- Published: September 10, 2022
- Updated: September 10, 2022
- University / College: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
- Language: English
- Downloads: 8
Shunned and shut out because of her pride, Medusa’s tale can assuredly be compared to the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith. Medusa was a very beautiful mortal, who had many suitors, although, she was very prideful about her appearance. Later on, Medusa got turned into a hideous monster by Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. Her story ended in a great deal of tragedy and she was full of regret. The story of Medusa can be compared to the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith for many reasons. The Titanic was the very first ship, carrying thousands of people, to travel from England to New York.
The captain, Edward John Smith, received many important messages to turn the ship around, but out of pride he kept them to himself. His story also ended in a tragedy, killing thousands of innocent people, including himself, on the contrary he made an honorable choice by choosing to go down with his ship. Over time there have been many different descriptions of Medusa’s debut. One version of her story was that a long time ago, she lived in a place where the sun never shone. One day she decided to ask Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, if she could travel to a place where she could see the sun.
When Athena refused to grant Medusa’s wish, Medusa came to an unfair conclusion that Athena made such a harsh decision because she was jealous of Medusa’s appearance. Athena, being very angry at Medusa for her conclusion, turned Medusa into a hideous monster, topped with menacing snakes replacing her hair. Another version would be that Medusa was a beautiful mortal with really long swooping hair, who was courted by many men. She went to visit Athena’s Temple, and got distracted while there. Poseidon was also at the temple, he is the god of the sea and earthquakes, and he seduced her.
Athena, seeing what Medusa had done in her temple, got very disappointed. “ She (Athena) was angered and punished her by turning her hair into snakes and cursing her by making her so ugly that whoever looks at her eyes would turn into stone. ” (greekmythology. com) The last version of Medusa’s crazy story is that Medusa went with a group of people on a tour of Athena’s Temple. They were only halfway done with the tour, and the entire time all Medusa had done was brag, brag, and brag some more about how much prettier and perfectly perfect she was.
She was very prideful about it, every culpture or painting of Athena she saw she would say something like “ My, this is a beautiful temple. It is a shame it was wasted on Athena for I am so much prettier than she is. ” (dltk-kids. com) Out of pure anger, and humiliation, Athena told Medusa that in truth she was prettier, and with that turned Medusa into a horrible monster, and cast her off to an island to live all by herself, in misery. The most important part about all of those stories combined is that because of Medusa’s pride, she was turned into a monster and cast away from all society.
The captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, received many messages to turn his enormous ship around because of iceberg warnings, but he didn’t want to show that he was a failure, although everyone encouraged him to listen to the messages. Edward John Smith’s first warning occurred on April 24, at 9 AM, the message said that there were small icebergs a few miles north from the ship. The Captain didn’t read the message until 10 minutes later. He made a selfish decision and decided that no iceberg could stop his amazing ship from sailing to New York.
His second alert he received the same day at 1: 40 PM, warning them that there were more icebergs than before. His third warning occurred a couple minutes later, it read that there were very large icebergs blocking their path to New York. Surprisingly enough didn’t want show failure and thought that his ship would hold through, he was too prideful about it. If you haven’t guessed it already, right before midnight Edward John Smith’s amazing Titanic struck an iceberg. The Titanic got a small gash in the right side, big enough to stop the ship from keeping afloat any longer.
Slowly but surely the great Titanic began to sink. “ The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia… death could be expected in less than 15 minutes. ” (modestoradiomuseum. org) The awful story of Medusa and the horrid story of the Titanic were both perfect examples of the horrifying things resulting in pride. Medusa’s pride led to disaster. Not only was she transformed from a beautiful woman to a horrible, monstrous monster with snakes replacing her hair, and having the involuntary power of being able to turn any mortal to stone if they look into her freakish eyes all due to so called ‘jealousy’ of Athena.
She was also cast away from all of society to live with other horrifying monsters for the rest of her life, and was shunned by the public. She was left all alone, to survive the rest of her horrid life. Edward John Smith’s story stemming from pride also led to disaster. Just because of his prideful choices he killed thousands of people. He took the honor of ‘going down’ with his Titanic, and all of its innocent people that deserved the right to know about those warning messages to some extent. If the Captain wouldn’t have died in the Titanic he would of most likely be living in regret for most of the rest of his life.
He would have had to live the rest of his life with the glares, stares, and crazy looks of people who recognized him. He would also have to live the rest of his life knowing that just because of his pride; he killed all of those thousands of people. Basically, both stories ended with the same result; disaster due to pride. Both, Medusa and Edward John Smith, let their pride take over them, and they made pretty bad decisions due to it, and were full of regret until their last breaths. The story of Medusa can be compared to the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith for many reasons.
The Titanic received many messages to turn the huge ship around, but out of pride he kept them to himself, resulting in the death of thousands of people. Medusa was transformed from a beautiful mortal into a hideous monster with snakes replacing her hair, and eyes so dark and deep that if any mortal looks into them, they will be turned into stone. Both stories ended in disaster just because of their pride, and if the captain of the Titanic had lived he would most likely have been full of regret, along with Medusa.
