You Say It's 'Medusa', I Say It's 'Zeus'

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sabah Newspaper, 12 October 2015)


Let's give this one to the British bookies for resolution.

An argument has arisen over whether the marble statue in
front of the temple at the Aizanoi Antique City in Çavdarhisar
district of Kütahya depicts Medusa or Zeus.

Archeologist Metin Türktüzün, the director of the Kütahya
Archeological Museum, asserts that the statue's profile conforms
with Medusa's, noting that "according to mythology, Medusa
was one of three siblings and is rembered as a monstrous girl.
So that's why an ugly girl has been depicted. But in the view of
the historian Hesiodos she was a world-class beauty. The legend
has it that Medusa suffered the wrath of the Goddess Athena, who
filled Medusa's beautiful hair with snakes and made her face ugly.
The hair and the face on the statue conform with this."


Aizanoi is just outside the district center of Çavdarhisar in center.

However, Adil Özkan, an historian at Dumlupınar University
claims that the face on the statue belongs to Zeus. He stated that
"actually, the statue is a homage to Zeus and since it was placed
at the very top of the temple it was meant to be seen from afar.
But during the 1970 Gediz earthquake it fell to the ground and
since the officials at the time couldn't put it back on top of the
temple, it was placed in front of Zeus's temple.  The statue
suffered a bit of damage from the earthquake and I was a
witness to its restoration. According to the historian Hesiodos,
the ladies' man Zeus could take an appearance he desired and
still get all the nymphs."  


              Kütahya province