Assignment #9-Myth Retold

    Many years ago, there was a very beautiful woman named Medusa. She had long shiny hair, large green eyes, fair skin, and deep red lips. She lived in my patron city of Athens, Greece. Every day Medusa would talk of nothing other than herself to her friends and whenever she was alone she would stare at her own reflection for hours on end. Medusa was selfish and thought that she was better than everyone else because of her superior looks. Even though I am not exactly ugly myself, with shoulder length blonde hair and deep green eyes I understand that in order to achieve being successful you must not rely upon looks alone. Medusa never understood that. 

    One day as Medusa walked through the busy city of Athens filled with noisy, loud, people at midday with the sun shining down (even though it was not as shiny as Medusa's hair) she started bragging to her friends as they walked into one of my temples. She told them all once again how beautiful she thought she was and even went further to compare herself to my statues inside of the temple. She thought it was a shame to have this temple be wasted on myself because I was not nearly as pretty as she was. She concluded that maybe one day they would build an even grander and more magnificent temple for her. Because of her sharp words, everyone became uncomfortable to be around her and left. However, she was too busy to notice because she was staring once again at her own reflection. Then, her reflection slowly changed into me. 
   I told Medusa how vain and stupid she was acting. While everyone else was out working or learning she was just sitting around all day looking at herself and boasting. Medusa dared to challenge me after I scolded her. She told me that she was making other peoples lives better by letting them gaze upon her. I knew she would never learn, and turned her into a terrible monster. Her skin became shallow and green, her eyes beady and narrow, and vicious, hissing snakes sprouted from her head to replace her shiny locks. Anyone who looked at Medusa would be turned into cold stone waiting to crumble away for centuries on end. I sent her away to the ends of the earth to live with the blind monsters and the gorgon sisters so no unfortunate passerby would turn into stone. And there Medusa stayed, getting what she deserved for daring to compare herself to me.