Medusa began as a mortal priestess, lovely enough to catch a god's eye, and was punished for what was done to her rather than for anything she did. Her hair became snakes, her gaze turned the living to stone, and she was cast out to the edge of the world where no one could meet her eyes and live. Perseus took her head behind a mirrored shield, never looking at her straight on, and even severed it kept its power.
So the Greeks fixed that face onto shields and doorways and armor, the gorgoneion, and turned the curse outward: a victim's stare remade into a guardian that freezes anything meaning her harm.
Set here in marble, snakes and roses, gaze level. Printed heavy on garment dyed cotton, for the ones who turned what was done to them into armor.
