Six Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
____, ___-____, 2027
7:30 - 9:00pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $170 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Throughout mythology, folklore, religion, and art, dangerous women appear with remarkable persistence. They turn men to stone, lure travelers to their deaths, practice forbidden magic, devour children, defy gods, and challenge the boundaries of acceptable femininity. From Medusa and Circe to Lilith, the witch, the vampire, and the femme fatale, these figures reveal the complicated relationships between femininity, sexuality, power, and fear.
This six-week course will examine the cultural history of the dangerous woman, exploring how female figures become monstrous, seductive, threatening, or transgressive, and what their stories reveal about the societies that imagine them. Drawing from comparative mythology, religious studies, folklore, art history, and archetypal psychology, we will investigate the ways female bodies, desires, knowledge, and authority have been represented across different historical and cultural contexts.
We will begin with the monstrous feminine, encountering figures such as Medusa, Lamia, and the child-devouring demons of ancient traditions. From there, we will turn to witches and sorceresses, including Circe and Medea, whose knowledge and powers complicate conventional distinctions between wisdom, danger, and transgression. We will also explore the seductive woman as seen in sirens, enchantresses, and the femme fatale, examining the relationship between desire and the fear of losing control.
The course also considers women who violate sacred or social expectations, from Lilith and Eve to historical women accused of witchcraft, and the ways religious and cultural authorities have shaped ideas about female obedience, sexuality, and deviance.
Throughout our discussions, we will examine how these figures have been represented and reimagined in visual art, literature, and contemporary culture. We will also consider why some dangerous women have become symbols of resistance, autonomy, and empowerment, even when their earlier stories carried very different meanings.
Ultimately, this course asks what makes a woman dangerous, who has the authority to define her as such, and why these figures continue to fascinate us.
Dr. Selena Madden is a mythologist, educator, and ritualist whose work bridges movement, myth, and depth psychology. With reverence for ancient wisdom and symbolic ritual, Selena facilitates journeys inviting participants to embody archetypal energies, rediscover their inner landscape, and reclaim the luminous threads of their own mythic stories.
Images: Edward Burne-Jones, The Baleful Head, 1885–1887; William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808.
Six Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
____, ___-____, 2027
7:30 - 9:00pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $170 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Throughout mythology, folklore, religion, and art, dangerous women appear with remarkable persistence. They turn men to stone, lure travelers to their deaths, practice forbidden magic, devour children, defy gods, and challenge the boundaries of acceptable femininity. From Medusa and Circe to Lilith, the witch, the vampire, and the femme fatale, these figures reveal the complicated relationships between femininity, sexuality, power, and fear.
This six-week course will examine the cultural history of the dangerous woman, exploring how female figures become monstrous, seductive, threatening, or transgressive, and what their stories reveal about the societies that imagine them. Drawing from comparative mythology, religious studies, folklore, art history, and archetypal psychology, we will investigate the ways female bodies, desires, knowledge, and authority have been represented across different historical and cultural contexts.
We will begin with the monstrous feminine, encountering figures such as Medusa, Lamia, and the child-devouring demons of ancient traditions. From there, we will turn to witches and sorceresses, including Circe and Medea, whose knowledge and powers complicate conventional distinctions between wisdom, danger, and transgression. We will also explore the seductive woman as seen in sirens, enchantresses, and the femme fatale, examining the relationship between desire and the fear of losing control.
The course also considers women who violate sacred or social expectations, from Lilith and Eve to historical women accused of witchcraft, and the ways religious and cultural authorities have shaped ideas about female obedience, sexuality, and deviance.
Throughout our discussions, we will examine how these figures have been represented and reimagined in visual art, literature, and contemporary culture. We will also consider why some dangerous women have become symbols of resistance, autonomy, and empowerment, even when their earlier stories carried very different meanings.
Ultimately, this course asks what makes a woman dangerous, who has the authority to define her as such, and why these figures continue to fascinate us.
Dr. Selena Madden is a mythologist, educator, and ritualist whose work bridges movement, myth, and depth psychology. With reverence for ancient wisdom and symbolic ritual, Selena facilitates journeys inviting participants to embody archetypal energies, rediscover their inner landscape, and reclaim the luminous threads of their own mythic stories.
Images: Edward Burne-Jones, The Baleful Head, 1885–1887; William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808.
