The Mask of Medusa © (2017)

The Mask of Medusa ©

Created by Ramon E. Bayron
All Rights Reserved 2017

Chapter 1 : The Secret Origin Story

"The most iniquitous of all injustices are those afflicted by the gods."

The most tragic story of the woman known in antiquity as Medousa/Medusa is revealed to all who cares to know;

Medusa once had charms; to gain her love 
A rival crowd of envious lovers strove.
They, who have seen her, own, they ne’er did trace
More moving features in a sweeter face.
Yet above all, her length of hair, they own,
In golden ringlets wav’d, and graceful shone.

Her Neptune saw, and with such beauties fir’d,

Resolv’d to compass, what his soul desir’d.

In chaste Minerva’s fane, he, lustful, stay’d,

And seiz’d, and rifled the young, blushing maid.

The bashful Goddess turn’d her eyes away,

Nor durst such bold impurity survey;

But on the ravish’d virgin vengeance takes,

Her shining hair is chang’d to hissing snakes.

These in her Aegis Pallas joys to bear,

The hissing snakes her foes more sure ensnare,

Than they did lovers once, when shining hair. 

~ Ovid. Metamorphoses (Dryden Translation)

Once a divine looking priestess who served in the temple of Athena/Minerva (conflictingly regarded as the goddess of wisdom and war), Medusa’s exceptional beauty caught the eye of yet another god, Poseidon/Neptune, ruler of the seas, who, reeling from the rejection by Athena of his amorous pursuit, then with nary a tinge of regard to the poor female mortal, violently imposed his carnal desires on Minerva before she could even finish her prayer to her goddess.

And when in her heavens Athena/Minerva finally took notice of her servant’s plea, what jarred the war goddess into action was the sight of her earthly temple desecrated as a result of the forced consummation of the sea god’s lustful desires on her hapless servant.

But instead of taking up the cudgels of justice for her abused priestess, Athena/Minerva punished Medusa with a curse, damning her beauty into gore and crowning her head with a knot of snakes for all men to see and fear. And if these were not enough chastisement, Athena/Minerva decided that anyone who catches the gaze of Medusa’s eyes will be turned into stone. These actions the goddess of wisdom deemed wise, a clear and unfathomable self-betrayal of her designation in the heavens of Olympus.

So for the rest of her mortal days, Medusa, as revealed in her mythical story, lived as an hideous monster, feared, despised and hunted by men. Until one day, she faced the sword of Perseus, yet another mortal and a warrior seeking the grace of Athena/Minerva, and with a single slash Medusa’s cursed head was severed from her body, ending her earthly existence as a half-human, half-monster damned by the gods.

But that is not the end of the story Medusa. The revealed myth about her is but the beginning of her legend as there exists a hidden myth, a secret story that is yet to be told until now.

The Stench of Injustice Pervades the Air in Olympus

original photo sourced online / no copyright claim for source photo; 'Mask of Medusa' concept and title copyright 2017 to Ramon E. Bayron

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