The historical enigma of the snake woman from antiquity to the 21st century

This text provides an exploration of the historical conditions that gradually defined subordinating symbols and conflictual values in social relations between the sexes.

It reveals how snakes and the gelid eyes of Medusa - the archetypical snake-woman - have reverberated across the visual arts and written sources throughout the ages in association with negative emotions: fear, anger, scorn, and shame.

The outcomes and implications of the disturbing correlation between the dangerous female gaze, the malignitas of the snake, and the lethal power of menstruation that have been woven through the fabric of the Western imaginary are analysed here.