Somewhere in Greece, a cursed creature remained hidden. Among all the monsters who inhabited the nightmares of the Hellenic, this was surely one of the most feared.
Many brave heroes dared to hunt this creature, but none ever returned. They said that this being was so hideous that no one could face it.
Her name was Medusa. But Medusa was not always like that. She once had been one of the most beautiful women ever to walk the earth.
She was born of the union of two primordial sea deities, Phorcys and Ceto, and she came into the world as a normal child.
Medusa had two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. They were Gorgons, creatures that combined women and serpent traits.
Since childhood, Medusa was devoted to the goddess Athena, and when playing with her sisters, she always pretended to be the goddess Athena, while her sisters loved to be the villains.
Together with the girls, she also played with a boy called Euthycles, who was Medusa’s best friend.
The two were inseparable. Medusa grew and became more beautiful every day. Medusa’s charms made the young Euthycles an easy target for Eros, the god of love.
In love, Euthycles declared his affection for Medusa. The young lady deeply loved the boy, but she had the dream of becoming a priestess of Athena, and could not cave into the temptation of love.
When she reached the appropriate age, the young woman started her preparation to become an Athena priestess.
The temple’s apprentices needed to have pristine conduct and discipline. All their acts could be reflected in the goddess’s reputation.
One of the major requirements for becoming a priestess of Athena was absolute purity. They were to mirror themselves in Athena.
Therefore, the young women should remain virgins, just like their goddess, who never surrendered to the influence of Eros and Aphrodite.
Medusa became a perfect priestess, maybe even too perfect. The rituals conducted by Medusa kept attracting more followers, delighted with the way in which that beautiful young woman conducted each of her activities.
Medusa had beautiful fluttering hair. With her movements, it mesmerized those who stared at her.
A gullible man dared to say that Medusa’s hair was more beautiful than Athena’s. The goddess, from the top of Mount Olympus, noticed a commotion in one of her temples.
She realized that many were not there to worship her, but rather to see the charming priestess.
Athena resisted the temptation to do anything against those who shifted their focus from her to Medusa.
The goddess knew that, although this was wrong, the young priestess was not to blame.
After all, she was only doing her work in the best way she could. Meanwhile, at Mount Olympus, Poseidon noticed the goddess’s restlessness.
The sea god and Athena had a major rivalry. They disputed the right to be the city’s patron god, which was the capital of the Attica region.
The goddess was the winner of this dispute, and in honor of her new protective goddess, the city changed its name to Athens.
Poseidon did not accept defeat well, so he was waiting for the right moment to take revenge on the goddess.
The god noticed that Athena was focused on her most beautiful and gracious priestess. He decided that this beautiful young woman could be an instrument of his revenge.
Poseidon plotted to tarnish Athena’s reputation, striking her most unblemished follower. In the meantime, Medusa kept carrying her normal life, unaware that she was being watched by the Olympic gods.
Medusa walked by the sea, and lurking, concealed among the waves, the god of the seas followed her.
She heard someone say her name. The call came from the ocean. Poseidon emerged from the sea in all his paramount glory.
The god used his charm to seduce Athena’s priestess, but Medusa, albeit stunned by all his splendor, did not forget her vows and rejected Poseidon’s advance.
He did not accept the rejection and grabbed Medusa’s arm. She reacted unexpectedly, and violently hitting him in the face, managed to get rid of the god.
Medusa ran to Athena’s temple, the only place where she felt safe. But Poseidon, consumed by lust, went after the young woman.
Poseidon was almost reaching her when the brave Euthycles stood between the god and Medusa.
Despite his bravery, Euthycles represented no obstacle to the god, who, with one blow, threw the young man away.
Medusa stepped inside the temple of her goddess and knelt before her statue. She asked for protection when she heard the god of the seas’ heavy footsteps approaching.
The god approached the encircled young woman, who cried out for help. Poseidon possessed her on the goddess’ altar by force.
