I understand in that moment. She isn’t a monster. That is a lie from the gods, a deception initiated by Hera. Medusa is no monster. She is a woman trapped in the webs of those who envy her beauty. For the gods prize beauty above justice or mercy, and it must be theirs.
It only takes a single glance to perceive what they wish to hide, to pierce the veil that they have cast about her. To the one who really sees, snakes do not writhe upon her head, hissing and biting; there is no venomous mass slithering upon her scalp. No, they are golden strands woven into a tapestry of braids. They rise as she turns her head toward you, just as the lashes of her eyes lift to look upon you. They are not baleful eyes, full of malice and cunning. They are not the red orbs of a beast. The long lashes draw up like clouds illuminated by the dawn, and the sun of her visage blazes upon you, shedding light and warmth upon your face; and despite the deep brilliance of her gaze you cannot turn away, for the fire there sets aflame the soul. She sees you and appraises you, and if you are worthy, as you must be if you see her truly, she smiles.
Upon me she must smile. Those others who gather around her like tombs, like judgments, fade from my vision like times of tedium before the celebration. Not all are worthy, that is true. Not all who undertake trials succeed, and not all who love are requited. But she smiles at me with lips as red as apples plucked in the freshness of the world; and behind them her teeth gleam like snow-capped Olympus in its glory; and there is a moment when all the cruelty of gods and capriciousness of Fate dwindle to insignificance; and the glory of man’s existence and of his infinite capacity and ambition and of his love and his will to have what he wills consumes Time and Space. With our eyes alone She and I commune and satisfy one another. She is no monster, and I am no mere mortal. She is Desire, and I am a Hero among men.
And after that moment, forever, wearing away beneath wind and rain, my eyes unable to weep, my heart turned to stone, I understand also that it was all only for a moment.