I, Medusa

Most denizens of the islands flee after Athena’s curse, leaving it to the three sisters. As the weeks pass, Meddy learns the nuances of her condition. She can now control her gaze, choosing when to turn her eyes yellow and petrify someone. Meddy also finds Athena’s curse has given her greater speed and keener senses, though she remains mortal.

A consequence of her parents leaving the island is that its protective enchantments have lifted, making it easier for mortals to find. One day, the sisters spot a boat filled with men approaching the shore. On Stheno’s instructions, they cover their heads and go to the beach with food, acting modest. The captain, whose name is Linus, disembarks and asks for the man who rules the island. When Stheno tells Linus that the island is home only to the three sisters, Linus senses an opportunity to exploit it. He asks the women if his crew can camp on the island for the night. Stheno agrees.

Linus and his men feast with the sisters, offering them gifts from their travels. When Linus tells the sisters he plans to claim the island and found a kingdom called Linusia, Stehno warns him the island is not his for the taking. An angry Linus insults Stheno and attempts to grab her. Stheno uncovers her head, Euryale and Medusa following suit. Stheno turns Linus to stone. The crew runs towards their boat, trying to flee. Stheno and Euryale follow, petrifying the men. Medusa feels conflicted about killing the crew members at first, but knows she must take power for her own. The sisters leave a single crew member alive so he can return and warn others about the island.

The sisters had expected that the crew-member’s account about their island would deter others from seeking it. However, in the wake of the incident, more and more ships arrive at their shores, lured by the promise of a land they can easily seize. As a consequence, Stheno, Euryale, and Meddy have to kill and petrify many men. Meddy notes that in time, Stheno and Euryale turn cruel with their power, dashing the petrified men to smithereens on the cliffs of the island. Meddy usually refrains from such displays.

One day, Meddy is alone on the shore when a youth pulls in his raft. He tells Meddy that he has come to the island to slay the Gorgons (the name Meddy and her sisters have chosen for themselves). Meddy tries to dissuade the youth, but when he persists, she removes her head-covering and reveals herself as one of the Gorgons. Instead of turning the young man to stone with her gaze, Meddy engages him in battle. When the boy knicks her arm with a dagger, Meddy prepares to petrify him, but spots him wearing an owl-shaped pendant, and is reminded of Glaukopis and Athena. She feels pity for the young man and asks him to flee the island.

The boy starts to turn back, but Stheno and Euryale arrive on the scene and turn him to stone. They admonish Meddy for pitying the youth who sought to kill her, reminding Meddy that all men have the potential to be cruel. Sparing a man on the off chance that he may be decent is pure folly.

Meddy turns 18. Three months after the incident with the boy, yet another ship docks at the island. As the crew members trickle in, Meddy notices a young woman trailing behind the leader. The woman is Appolonia, her thick brown hair cut short. Before Meddy can speak to Appolonia, the leader, Sobekemsaf, makes an offer to Stheno. Fully aware of the power of the sisters, Sobekemsaf wants them to slay his unsuspecting enemies, whom he will send to the island, in return for food and riches. Unwilling to become a hired assassin for anyone, Stheno refuses Sobekemsaf’s offer. A thwarted Sobekemsaf tries to return to his ship, but Stheno kills him by slicing his throat. Euryale and Meddy finish off the rest of the crew, save Appolonia.

Meddy and Appolonia reunite. Appolonia tells Meddy her story. After being dismissed from the temple, Appolonia went to her father for help. Her father cast her out of his home, blaming Appolonia for “shaming” their family. He cautioned her brothers against helping her. Shunned by her family, Appolonia was forced to beg to survive, till Sobekemsaf, the well-known merchant from Alexandria, sent an offer for work on his ship. Appolonia accepted, assuming Sobekemsaf wanted her to work as a scribe. However, Sobekemsaf enslaved Appolonia by forcing her into sex work in exchange for food and money. Meddy’s heart aches for Appolonia. She embraces her friend, promising Appolonia that she is now safe.

Appolonia shifts into Meddy’s room, unable to sleep alone because of her nightmares. Over time, she and Meddy become lovers, their lovemaking tender and considerate. Appolonia tells Meddy that she does not like the indiscriminate killings of Meddy and her sisters. Appolonia fears the hatred and anger will corrode Meddy. She thinks she and Meddy should leave the island.

Meddy feels torn by Appolonia’s suggestion. Alone with Euryale and Stheno, Meddy asks them if they ever feel like leaving the island. The sisters are content with their lifestyle, partly because they are immortal and have infinite time. Meddy realizes she does not have the same luxury and must make her choices urgently. She returns to Appolonia and asks her to pack their things so they can leave the island the next day.

