The Malediction of Gorgon Medusa by the Goddess Pallas Athena

"What ails you, girl?" Hera, the First Lady of Olympus, asked as she came upon Athena, the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft, patroness of her city, leaning gloomily against the white marble of the Ionic column of the Olympian palace, gazing into the depths where the human world lay.

"I had a problem," uttered the goddess resignedly after a moment of silence, "Poseidon chose my temple to have an intimate encounter with his mistress. Of course, I couldn't bear such a disgrace, so I cursed that woman. It was Phorcys's daughter Medusa if you want to know."

"So what? Did she defend herself?"

As a specialist in pursuing her dashing husband's mistresses, Hera was interested in the experiences of other women. Although she could give lessons in this subject, she was always willing to learn something new.

"No, the curse was perfect. Just unpolished. I didn't want to make her a monster, everyone would have avoided her. The curse was this: whoever looks into her eyes will be petrified."

"That's really good," Hera praised, "Better than a monster. They're made of stone, and she's angry because they didn't get to anything."

"That's what I wanted too," Athena nodded grimly. "It just sort of went wrong."

"The whole city got petrified?" horrified Hera at the thought of a multitude of lusty statues, which, while they might please archaeologists in the future, would cause an uproar among the gods and heroes in the here and now, as more of their worshippers and admirers were harmed, and that couldn't be left alone.

"Except for one cat and two dogs, no one. Not that she is in want of suitors, on the contrary. There were plenty. It's just... You know what our Ancient Greek fashion is like. Chitons loose over the shoulders, covering practically nothing..."

"So?"

"Did any of those guys look her in the eyes?"

⇐ october story ⇑ table of contents december story ⇒

"Things just happen. What the hell."
Didaktylos*
* Terry Pratchett. Hogfather

Welcome to my world. For the longest time I couldn’t think of right name for this place, so I left it without one. Amongst things you can find here are attempts of science fiction and fantasy stories, my collection of gods, bogeymen and monsters and also articles about things that had me interested, be it for a while or for years. (There is more of this, sadly not in English but in Czech, on www.fext.cz)

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