ren’s Reviews > Stone Blind > Status Update

"Is no one going to rouse Phorcys? Will no one call to Ceto? Will these immortals not rise up from the deep to protect their daughter? Perseus wants to save his mother from marriage: will neither of these sea gods intervene to save their daughter from death? From mutilation? Are they afraid of Zeus or has no one told them she is in danger?
Her sisters don't know what's coming, of that I'm sure."

"He has never stopped petitioning his father for aid. He knows he cannot do what has to be done without divine assistance. Some people, find humility an endearing trait. Others might wonder why one bastard child deserves so much attention.
And now he is closing in on the Gorgons, ready to kill a creature that has done him no harm just to acquire a trophy for a man he despises."

"'So was I meant to have snake hair? Was I meant to be more like you?' Medusa asked. And this, Euryale realized, was the question that had been gnawing at her sister's heart.
'No. That was just Athene, finding a clever way to punish you. Clever, as she thinks of it, I mean. She would have been so pleased with herself, punishing you by making you a monster, like us.'
'You aren't monsters.'
'Neither are you.'"

"'Gorgons aren't supposed to be like gods. We belong here, in the place between the land and the sea, not on a lofty mountain. They put our image on the outside of temples, not within. We look out on mortals, not down on them. When Phorcys delivered you to our shore, he brought you to where you needed to be.'
'So I wouldn't die, or embarrass him.'
'Yes. And so we would become three, as we're meant to be.'"

"'You always changed and never changed,' Sthenno said.
'Then how did you know I was still Medusa?'
'Because of the ways you stayed the same,' Euryale said. 'Everything changes except the gods. We don't think the sheep have stopped being sheep because we sheared them.'
She ate in silence for a while. 'But you always had each other.' she said. 'And you never change.'
'We do change. You changed us, when you came.'"

"'We are one and we are many,' said Sthenno.
Euryale nodded, and Medusa raised her head towards the light of the evening sun.
'Are we one?' she asked. 'Even after everything?'
'We will always be one,' said Sthenno. 'One family of Gorgons.'
'But I've changed so much,' said Medusa. Sthenno could hear the frown that the bindings covered.
'You've changed every day,' said Euryale thickly. 'Since you were a baby.'"

"The sheep took fright at Medusa's changed appearance, but they too grew used to the metamorphosis. This Gorgon now resembled the others more closely, and the sheep knew that Gorgons were no threat to them.
The sisters settled into a new life that was closer to the old life than any of them had imagined could be possible. Medusa saw all she needed to see and it was enough."

"Medusa needed to find her way back to life step by step. She had lost so much so quickly - her body, her hair, her sight - that she could repair herself only slowly.
But she did. The snakes were her eyes now, and although she was less sure-footed outside the cave, she had little fear of falling or injuring herself: she had wings, after all. And the mass of snakes could look in every direction at once."

"She could hear every corner and crevice as the creatures that inhabited its darkness moved across its sandy, stony floor. The touch and the sounds created pictures in front of the bindings on her eyes and, as she tried to recover from the curse, she moved with almost the same confidence she'd had before. And even though she had made her own eyes blind, she had acquired many more."

"'I've failed,' he shouted. 'How can I fulfill my promise to my mother now?' He covered his face with his hands and wept.
'I don't even have a mother,' said Athene. 'I'm sure she won't mind.'
'She will lose everything if I fail in the attempt,' he said. 'I either go home now, without the Gorgon head to buy her freedom. Or I die trying.'"