A long time ago in Greece there was a lady called Medusa. Every day she looked at her reflection in a bronze hand mirror and boasted about how pretty she was to anyone who would listen. One day she went with her friends to the Parthenon in Athens to worship the Goddess Athena.When they got there Medusa looked at all the wonderful statues, then she said so everyone could hear "Look at all these statues, it is a shame the person who made them didn't make them of me, this whole temple is wasted on Athena." Her friends went pale and the rumor spread around the Parthenon. Everyone knew Athena would be really angry if she heard this.

Everyone left the Parthenon leaving Medusa alone. Then Athena appeared "You foolish girl, you think you're prettier than me" Athena shouted, "You will find it hard to find anyone who thinks you're pretty when I've finished with you."

Then Athena turned Medusa into a terrible monster, her hair turned into slithery snakes and her body did too. "Now anyone who looks at you will turn straight to stone, including yourself!" screamed Athena. Medusa was sent away to an island at the end of the world to live with the blind Gorgon sisters so no innocent people person would get turned to stone by accident.

Ted Mitchell