Classic Greek mythology paints Medousa as one of the most loathsome creatures of the ancient world. Feared by man and shunned by the Gods themselves, with a visage so hideous, any living creature that looked upon her would be instantly turned to stone. But what made Medousa such a monster?
Author Michael F. Butchin retells the classic story from Medousa's point of view, from a brutal childhood of slavery in Sparta, to her death at the hands of the hero Perseus on a remote island at the end of the world. We come to know the woman Medousa was-her hopes and dreams, her loves and friendships-rather than the monster we think we know.
When Medousa's family is murdered by the Spartan Krypteia, she is taken and sold as a slave to the royal house of the Eurypontids. There, over the years, she gains the affections of her mistress, eventually obtaining her freedom. She devotes herself to Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, courage, and the strategy of war, and trains to be a priestess, hoping for a future of love and acceptance, only to suffer rape, betrayal of faith, and the curse that turns her into a Gorgon.
Torn from the woman she loves, Medousa flees to a life of solitude, driven mad by her loneliness and pain, and taking out her anger on travelers who cross her path.
In the end it is the Titans, not the Gods, who give her the care, companionship, and love she so longs for, but will she ever find the healing and redress of injustice she so deeply desires?
About the Author: Michael F. Butchin grew up in a family of bohemians, and studied Chinese language and literature at Rutgers University before teaching kindergarten and English as a secondary language in Taiwan.
Butchin has spent the years with singers, actors, movie stars, cultists, renegade monks, Taoist immortals, and other unusual characters.
Butchin currently lives and works in the Delaware Valley and studies martial arts.
