‘Three is human life: mind, body, and soul. It is ritual. Morning, noon, and night.’
I, like a lot of university students studying a humanities subject, have read my fair share of Greek Mythology retellings. Circe by Madeline Miller, the story of the exiled Goddess, destined to live a solitary life of yearning for humankind. Piranesi by Susanna Clark, a wonderfully strange story filled with halls, other beings and twists and turns. Atalanta by Jennifer Saint which follows the abandoned Princess on her journey with the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
All of these retellings have clear feminist undertones and highlight the importance of shedding light on the untold stories of the forgotten women in these famous tales. As Bear shows; “To have choices is to have power. Most women have neither.” I have delved into the world of tragedies and read about countless Gods and Goddesses. However, few of these books have left such an impression on me like Medusa’s Sisters has.
Transported back into the world of ancient Greece, Bear tells the story of Medusa and her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. Unlike many other retellings, such as Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, this tale’s central focus is not on Medusa’s infamous end, but instead pays homage to her beginnings – and more importantly, her sisters. About their shared childhood filled with isolation and jealousy for one another, creating an atmosphere in which all three sisters seem blissfully and wilfully ignorant of the others’ struggles. We begin to understand that they are forever intertwined as they grow and enter the human world, with Medusa’s older sisters living in the mortal world alongside her.
Let us begin with Stheno, our main storyteller. From the get go, she is clear about her role amongst her sisters: as the eldest and most alone. She says, “I have always known Fear. She was the fourth sister, and my most intimate acquaintance.” Our first glimpse of Medusa is through her eyes, seeing her as a vision of pure life, without the anxiety that her elder sister feels about being a mortal thrust into a world of god’s. Stheno sees her as “liquid sunrise poured into her soul, and she woke each morning full of hope.”
She is filled with longing; for Medusa to be happy, Euryale to be loving and most of all, to find her purpose outside of her sisters. To have a life outside of them, and an appreciation for herself. What Stheno feels for her sisters cannot be defined as love. It is something altogether different, something more and allconsuming. She is defined by them; their faults and fears and mistakes make her who she is. So, what kind of life would it be without them?
Euryale differs from Stheno, desperate to discover a life alone, freed from the shackles of being bound by three. She is hard and unforgiving, at constant war with both Medusa and Stheno. Arguably, she is an unlikeable character. Yet, I found no disdain for her in my heart whilst reading this book. In a world where women are expected to be soft and caring and kind, Euryale stands tall, unashamed that she is none of those things, and never will be. Though she is harsh, she is not unfeeling and we are granted quick looks into her heart – one that beats for her sisters, for herself, and for the vast love that she desires. Above all, she is powerful and steadfast.
The reader is never permitted Medusa’s point of view, being forced to paint a picture through the eyes of Stheno and Euryale. She remains an enigma of sorts, floating in and out of her many fierce interests just as she does people’s lives. Her ability to fill a room with warmth and a person’s face with laughter perplexes Stheno and irritates Euryale. She is depicted as beautifully naive and in love with all of the things that life has to offer. This reframing of Medusa highlights exactly what she was when tragedy struck – a young girl, with a life full of love ahead of her. She was not born a ‘monster’ but was instead made one, forced into hardship and isolation.
For once, Medusa’s story does not focus on Perseus, demi-god, and murderer. In her own words, “I would rather be remembered for what I did, what I said, whom I loved, than how I met my end.” Instead, we read about how the sisters must come back together in the wake of being cursed, becoming three once again, after straying in different directions for so long. They are not turned into deformed monstrosities, as much of mythology dictates, with wings, scales, and snakes, but become new beings altogether, once again learning how to live as one. How to tolerate and take care of each other. To go from being “connected only by secrets and lies” to family once again. In the words of Stheno’s friend “you three accept other for all that you are and are not. You share your lives. That is sisterhood.”
Bear’s writing is pure poetry. Not in the way that you would imagine with depictions of a hazy blue ancient Greece, but with words that are encased in wanting and need. Honesty that is so real it is almost brutal. And most of all, the raw desire to understand yourself and your place in the world. It is a story about overcoming, perseverance and unconditional love.
“Ancient Greece” by Adam Polselli is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0