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. Using either name felt wrong for a creature who was Medusa’s obverse. I looked into the etymology of the Medusa moniker, but fell down a rabbit hole of over-thinking.
I decided to keep it simple and play with the word itself. Except that wasn’t simple at all.
Anadrom? Medusa reversed is Asudem. No.
Anagram? You can make some words that look likes names – my favourite is Mad Sue. But no.
The answer came with how Nadia Parom speaks when her true form is revealed, with lotsss of hissssing.
My thought process went something like this: Medusa has an S in it. If the S was a symbol for the snakes in her hair then what letter might symbolise baby-arms-for-hair? An L sort of looks like a bent arm. Medula? That looks incomplete. Perhaps a double-L? Perfect!
The medulla oblongata is also part of the brainstem, which provided a nod to the mind and ideas in general and a silent caution to the girls that they would need to perform some mental gymnastics to cope with what was about to come their way.
Bonus Round
Dr Nadia Parom, of course, is a study in dualism herself, part-snake/part-human, an Aedean hiding underneath a human illusion, a villain who pretends to be an ally, an agent for the mastermind and, for those who’ve read Horses of Doom, the mastermind herself.
One thing I love about this scene is how it confounds Amber, our resident know-it-all. “It must be a fake,” she declares. But her embarrassment at not knowing an answer gives way to curiosity and wonder. Lucy, however, shows complete disinterest. She doesn’t care, she just wants to finish the job and leave. There’s duality there too – diametric reactions to being confronted with challenging ideas.
