Stone Blind

The first-person narrator of Stone Blind, revealed to be Medusa’s severed head in Part 5, discusses Greek monsters and heroes and how the victims of heroes are deemed monsters.

Mapping out the home of the Gorgons, the Medusa-Narrator describes the impossibility of mortals seeing this cave. She also mentions the home of the Gorgons’ sisters—the Graiai—and Olympus.

Metis, Zeus’s first wife and Hera’s rival, changes shape to escape her husband, transforming from eagle to snake to cat and, finally, to ant. Zeus envelopes and sexually assaults her. Hera, Zeus’s sister-wife, considers his infidelities, as she sees him following his sexual assault of Metis. Thinking about Metis, she remembers a prophecy that the mortal’s children will overthrow Zeus. She makes a veiled comment to Zeus, and the fearful god destroys Metis by absorbing her.