Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish painter well known for his extravagant, colorful treatment of mythological subjects, painted this depiction of the gorgon Medusa in the early 1600s. According to Greek myth, the Gorgon sisters were cursed by Athena after the wisdom goddess caught Poseidon having a tryst with the oldest, Medusa, in Athena's temple. (Totes awk.) The Gorgons's new, cursed form, with venomous snakes for hair, was so ugly that it turned those who saw them to stone. Eventually, Perseus beheaded Medusa, saving himself from her petrification effect by only looking at her in the reflection of his polished shield. It is at this moment that Rubens depicts her severed head, with her still-writhing snakes curling and fighting among themselves. 

The head lies on a sparsely-vegetated rock ledge, blood leaking from her neck. The snakes are joined by other poisonous, noxious creatures, such as scorpions, newts, and spiders. Although Medusa herself is dead, the snakes are still fighting among themselves, biting and coiling around each other in a scene of chaos and fury. One even sinks its fangs into Medusa's forehead. Vividly depicted, of all shapes, types, and colors, the profusion of venomous reptiles even includes the mythical - a two-headed snake, which may be the amphisbaena. One appears to be giving birth, and others are being formed from droplets of Medusa's blood. Some locks of her natural hair (one of the features often mentioned as her most beautiful before her transformation) are visible underneath the snakes, complementing the conflicting imagery of birth and death. The face itself appears shocked and pallid, teeth slightly bared and the whites of the eyes showing. Red highlights show on the face, reflected from the vivid gore below. The effect is disturbing and openly shocking.

Other depictions of Medusa were rare in this time period; Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci both painted convex, circular shields depicting her severed head, and paintings of her were placed at the entrance of buildings for centuries as a way to ward off evil. More recent philosophies propose that Medusa represents the fear of castration, or the meaninglessness of the universe (really). Philosophers will say anything.