Meddy and Appolonia sneak out in a boat early in the morning, without bidding farewell to Meddy’s sisters. Meddy prays that Stheno and Euryale will one day understand her reasons for leaving. She and Appolonia are seaborne for several days before alighting on the shore of Cyrene, close to Egypt.

In Cyrene, Meddy and Appolonia find work managing an old widow’s tavern in exchange for food and lodging. Their days fall in a predictable rhythm, the women enjoying each other’s company. Meddy misses her sisters but tells herself that her new life is in Cyrene.

Things change dramatically when a distraught woman called Ephemia brings news that her 15-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, after the priest of Athena’s temple coerced her into sex. The priest often preys on needy young women who don’t have money to make an offering in exchange for his prayers. While Appolonia offers to help terminate the pregnancy through herbal remedies, Meddy is filled with a seething anger against the priest.

Alone with Appolonia, Meddy tells her she wants to kill the priest to protect the city’s girls. Appolonia protests that Meddy is bound to be discovered and executed. She begs Meddy to stop. Meddy lies to Appolonia that she has abandoned her plans.

That night, Meddy secretly mixes Melissa leaf, a powerful sedative, in Appolonia’s food. Appolonia falls into a deep slumber after dinner. Meddy leaves her and goes to the temple of Athena on the shore. The narrative converges with the scene in the Prologue.

After Meddy turns the abusive priest to stone, she drags out his statue so she can push it into the water. However, three young men on the beach see her, the serpents on her hair uncovered. Meddy can kill the men to protect herself but decides against it. Since the boys are bound to report their sighting of a monster to the king, Meddy knows the king will send soldiers for her and Appolonia. The only way to protect Appolonia is for Meddy to flee Cyrene.

Meddy finds a boat and rows away. She drifts in the sea for several days, overcome by hunger and thirst. Meddy finally pulls into her island, only to be greeted by Athena, sitting on a rock.

Meddy goes to Athena, fighting her exhaustion, and asks the goddess what she wants. Athena tells Meddy she knows all about her exploits, from aiding the ex-acolyte Appolonia to seducing and killing the priest in Cyrene. Although Meddy’s actions are ghastly, they prove to Athena that she was not wrong about Meddy. Athena always knew Meddy had powerful rage within, which Athena thinks is a beautiful thing. Even though Meddy disappointed her by her “deviance” (446), Athena thinks Meddy can still be useful to her.

Meddy is softened by Athena’s veiled praise, but is brought back to reality when Athena describes Poseidon’s sexual abuse as Meddy’s “deviance.” She tells the goddess that the abuse angered Athena only because she saw Meddy as her property, which Poseidon had “despoiled,” and that Athena never cared for Meddy. Athena does not refute the allegation, but tells Meddy she can give her a new purpose. Instead of her priestess, Meddy can be her tool of vengeance, travelling the world with Athena to punish her enemies. Meddy rejects the offer. An incensed Athena tells Meddy that the refusal has invited Meddy’s own cruel death, and leaves.

After Athena departs, Meddy spots Maheer’s lion on the shore. She nears the animal, nearly touching its nose, but stops herself. Feeling a kinship with the lion, Meddy says it is not a monster, but only what others made him. Meddy reunites with Stheno and Euryale, who are overjoyed to have their sister back. As time passes, Meddy participates less often in the killings, spending more time in the palace. Though she misses Appolonia, she also feels content on the island, excited to learn what her next purpose will be.

Sometime in the future, Euryale enters Meddy’s chambers at dawn and finds her sister slain, her head severed from her body and taken away. Euryale wails so loudly the walls crack. Stheno’s grief erupts as anger and she uproots the island’s trees with her sheer power. The sisters know who murdered Meddy: The hero who is “a favored champion of the gray-eyed bitch” (451) Athena. (The champion in question refers to Perseus, patronized by Athena, but the novel chooses not to name him).

All the Olympians helped the cowardly champion slay Meddy, with Hermes giving him winged sandals, Hephaestus gifting him a sword, and Athena bestowing him her bronze shield. The champion snuck into Meddy’s room and killed her in her sleep, but will boast of his valor. Meddy’s head will be mounted on his shield “like some obscene prize” (452). Stheno and Euryale cannot stand the injustice. They decide to seek out their sister’s head.

Stheno and Euryale travel the world, turning thousands of men to stone, to look for Meddy’s head, but never find it. In the end, they return to their island. Time passes and the old gods begin to fade, including Zeus and Athena themselves. Stheno and Euryale remain young women forever on their island, watching in silence as Meddy’s story is corrupted and lost over the ages. However, they remember the true story, and that is sufficient.