I, MEDUSA: The Testament Of A Gorgon (Unwritten Myths) by Thea Mercer

Before the snakes, before the stone, before the hero came with a blade, Medusa was a girl who wanted to be safe. Born in poverty on the outskirts of Athens, Medusa grows up surrounded by hunger, disorder, men’s tempers, women’s exhaustion, and the narrow future waiting for daughters whose bodies become bargaining pieces. When she finds Athena’s temple, she believes she has found the one place the world cannot touch. There, order becomes her refuge. Discipline becomes her devotion. Athena’s cold measure becomes the law by which Medusa survives. As a priestess, Medusa gives herself completely to the goddess. She chooses chastity, service, silence, labor, and sacred order over marriage, motherhood, and the mortal life expected of her. Within the temple, she believes she has escaped the hunger of men and the chaos of the world below. But no sanctuary is safe when gods decide otherwise. Read more