Medusa

Speak, Muse, the story of the young woman whose beauty drew the unwanted attention of the Olympian gods. Mortal child of immortal Phorcys and Keto with her immortal family, what fate did you experience when you awoke on this morning... * [[Go to the meadow to pick flowers->Meadow]] * [[Go to Athena's temple to make a sacrifice->Temple]] * [[Stay in town->Town]] * [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text1]]

In the meadow you *[[Pick Flowers]] *[[Meet a muscled bearded stranger->Stranger]] *[[You turn yourself into a bird->Bird]] *[[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text2]]

After you arrive in Athena's Temple, you meet [[a handsome stranger->Stranger2]]

You see your reflection and proclaim that your beauty surpasses the Goddess [[Athena]].

You pick flowers, get tired, and then return home (with a minor sunburn). Your story is lost from the historical record.

The stranger speaks to you. He wants you to lie down in the soft meadow with him. * [[You accept]] * [[You refuse]]

He persuades you to mingle your soft embraces with each other: [[Your fate]] [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text3]]

You say no. He forces you. [[Your fate]] [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text3]]

As a bird, you meet a handsome [[Stranger]]. [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text4]]

Hesiod, Theogony 270 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "And to Phorkys (Phorcys) Keto (Ceto) bore the Graiai (Graeae), with fair faces and gray from birth, and these the gods who are immortal and men who walk on the earth call Graiai, the gray sisters, Pemphredo robed in beauty and Enyo robed in saffron, and the Gorgones (Gorgons) who, beyond the famous stream of Okeanos (Oceanus), live in the utmost place toward night, by the singing Hesperides : they are Sthenno, Euryale, and Medousa (Medusa), whose fate is a sad one, for she was mortal, but the other two immortal and ageless both alike. [[Return to story->Begin]]

Hesiod, Theogony 270 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) [Medusa/I want to go out into the] soft meadow and among spring flowers." [[Return to story->Meadow]]

Hesiod, Theogony 270 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) "Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with one of [Gorgons}, in a soft meadow and among spring flowers." Ovid, Heroides 19. 129 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.): "Neptune [Poseidon], wert thou mindful of thine own heart's flames, thou oughtst let no love be hindered by the winds--if neither Amymone, nor Tyro much bepraised for beauty, are stories idly charged to thee, nor shining Alcyone, and Calyce, child of Hecataeon, nor Medusa when her locks were not yet twined with snakes, nor golden-haired Laodice and Celaeno taken to the skies, nor those whose names I mind me of having read. These, surely, Neptune, and many more, the poets say in their songs have mingled their soft embraces with thine own." [[Return to story->Stranger]]

Athena hears your boast. As punishment, she decides to turn you into a hideous monster, which each [[tendril of hair becoming a snake->The End]]. [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text6]]

The stranger speaks to you. He wants you to lie down with him in the temple. [[You accept->Accept2]] [[You refuse->Refuse2]]

You lie down with the stranger. Athena is furious at the desecration of her temple. [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text5]] [[Punishment]]

You say no. He forced you. Athena is furious at the desecration of her temple. [[See Ancient Text->Ancient Text5]] [[Punishment]]

Athena decides to punish you. She turns you into a hideous monster, each tendril of your hair becomes a [[writhing snake->The End]].

"As a bird, [Medousa (Medusa)] the snake-tressed mother of the flying steed [Pegasos (Pegasus)] [was seduced by Poseidon]." [[Return to story->Bird]]

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 770 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[Medousa (Medusa)] was violated in Minerva's [Athena's] shrine by the Lord of the Sea (Rector Pelagi) [Poseidon]. Jove's [Zeus'] daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin's eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformed the Gorgo's lovely hair to loathsome snakes." [[Return to story->Stranger2]]

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 46 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"It is affirmed by some that Medousa (Medusa) was beheaded because of Athene (Athena), for they say the Gorgon had been willing to be compared with Athene in beauty." [[Return to story->Athena]]

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Gorgoneion_Cdm_Paris_320.jpg" width="512" alt="Head of Medusa"> See wikimedia commons for more information on this <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorgoneion_Cdm_Paris_320.jpg" >image</a> [[Does your adventure continue?->Your Future]]

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Medusa%2C_Naples%2C_Archaeological_Museum.jpg" width="512" alt="Head of Medusa"> See wikimedia commons for more information on this <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medusa,_Naples,_Archaeological_Museum.jpg" >image</a> [[Does your adventure continue?->Your Future]]