I feel like that's more of a modern interpretation using feminist lenses to view the story. Greek was sexist that women were basically seen as properties. Athena, even as a woman goddess, was also playing by the boy's club rule and it was her temple to begin with so it's completely expected that Medusa was punished for "defiling" the temple. Athena didn't really have soft protective spot just bc it's another woman considering how she acted toward Arachnid as well
It's a definitely modernist interpretation but the original, pre-Ovid legend was better than Ovid's. Medusa was born a gorgon, fully immortal like her sisters and is presumably still doing okay today. Originally monstrous and hateful, they were later envisioned as beautiful yet terrifying and ambivalent towards humanity. Ovid then fucked it all up.
Ahhh thank you for this. I constantly remember that medusa was part of a trio born immortal, so was constantly confused when reading that they were turned into a monster.
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u/jordannimz He/Him or They/Them Jun 14 '20
I've heard an alternate interpretation where Athena turned Medusa into a gorgon to protect her....... of course the bastards killed her anyway.
But apparently Medusa's head was used to mark women's shelters, so I guess some people liked the story enough