Benvenuto Cellini (1554)
From On Unbelievable Tales by Heraclitus (circa 1st-2nd century CE)
They say that Medusa turned anyone who looked at her to stone and that when Perseus cut off her head a winged horse emerged. But here is how it was. Medusa was a beautiful prostitute. Any man who saw her was amazed — turned to stone, so to speak. We ourselves say, “He saw her and was turned to stone.” But when Perseus arrived, Medusa fell in love with him: she squandered her possessions on him and ruined the prime of her life. And when she had lost these — her youth and her possessions — she suffered a “whorse” old age. For the head is flowering crown of youth, which is what Perseus took from her.
