45 pages • 1 hour read
Natalie HaynesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The sea goddess Ceto and her daughters, the Gorgons and Graiai, are considered monsters in Greek mythology. They are either old gods or inhuman creatures who physically differ from the human-like gods of the Olympian pantheon, with Stone Blind’s protagonist, Medusa, and her Gorgon sisters, Sthenno and Euryale, wielding snake hair. The novel seeks to deconstruct the physicality of monstrosity with such characters: The Gorgons are powerful women, which makes them threatening to toxic men who seek to control women. In Zeus’s patriarchy, Sthenno and Euryale’s unwillingness to tolerate Poseidon’s predation makes them “monsters.” Despite their unconventional features, the Gorgons prove more humane than the Olympians, loving their mortal sister Medusa unconditionally. Medusa herself remains compassionate even after being wronged by Poseidon, Athene, and Perseus. Overall, the Gorgon sisters challenge conventionally attractive characters like Perseus, who embodies true monstrosity with his cruelty. Toward the end of the novel, the Medusa-Narrator, horrified that she was weaponized against her mother Ceto, stresses the unknown as monstrous to Perseus, “and any monster needs killing” (332).
By Natalie Haynes
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