The god happily left the temple. His revenge had gone better than planned. Besides having corrupted the best priestess of Athena, he also degraded her beloved temple, which the goddess deeply treasured for its purity.
Medusa felt ashamed and filthy when the goddess Athena took the form of her statue and furiously blamed the priestess.
Athena said that if it had not been for her flamboyant presence, which diverted men from the path of virtue and purity, and for her vanity, which made her irresistible, none of that would have happened.
Her temple would have remained immaculate, and her honor as a goddess would not have been diminished.
Athena decided to punish the priestess, who was now impure and guilty for the dishonoring of the temple she was to care for.
The night arrived, and Euthycles regained consciousness after the strong blow he suffered. He then began to search for Medusa.
He heard her cry in the temple of Athena. Arriving there, he encountered Medusa sitting on the ground, crying in pitch-black darkness.
She asked him not to come near because she did not want to be seen like that.
Concerned, her friend nevertheless approached, offering words of comfort. But when he touched the young woman’s shoulder, a serpent bit his hand.
Medusa frighteningly turned, and the two youngsters looked at each other. The young Euthycles became a stone-made statue.
In despair, Medusa wept, embracing the statue of her best friend. Not to hurt anyone else, she ran away.
But during her escape, she was sighted by some residents of the city. Those who looked into her eyes became petrified.
People told each other about that horrible snake-haired creature. A group was assembled to hunt the creature.
These men were found days later, completely petrified and with terrified semblances. Medusa had no intention of hurting anyone.
She simply wanted to defend herself from unfair aggression. She decided to hide in a region that had been abandoned by its inhabitants for centuries.
There, she found an ancient temple in ruins, which she turned into her hiding spot.
Many warriors attempted to capture the Gorgon for glory, but none ever returned. Isolated, Medusa kept losing her remaining humanity.
Her reputation as a terrible monster became legendary. Medusa survived by hunting small animals and rodents.
One of her prey led to an unexpected reunion. Medusa encountered an ancient bust, which represented the goddess Athena.
She realized that those ruins had once been one of the first temples to give shelter to the goddess.
This discovery revived her ancient habits. Medusa started to care for the temple and to exalt the glory of the goddess, the dilettante daughter of Zeus, the supreme god of Olympus.
Albeit living a miserable existence, the young woman still showed her nobility. In her heavenly residence, the goddess did not fail to notice the honorable acts of her former priestess.
She realized that her actions could not be justified by vanity, since no one could witness those acts.
And she felt sorry for having enforced such a cruel and irreversible punishment on the girl.
While conducting one of her many rituals, Medusa heard the steps of another invader. Medusa’s bestiality reemerged, and she prepared to face another opponent.
The daring warrior walked cautiously in the creature’s abode. While she prepared the ambush. Sneaking close to the warrior, she was stunned when noticing that he was carrying Athena’s shield, the sacred Aegis that had once belonged to Zeus.
Athena’s shield was so polished that it reflected like a mirror. And using the reflection, the warrior realized that the monster was behind him.
With a sharp blow, the young warrior severed Medusa’s head from her body. Medusa was dead, and her blood kept dripping to the ground.
The warrior, anonymous until that point, would go down in history under the name of Perseus.
After completing his labors, Perseus returned to Athena her Aegis, and also gave her Medusa’s head.
What few knew was that Medusa carried Poseidon’s divine seed. And from her blood, Chrysaor was born, the warrior of the golden sword.
Not only that, another beautiful creature, a winged horse, also emerged. The majestic Pegasus was the purest of all creatures, embodying all the original purity that had been stolen from his mother.
Many believed that the help Athena provided to Perseus when she handed him her precious shield was another act of retaliation against Medusa.
Actually, she only wished to free the young girl from that dreadful existence, which had been unjustly imposed upon her.
Athena glorified Medusa by adding the Gorgon’s head to her shield. The image of the loyal priestess was now eternalized beside the goddess she loved so much.
