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Medusa and Freud Seokwoo Kwon (University of Seoul) There have been many pictorial as well as literary representations of Medusa from Homer to Freud, from Caravaggio and Rubens to René Magritte. The trite but widespread Freudian notion that Medusa mostly refers to female genitalia has not been under precise scrutiny. She has often been cited as one of the mythical feminine figures who advocates and reinforces the idea of psycho-analysis, one of whose main ideas centers around the notion of female castration and absence. Whether Freud interpreted Medusa's head as the one simultaneously bringing about castration and erection, it is true, however, that he contributed in the formation of negative Medusa. The head of Medusa per se has, however, no castrating function; castration rather comes from the sphincter, the male organ which alternates between inflation and detumescence through “repetition compulsion.” One can say, however, Medusa is still another name for female genitalia not because it signifies feminine hol(e)y absence, but because it incarnates the circular mystery of death and life.