Seeing Medusa ravished and beaten in her temple, Athena felt a terrible rage, a wrath that needed an outlet. She, a virgin goddess, loathed the desecration of her holy place, a temple meant for her worship.

Being that she was the product of a detestable world, Athena also felt, unknown to anyone, the bleakest of envy. That others dared to fornicate in her shrine, when she had never known the embrace of another, drove her to hatefulness. Medusa had taken a vow to be her servitor!Unable to unleash her fury on her uncle Poseidon, she targeted a bloody and stricken Medusa.

By Athena's will, Medusa was transformed. Her hands turned to brass, and she sprouted a boar's tusks. Her lovely hair turned into live snakes, both venomous and not, but all possessed of an ill temper. Athena bestowed upon her a set of golden wings, to rob her of her last vestiges of self and remind her mockingly of the beautiful hair she no longer had.

Perhaps by design, or perhaps by chance, by far the most significant change was poor Medusa's once-exquisite face. Her tongue became long and protruding, her mouth a vile orifice. Her visage was rendered so horrifying that anyone who met her gaze was turned instantly to stone.

Medusa, wounded, misshapen, and frightened, ran through the streets. As she saw the terrified, fleeing people around her become petrified, she tore her garment and fashioned a blindfold. Before anyone dared to attack her, she fumbled her way to the quarters where her sisters were resting.

But a nasty twist still yet remains to be told.

Poseidon, sated though he was by his abuses of Medusa, still desired Stheno. He couldn't abide the thought of her rebuff being successful. But he knew that, once Stheno learned of his defiling of Medusa, he would never be able to charm Stheno, and all his work would have been in vain. Hence, as soon as he had left Medusa, crying and bloody, at the foot of Athena's altar, he had made his way to her eldest sister, at the priestesses' quarters.

With the most beguiling lies and sweetest promises yet, Poseidon finally prevailed, and seduced Stheno, who was unawares of her youngest sister's plight. Though Stheno was pained and frightened, she assumed that was merely the cost of love. Imagine her shock when Poseidon disappeared from her cot the very moment Medusa came groping, blindfolded and mutated, into the priestesses' quarters.

Upon hearing what had transpired, both Stheno and Euryale declared that their sisterly love for Medusa was eternal, and that they would stand by her side against any gods. Stheno's heart was broken, and it was then that her now-infamous hatred of men took root. Both older sisters comforted Medusa, and the three stood unified against both Poseidon and their former mistress, Athena. Euryale, especially, was the loudest in her weeping over the tragedy and injustice. Stheno seethed silently and plotted.

But once the words of sisterly alliance left their lips, their fate, too, was sealed. Athena brooked no insolence against her judgment, and she was further incensed by the actions of Euryale and Stheno. Athena transformed both older sisters into Gorgons, as Medusa's new form was later dubbed. All three sisters had hands of hard brass, monstrous tusks, and hair of enraged snakes. For the wails Athena had found so trying, Euryale was also punished with the curse of petrifying sight.

It was fortunate for Stheno that Athena had not sighted her with Poseidon, willfully forsaking her vows of celibacy. Surely Stheno would have had a fate even more unkind. Only later would the significance of the liaison come to light.