Medusa: In the Mirror of Time

Leeming (English, emeritus, Univ. of Connecticut; Myth: A Biography of Belief) writes as the biographer of the mythical creature Gorgon Medusa, who is viewed through a mirror of time spanning from the myth's ancestral roots in pre-Grecian civilizations to the present day. Leeming grapples (to the point of ironic literary petrification) with representing Medusa because some portrayals spring out of inaccurate or incomplete interpretations of the classical version of her character. He is concerned with "whether a myth exists and must be examined as told in the particular period of its admittedly gradual development, or whether the narrative element of a myth continues to develop over time along with the interpretations of it" and his writing waffles from redundant to verbose, using language that leans toward generalizations. The lack of annotations is substantially problematic.