ŷ������

“I’m nobody’s sidekick,�� Annabeth growled. “And, Percy, his accent sounds familiar because he sounds like his mother. We killed her in New Jersey.��
Percy frowned. “I’m pretty sure that accent isn’t New Jersey. Who’s his��? Oh.��
It all fell into place. Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium—the lair of Medusa. She’d talked with that same accent, at least until Percy had cut off her head.
��Medusa is your mom?�� he asked. “Dude, that sucks for you.”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

“And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved.”
― Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

“You read any Greek myths, puppy? The one about the gorgon Medusa, particularly? I used to wonder what could be so terrible that you couldn't survive even looking at it.

Until I got a little older and I figured out the obvious answer.

Everything.”
― Mike Carey & Peter Gross, The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

“There is one question that devours me still. Why didn’t I close my eyes?”
― Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

“personal well-being serves solely to excavate within your soul a chasm which waits to be filled by a landslide of dread, an empty mold whose peculiar dimensions will one day manufacture the shape of your unique terror”
― Thomas Ligotti, Noctuary

“Sometimes, not even folding yourself into the smallest, littlest shape is enough. So you might as well stay the size you're supposed to be”
― Jessie Burton, Medusa

“I transformed Medusa,' Athena continued, 'so that she would have protection against all those who would try to harm her.'
'That's bullshit. You didn't give her a choice, did you?' Lore bit back. 'And now history remembers her as a villain who deserved to die.'
'No. That is what men have portrayed her as, through art, through tales. They imagined her hideous because they feared to meet the true gaze of a woman, to witness the powerful storm that lives inside, waiting. She was not defeated by my uncle's assault. She was merely reborn as a being who could gaze back at the world, unafraid. Is that not what your own line did for centuries, staring out from behind her mask?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Lore

“The sea gods keep their secrets deep; they always have.”
― Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

“Medusa's mouth twisted. "I would rather be remembered for what I did, what I said, whom I loved, than how I met my end.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“One of the talents of the [late] great Steve Jobs is that he [knew] how to design Medusa-like products. While every Macintosh model has had flaws (some more than others), most of them have has a sexiness and a design sensibility that has turned many consumers into instant converts. Macintosh owners upgrade far more often than most computer users for precisely this reason.�� (p.98)”
― Seth Godin, Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing thing for You.

“I'd never known a change that wasn't monstrous.”
― Jessie Burton, Medusa

“There is peace here, as there always is by the sea. Even for those who have come, as Medusa did, to hate it.”
― Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

“By the time Sthenno reached her, [Medusa] was completely in darkness again. But the sun shone on the snakes, and it shone on her.”
― Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

“There is no perfect trinity, for three connotes competition. Power struggles. Favoritism and loneliness. We were almost not a trio; although now that she is gone, neither of us feels like a duo. We are not twins, nor will we ever be. Our third was the center, and when we lost her, we also failed each other, collapsing inward upon ourselves. A broken triplet. Thrice blessed. Thrice cursed.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear

“Danaë chose to survive. She chose to be brave, and perhaps she also chose revenge, for she named her son Perseus, the Destroyer. Do ewes call their lambs such?”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“The Gorgon Medusa presents herself to us here and now, requiring us to be fully present, to listen deeply—past the noise of accumulated judgments—to the Ancient Wisdom that is our true inheritance. As the Great Awakener, She reminds us of our mortality and encourages us to reclaim whatever has been silenced or diminished within us while we are privileged to be alive. We are admonished to have the courage to act and speak what is true, to trust ourselves to hold her gaze and know we will not be turned to stone.”
― Joan Marler, Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom

“I had hurled my anger and hatred at the world, spreading misery in a vain attempt to stifle my own. I should have expected it to be thrown back in my face, shouldn't I? After all, violence only ever breeds more violence.”
― Rosie Hewlett, Medusa

“I transformed Medusa," Athena continued, "so that she would have protection against all those who would try to harm her."

"That's bullshit. You didn't give her a choice, did you?" Lore bit back. "And now history remembers her as a villain who deserved to die."

"No. That is what men have portrayed her as, through art, through tales," Athena said. "They imagined her hideous because they feared to meet the true gaze of a woman, to witness the powerful storm that lives inside, waiting. She was not defeated by my uncle's assault. She was merely reborn as a being who could gaze back at the world, unafraid. Is that not what your own line did for centuries, staring out from behind her mask?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Lore

“I remember the thing
that I saw on Tumblr,
how people with trauma
will sometimes reexpose
themselves to it,
salt in the wound
to stay alive.

