MEDUSA

A vestal virgin of Athena temple made many visits to be alone in prayer to the goddess. Deeply devoted, the vestal virgin meditated in quiet solitude to express her love for the great goddess.

One day alone, the vestal virgin was in prayer at the quiet tranquil temple. There she was attacked, violently and brutally raped by a mortal man.

Legend goes because of this even Athena turned the virgin into a snake headed, slithering green Medusa for committing the sin of sexual acts in her temple.

This is the male version of treachery and woman turned against woman version. I don’t think so; Athena is too compassionate for such a trick. The vestal virgin was so traumatized she turned herself into a she demon. She had no choice – she had to become Medusa. She was abandoned by Athena, there was no arrest of this person, nothing, the event was never mentioned again, she was betrayed and abandoned, this rape eliminated all trust in humanity, and she was supposed to be protected in the Temple and Athena.

The virgin upon realizing this unreasonable, unexplainable, unjustified event became the hot molten lava, rage-full green snake she demon to lash out at all who came near her. She couldn’t understand that no one loved her enough to protect her. Medusa made her own justice by becoming a successful demon, devouring any human who looked in her direction.

Athena could do nothing to make her devoted subject return to peace, and as it is - - gods and goddesses do not have unlimited power, mortals forget this. Medusa has free will and Athena can only pray for her subject to come back to her for healing.

The former vestal virgin now Medusa found a cave to live, very near the dragons. The dragons didn’t mind because monsters know monsters.

For what seemed like centuries Medusa lived in her cave where conquerors came to slay Medusa, she successfully destroyed everyone.

Story has it that Jason and the Argonauts came and slayed her, another false ending in the hopes to destroy the belief that women can stand up for themselves and hiding what happened to the innocent vestal virgin.

Time went on and on and Medusa grew tired of being alone. She longed for love and interaction and peace. She left the cave for moments at a time – retreating back into the cave because she was unsure of what to do next.

Some days she could go into the sunlight. Other days she was too entrenched in rage to move. Instead she would barbeque some stupid man conqueror for lunch and lick her fingers of the blood and burnt skin and enjoys every minute.

Still Medusa knew she had to move out of the cave. Buy some fate each day that she went into the sunlight she lost a snake in her hair, her skin was returning to her normal dark olive, her body was being put back into place. An arm popped back, a toe, a foot, a hip in no particular order.

This was incentive enough to keep trying to re-enter existence, to be alive again.

Medusa asked no one to help her-not Athena-not humans. She was determined to survive this ordeal.

After years of living alone she learned to trust herself, she took a final plunge into the sunlight and became human again-a beautiful woman- far greater than the one trapped in the she demon.

Carefully she re-entered society getting work, making friends, being happy for the first time, no one in this new town knew her and she took a new name –Aster- which means Star forged from the tears of the gods.

Inside her mind and her soul the she demon never left because she is Asters very own protector from now on. She knew how to take care of herself.

She never went back to the Athena temple and kept a healthy distance from man, and that was perfectly OK.

She is enjoying and thriving with a second chance at having a well-rounded, balanced, normal life, far away from that brutal attack.

Maybe one day she’ll have children and a farm and a loving partner. Who Knows?

She had plenty of time to process her personal betrayal that ended with no satisfactory conclusion.

She leaned she is her own healer, her own advocate, her own strength, her own counsel.

She knows her life is now unlimited and nothing will hold her back. 

Georgia P

March 2020