Medusa
Fear of Petrification
Medusa, a figure of both terror and tragedy, was a Gorgon, a monstrous creature with a gaze so potent it could turn living beings into stone. Her serpentine locks, a grotesque transformation, starkly contrasted her once-luminous beauty. This horrific visage was a punishment for her defilement within Athena's sacred temple. Humans feared Medusa's gaze, for it was a sentence of petrification, a silent and permanent death.