Stone Blind

Natalie Haynes’s Stone Blind was published in 2022. A retelling of the Greek myth of Medusa and Perseus’ quest to use the Gorgon’s head to free the captive Princess Andromeda, Stone Blind incorporates elements of biography and memoir along with epics like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. A noted classicist, Haynes has written several fictional retellings of ancient Greco-Roman myths, from the Trojan War in A Thousand Ships to the Oedipal myth in The Children of Jocasta. Appearing for several seasons on BBC Radio 4 for her series Natalie Haynes Defends the Classics, she has also authored nonfiction works about the ancient world from The Ancient Guide to Modern Life to the more recent Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myth. Stone Blind, like some of Haynes’s other fiction, traces an untold story—that of Medusa’s origins. The novel explores themes of Appearance and Monstrosity, Coping With Trauma, and Consent, Justice, and Violence.

This guide refers to the 2022 hardback edition, published by HarperCollins.

Content Warning: Stone Blind includes anti-gay bias, ableism, implied death by suicide, misogyny, and sexual violence.

Plot Summary

Stone Blind is a first-person narrative about the Gorgon Medusa, her murder at the hero Perseus’ hands, and the machinations of the Olympian gods against each other, the Giants, the Titans, and various mortals. Narrated by the severed head of Medusa, this recollection and revision of Medusa’s myth offers a counter-narrative to Perseus’ heroics, depicting him as a spoiled demigod constantly helped by gods to fulfill his destiny. Throughout the novel, the Medusa-Narrator sympathizes with women who fall victim to men’s predations. Centering her own story of abuse, the Medusa-Narrator begins Part 1 by introducing the shifting definition of monstrosity and its intersection with gender. She then describes Zeus’s destruction of the Titaness Metis—whom he sexually assaulted—by absorbing her presence, resulting in the violent, asexual birth of the goddess Athene, freed from his head by the god Hephaestus’ ax. Despite infidelity being a pattern for Zeus and other male gods, Zeus’s sister-wife Hera takes out her anger on his female victims.

The Medusa-Narrator details the discovery of her infant self, one of three Gorgon children of sea gods Ceto and Phorcys. The couple have several children, all seemingly monstrous—including the elderly Graiai, who share one eye and tooth. In Ethiopia, Medusa’s immortal Gorgon siblings, Sthenno and Euryale, discover a mortal infant with wings left outside their cave—Medusa herself. Cut off from mortal contact, the sisters understand this baby belongs to their parents. They raise Medusa, and she grows, shocking the two immortal, unchanging sisters. Sthenno and Euryale change their habits and routines to care for their more vulnerable sister.

Meanwhile, Hera’s son Hephaestus, a child with a disability born of infidelity, is introduced, along with his divine forge. Zeus destroys Metis, and Poseidon pursues a water nymph, the Nereid Amphitrite—despite her protection by the Titan Atlas. Confronted by Poseidon in Athene’s temple, Medusa faces an impossible choice: be assaulted by Poseidon or allow him to do so to a mortal girl and drown her outside the temple. After being attacked, Medusa retreats to her cave for days. Sthenno and Euryale recognize she’s hurt, and upon learning what Poseidon did, Euryale pushes away the shore of Ethiopia with her foot.

Part 2 focuses on the birth of Perseus and the impetus of his journey to murder Medusa. Opening with his mother, Princess Danaë, and her imprisonment by her father, this section details how Zeus helps her escape confinement. After giving birth to Perseus, Danaë leaves home, guided by Zeus and Athene. Arriving in Seriphos, governed by King Polydectes, she meets and moves in with Dictys, Polydectes’ gay brother. On Olympus, where Zeus and other gods reside, Athene asks for her own symbol. Zeus grants her the owl.

