Stone Blind

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Mother”

Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “Danaë”

The Medusa-Narrator describes Princess Danaë, whose father, King Acrisius, imprisons her after the Oracle of Delphi prophesizes her future child will kill him. As she languishes in prison, she thinks about her father’s fear of death. Suddenly, Zeus arrives, impregnates her, and then frees her. Hidden by one of her father’s enslaved servants, Danaë gives birth to a son, Perseus. Discovered by King Acrisius, she and Perseus are exiled, set adrift in a boat.

Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Athene”

Athene advises Zeus to save Danaë, whom he has not visited since impregnating her. The Medusa-Narrator then describes Olympus, where all the Olympians act distant toward Athene except for Zeus and Hephaestus. Zeus tries to remember Danaë and is helped by Athene, whom the Medusa-Narrator characterizes as self-assured. He disappears to save Danaë and Perseus from the sea.

Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary: “Danaë”

Danaë washes ashore, rescued by Dictys, a fisherman from Seriphos. He is the gay brother of the paranoid King Polydectes and thus relates to Danaë’s story. He offers her and Perseus food, water, and shelter.

Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary “Athene”

Athene talks to Zeus, complaining that all the Olympians have a symbol that belongs to them. He grants her the owl.

Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Danaë”

Danaë cleans, noting the irony of being a princess doing housework. She thinks of Perseus, whom she finds emotional at times. Dictys and Perseus have gone fishing, and when they return, she wonders how people haven’t figured out Perseus’ lineage (Zeus) from appearance. Danaë characterizes herself as fearless—until men arrive.

Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Athene”

The Medusa-Narrator describes a war between the Giants and the gods, referencing rumors that Athene herself has heard about the war: Whether a Giant tried to sexually assault Hera before or during the war remains a mystery. The Medusa-Narrator discusses how the Giants burn trees and toss them toward Olympus. Having consulted an oracle, the gods discover that their only chance of victory involves conscripting a mortal. Hera volunteers one of Zeus’s many sons. Athene visits this son and recruits him, bluntly warning him of danger.

Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “Gaia”

Gaia, the earth goddess and mother of the Giants, discovers the Olympians’ plan to recruit a mortal. She searches for an herb to help her children. Zeus tricks her, concealing the sun, moon, and dawn to disrupt her search. Gaia cries.

Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “Gigantomachy”

As the war begins, Athene notices the Giants have legs that end in coiled serpents. The chosen mortal strikes the first Giant, killing him. Athene tells him that Gaia will revive the Giants if he doesn’t remove their bodies from sources of earth. As the gods cut down Giants, one attacks Hera, and Zeus kills him. Athene develops bloodlust, wanting to kill more Giants than the other gods. The war ends with the chosen mortal shooting arrows into all the Giants’ corpses, a necessary condition of the prophecy. Athene skins her kill as a token and believes mothers like Gaia don’t protect their children.

Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary: “Danaë”

A group of armed men approach Dictys’ house. Danaë answers one of the men’s questions, revealing she’s not married. She eventually realizes she’s speaking to King Polydectes himself when Dictys and Perseus return. King Polydectes insults Dictys for not being attracted to women and demands that Danaë become his wife. Perseus challenges King Polydectes, who will only allow the mother and son to stay together if Perseus brings the head of a Gorgon in two months.

Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary: “Gorgoneion”

The Medusa-Narrator warns against feeling pity for Perseus. Dismissing the notion that Danaë faces danger from King Polydectes, she links Danaë’s permissiveness toward Perseus to his selfishness.

Part 2, Chapter 22 Summary: “Athene”

Athene considers her new breastplate, made from her dead Giant’s skin. Proud of it and her owl, she recalls how strangely Hephaestus acted as he fashioned the plate. Recalling the war with the Giants, she now understands each god after seeing them fight. Athene resents Poseidon for sexually assaulting someone in her temple. Still, she prioritizes attacking his victim.

Part 2, Chapter 23 Summary: “Medusa”

Athene comes to Medusa at night, cursing her. Medusa feels pain in her skull, and her eyes smolder with pain. She attempts to touch her head and screams.

Part 2, Chapter 24 Summary: “Stone”

The Medusa-Narrator describes a statue of a bird, a cormorant, at the bottom of the sea—trapped in mid-catch.

Part 2 Analysis

Part 2, “Mother,” introduces Princess Danaë, whose son Perseus will be Medusa’s eventual murderer and rescuer of Princess Andromeda. This section alternates between Gaia’s loss of children to a war between Giants and Olympians, Danaë’s imprisonment by her father and pregnancy by Zeus, and Athene’s cursing of Medusa—all of which reinforce the importance of maternal influence and how maternal love can often ignore toxic masculinity. Gaia’s love for her children, the Giants, transcends physical appearance, the gods’ scorn for their supposed monstrosity, and even their immoral actions. According to rumors, the war between the Giants and Olympians was instigated or exacerbated by one of the Giants attempting to sexually assault Hera—but Gaia pays no heed to this offense. Haynes presents Gaia as a mother Coping With Trauma by denying the truth and protecting her children regardless.

Athene rejects traditional concepts of feminine behavior and takes pleasure in the war, skinning one of Gaia’s children. Athene acts in ignorance, believing “mothers [do] nothing to protect their offspring” (102), and her desire to take revenge on Poseidon, who violated her temple, exemplifies her further thirst for violence. However, Athene targets Medusa first, despite her being Poseidon’s victim. Athene is the goddess of war and wisdom but acts against Consent, Justice, and Violence—that is, righteous violence. Like her father, Zeus, Athene ends up harming women for the sake of self-satisfaction, which makes her just as complicit in patriarchy. This behavior stems from a lack of maternal influence (Metis) or other meaningful relationships (familial or platonic) but only explains rather than excuses her misogyny. Haynes uses Athene’s characterization to further interrogate the concept of Appearance and Monstrosity, as portrayals of the myth typically do not portray Athene as a monster despite her unjust and cruel behavior, which is metaphorically “monstrous.”

Zeus perpetuates monstrosity through hierarchy, an inequality of power that especially harms mortal women. One of these women is Danaë, who catches Zeus’s attention and inadvertently pushes her son, Perseus, to kill Medusa. She is impregnated by Zeus despite being in no position to consent—having been imprisoned by her father, King Acrisius, who learned her child is prophesized to overthrow him. This paranoia echoes Zeus’s fear of meeting his father, Chronos’, fate, having overthrown him himself. However, pushed by Athene in a rare show of compassion, Zeus eventually saves Danaë and Perseus, despite Perseus being a potential threat to his rule. He leaves the pair with Dictys, the gay brother of King Polydectes of Seriphos—whom the god doesn’t see as a love rival. While freed from her father, Danaë simply changes hands from one toxic man to another, from Zeus to King Polydectes—the latter of whom also exhibits sexual interest in her and demands that she become his wife. Danaë is a victim, but not without agency: She endures hardships but never stops protecting her son. Medusa criticizes Danaë for spoiling Perseus, but this lack of compassion and Danaë’s supposed spoiling ultimately humanizes both women. Both Medusa and Danaë challenge the myth of “perfect” victimhood, as regardless of their flaws, perceived or otherwise, they continue to exhibit agency.