ren’s Reviews > Stone Blind > Status Update

"And every day after that, as the angry purple welt on Medusa's skin faded, she would look at the place where the rock had been as she rubbed the itching scar. And then she would smile, because it could not hurt her again. Euryale had seen to that."

"This was not a display of strength but of fragility. The howl was disappointingly short-lived, as the little girl had to gulp for more breath to sustain it. Breathing was an awful weakness. And then the blood appeared, pouring in a vicious stream down the child's leg. Sthenno had no idea that her sister's veins ran with this sticky redness when she should be filled with ichor, like a normal creature."

"Sthenno had never felt a moment of fear in her life before she was responsible for a child. What should she be afraid of, a Gorgon like her? Of men? Of beasts? The idea was absurd. And she had never experienced fear for another creature until Medusa. She had never felt the slightest worry when Euryale was away hunting or exploring: she could defend herself. And then there was Medusa, who could be hurt by anything."

"As she grew bigger, she spent long days learning the recesses of their cave --its many hidden tunnels and paths, and the way the jagged scar visible on the sands could somehow also be found underfoot in the blackness inside the cave-- so intimately that when the sun grew too hot, she would kiss her sisters on their bearded cheeks and withdraw to the cooler air to sleep."

"Euryale was proud that their parents had entrusted the strange mortal child to them to look after. Sthenno wondered if her father had left the child with them hoping they would fail. It was impossible for gods to look at mortals and not feel some revulsion. Sh loved her new sister as much as she loved Euryale. But she still had to repress a shudder when she caught sight of her sister's horrifyingly small hands."

"An old god, [Phorcys] lived in the depths of the ocean with their mother, Ceto. They had many offsprings besides Euryale and Sthenno: Scylla, a nymph with six dog heads and their six vicious mouths, who lived in a high cave over the sea from which she would appear to eat passing sailors. Proud Echidna, half-nymph, half-snake. The Graiai - three sisters who shared a single eye and a single tooth."

"The sisters did not eat from hunger: Gorgons were immortal, they had no need for food. But their sharp tusks, their powerful wings, their strong legs: all were designed for the hunt. And if you were going to hunt, you might as well eat your kill."

"If only it didn't invariably result in offspring. More and more gods and demigods, each one appearing for no reason other than to confirm to her that he was virtually indiscriminate in his infidelity. Even she, a goddess with an almost limitless supply of spite, could barely keep up with the number of women, goddesses, nymphs and needling infants she needed to persecute."

"And then she heard his hated voice, telling her she could not escape him.
She already knew what she had to do to make the pain stop. Submit to another pain. Beaten at last, she gave in and reverted to her original form.
As Zeus raped her, she thought of being an eagle."

"... She made one last attempt to free herself, changing forms again in rapid succession: eagle, but she couldn't fly above it; boar, but she couldn't gore her way through it; locust, but she couldn't consume it; panther again, but she couldn't outrun it. She had no choice but to make herself smaller and smaller still: weasel, mouse, cicada. But still the pressure increased. She tried one last time: ant."