I am tired
of salting the wound -
I am ready
to salt the earth.”
― Olivia A. Cole, Dear Medusa

“The fascination with Medusa did not diminish at the end of the Greek Classical Era. She continued to function as a lightning rod for prevailing cultural attitudes. During the Greco-Roman period, images of Medusa were reproduced for wealthy patrons on mosaics and sculptural reliefs as mostly young and beautiful rather than disturbingly ferocious. Nevertheless, Christian zealots, who were rising in prominence, considered all pagan images abominations to be destroyed, especially of the Gorgon Medusa. During the Medieval period in Europe, Christian scholars considered the beheading of Medusa by Perseus to be an allegory of the virtuous son of god destroying the manifestation of evil, intrinsic to all women, that threatens men's souls.”
― Joan Marler, Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom

“Still, Medusa clenched her fists and promised every god still in existence that she would go down fighting this time.”
― Barbara Ann Wright, Coils

“When Poseidon pinned her
To the temple stones, her voice
Flared like pyre-wood,
Faded like smoke.

‘As Perseus bore down upon her
She bestrode the pitted ground;
The snakes that writhed from her head
Cried mercy of the clouds.

‘From her neck, Pegasus sprang ��
The white horse spread his wings,
And bore her name through Greece
Swooping to Cretan shores.

‘Her blood birthed the corals
Of the Red Sea �� sharp as tongues.
O Hera, grant Medusa
Her legacy: woman, monster, might!”
― Elyse John, Orphia and Eurydicius

“In ancient times, the Gorgon Medusa lived on the far side of Oceanus in the land of Night. She was an awesome dragonlike creature with bronze claws, great golden wings, and fierce eyes that turned her beholder to stone. At one time she had been a beautiful young woman who filled the world with joy, not death, but in a moment of foolish pride she had compared herself to Athena. Such arrogance enraged the noble goddess, and in revenge she turned Medusa's lush hair into a tangle of vile, hissing snakes. From that moment on, Medusa's stare brought the stillness of death to anyone who dared look into her eyes.
Meanwhile Polydectes, King of Seriphos, wanted to destroy Perseus, so he sent him off to bring back Medusa's head, knowing that her gaze would kill the young hero. But Athena heard the king's command. Still angry with Medusa, she gave Perseus her bronze shield to defend himself when he attacked the Gorgon. Holding the shield as a mirror, Perseus saw only Medusa's reflection, and her deadly stare did not harm him. He cut off her head and put it into a cloth bag, then flew away with the aid of a pair of winged sandals given to him by Hermes.
As Perseus soared over the African desert, blood seeped through the bag and fell to the hot sands below. As each drop hit the scorching ground, it turned to steam, and the rising vapors transformed into three dangerously beautiful nymphs.”
― Lynne Ewing, The Choice

“Renaissance artists, inspired by Greek mythological themes, created frighteningly realistic portrayals of decapitated women with snakes for hair. The elegantly crafted sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini of a youthful Perseus holding Medusa's head aloft while he stands on her decapitated body was erected in the center of Florence in the mid-16th century. This popular theme was emblematic of the Inquisitional murders of women taking place in many areas of Europe during that time, considered necessary to protect civil society from the dangers of uncontrolled female powers. Later, during the 18th-19th centuries, Romantic artists, poets, and Decadents recast Medusa as a beautiful victim, not a monster. In their view, She represented the ecstatic discord between pain and pleasure, beauty and horror, and divinely forbidden sexuality.”
― Joan Marler, Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom

“Significant strides have been made by women throughout the world to challenge the deeply embedded misogyny that has plagued the lives of women and girls for millennia. Advancements (which are far from universal) such as the right to vote, to own property, to obtain a divorce, to control our own reproduction, and many other human rights have been achieved by women with great sacrifice and struggle. Nevertheless, the threat of censure, internalized as a template of fear and self-loathing, continues to enforce the physical and psychological silencing of women and girls, even in privileged cultural contexts.”
― Joan Marler, Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom

“He choked back a laugh. "How can you make me smile when I feel like I've been struck by a meteor?”
― Amanda Bouchet, A Curse of Queens

“The world hasn’t changed ever since,
Even the Medusas now have to bear the wrath
Of being beautiful, appealing or outspoken,
The wolves so many times cross their path!”
― Neelam Saxena Chandra, the lost mint taste

“And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved.”
― Nathalie Haynes

“Enyo spoke to her sisters:
"They're getting worse."
"Demi-Gods?" Sthennos asked.
"Men.”
― Nataly Gruender, Medusa

“No matter how much you wish things could be as they were, you cannot change what is to what was.”
― Medusa to her Seeker, 12/22/2024