Medusa,
I hope you’re safe and restful wherever you might be. I hope now you’re far away from all the chaos and suffering this world had to inflict on you. For the gods were never in your favour, the odds were never in your favour.
This is to the most beautiful maiden of Athena’s temple, who possessed such sumptuous tresses that even Venus begrudged.
You were a faithful devotee of Athena, determined to worshipping and admiring the goddess of war and wisdom forever. You believed in her power, but the divinity never lent a hand to you. The goddess of wisdom betrayed you when you were assaulted by Poseidon in front of her in the temple, the goddess of war refused to do anything when you were screaming and begging for her help. Instead, she cursed you, she turned your beautiful locks of hair into deadly, venomous snakes, she turned your innocent eyes into a gaze that could turn living beings into lifeless stones. Athena turned you into a gorgon, she turned you into a monster.
But why? What was your fault? Was it that you were a faithful devotee of hers? Or was it that you were forcefully assaulted by the God of Sea? Your fault was that you believed Athena would help you, you trusted the goddess but she turned you down.
You were terrified. Terrified by the hideous hissing of snakes in your ears. You tried to run away from the sound, mindlessly wandering around in search of someone who could help. But no one could because as soon as you set your glance on them, they turned into a stone. Cold, hard sculpture of rock, completely drained out of life. You were utterly perplexed by what had happened. You had just been assaulted, the pain had not surpassed yet, and another wave of trauma struck you hard like a thunderbolt.
You were banished out of the city and were forced to live on an island of Sarpedon, for you were labeled as a threat to the society. You lived there with your two other gorgon sisters, taking revenge on everyone who stood a foot on your island. They won’t let you live in peace, even on a secluded island, far away from civilizations. Men kept coming across to kill you and you kept destroying them, until he came.
You see that the gods wanted you to be slain and they started conspiring against you. They sent Perseus to achieve the task, armed with all kinds of godly weapons. Zeus gave him an adamantine sword, Hades a helm of darkness to hide, Hermes lent him a pair of winged sandals to fly and Athena gave him a polished shield. Fully equipped, Perseus charged into your cave. You and your sisters were fast asleep when Perseus attacked. With the unfair assistance of all the godly items, he decapitated you.
Medusa, your story is extremely tragic. You were an incredibly courageous women. None of it was your fault. It has always been like that. There are many Medusas in this world, who are blamed and punished for a crime they never commited, who are secluded from society and tagged as monsters instead of those who assaulted them. There are many Athenas, who blame the victim and never question the assaulters.
You are a symbol, a role model for all of us to look up to. Perseus is termed as a hero but I never thought of him as a hero. You are the real hero. You will not be remembered as a dismal, snake headed monster but as a brave and courageous women, a symbol of feminism.
~Viplavi
Consequences of Overthinking 