Facing a rebellion from the Giants, children of the earth goddess Gaia, the Olympians go to war. Forcing a mortal to fight with them to satisfy a prophecy, Athene and the Olympians defeat the Giants, and the victory awakens Athene’s bloodlust. In Seriphos, Polydectes discovers Danaë and forces her to marry him. He tells Perseus, now almost grown, that he will forgo his marriage to Danaë if Perseus brings him the head of a Gorgon. Meanwhile, Athene visits Medusa, punishing her for Poseidon’s sexual assault—due to it taking place in her temple. Cursed, Medusa loses her hair, and her eyes burn. She becomes more like her sisters, who both have snakes for hair. Part 2 ends with a description of a bird frozen in time and stone, foreshadowing Medusa’s new power to turn living things to stone.

Part 3 details how Queen Cassiope of Ethiopia boasts about her beauty and compares herself to the Nereids. Poseidon and the Nereids take offense and plan to take revenge by targeting Cassiope’s daughter, Andromeda. Before Poseidon can act, Cassiope and her husband Cepheus arrange for Andromeda to marry her uncle Phineas to safeguard Ethiopia’s succession.

Hephaestus, drawn to Athene, makes her gifts with his forge. She throws most of them away but keeps a statue of her favorite owl. Poseidon goads Hephaestus to try and take Athene as his own. She recoils from Hephaestus when he echoes what Poseidon said. He struggles to hold her and then ejaculates on her. His semen falls on the earth and produces their son—Erichthonius.

Perseus’ journey begins with him tricking Medusa’s siblings, the Graiai, to lead him to the Hesperides, nymphs who hold the key to killing a Gorgon. Aided by Athene and messenger god Hermes, Perseus finds a sword, a golden bag, and the death god Hades’ cap—which grants invisibility—among the Hesperides. Meanwhile, Medusa is guided by her sisters and hair-turned-snakes, becoming more accustomed to her changed appearance. She realizes her gaze turns viewers to stone.

Part 4 details Athene’s anger toward Poseidon and Hephaestus, as Poseidon retaliates against Queen Cassiope on behalf of Amphitrite and the Nereids. With an earthquake and flood, he remakes the shore of Ethiopia, retaking that which was pushed by Euryale in Part 1. His priests explain that Princess Andromeda will have to be sacrificed because of Cassiope’s pride. Perseus, led by Athene, finds Medusa asleep and beheads her. Medusa’s sisters find her, and Euryale’s shrieking strikes Athene, hidden behind an invisible Perseus, as a sound worth remaking. Perseus manages to outmaneuver Euryale and escape the cave.

Part 5 reveals the novel’s narrator as Medusa’s severed head, neither alive nor dead, which gained narratorial omniscience and retains its petrifying power. Following Medusa’s murder, Athene is inspired by the sound of wind flowing through reeds and reproduces Euryale’s shriek. Cutting off a single reed, she invents the flute.

Perseus arrives in the Titan Atlas’ kingdom, using Medusa’s head to turn a shepherd to stone for confusing him and punishing Atlas himself for not helping him. The Titan becomes a mountain so vast that he holds up the sky. Perseus flies away using Hermes’ winged sandals. Hearing Princess Andromeda’s scream, as Medusa’s mother, Ceto, prepares to eat her at Poseidon’s command, Perseus uses Medusa’s head to turn her own mother to stone. He frees Andromeda and kills the priests who tried to sacrifice her. Experiencing bloodlust, he returns to Seriphos, delivering Medusa’s head to King Polydectes—who turns to stone. Perseus then returns to Ethiopia, preparing to marry Andromeda. Andromeda’s uncle Phineas, who disappeared following Poseidon’s earthquake and flood, reappears and demands to marry her. Andromeda’s wedding banquet turns into a massacre as Phineas’ forces battle Perseus. Perseus haphazardly uses Medusa’s head, turning many attendees to stone.

Hera suggests that Perseus must be stopped: She motivates Zeus by linking his past overthrowing of their father, the Titan Chronos (more often spelled “Cronus,” and not to be mistaken for Chronos, the personification of time), to Perseus’ present actions. Zeus orders Athene to take Medusa’s head away, and she places it on her breastplate. This ill placement turns Athene’s priestess Iodame to stone. Athene tries to force Medusa’s head to restore her priestess—to no avail. Weighed down by her immortality and dislike of the other Olympians, she willingly looks at Medusa’s head. Medusa’s head comes to rest at the bottom of the sea, where her eyes remain shut.