Legend of The LosT Door

excerpt from Little Known Myths of Ancient Greece translated from the Greek by Stephanie West

In ancient times, when the Gorgon sisters count- children’s children, and generations of children ed three in number, the great guardians stood since—daughters all—took up the charge of pro- sentry at the door between Abyssos, the realm of tecting man from monster. monsters, and the human realm, called Panogia. None beyond the Gorgons and their oracle knew Theirs was a duty of such vital import that, for the truth of the bloodline: that Medusa’s pow- their protection and the safeguard of both realms, ers—and those of her sisters—passed down to her few among even the highest ranks of Olympus descendants. knew the exact location of the door. Just as none knew of the prophecy secretly en- When the assassin-hailed-hero Perseus mur- twined into the sealing ritual. dered the mortal Gorgon Medusa, rendering the Upon the sealing, sands in the hourglass of eter- door vulnerable, the gods of Olympus sealed the nity began to fall, counting down to the time of the opening with the greatest of rituals. Only a select Key Generation. The three foretold would reunite audience was granted attendance: the three god- and the magic would fall way. Layer by layer, rite kings—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades— and a trio of by rite, the powers holding the seal in place would priestesses loyal to them, as well as the two im- vanish as smoke in the wind until the moment of mortal Gorgons and their clandestine guest—an decision. oracle steadfast to the Gorgon cause. Since the sealing ritual, countless grains have In an act of supreme magic, the door was sealed, streamed through the glass. Generations have locking all monster kind in the dark realm. Realms come and gone. Details faded into lost memory. that were meant to exist in harmony were separat- Eventually, such time passed that the most signif- ed. Creatures with the wretched misfortune of the icant and dangerous detail of all was forgotten by slightest inhuman appearance were quarantined, the very last. Panogia grew up around the door, locked away like hideous, bloodthirsty beasts. The changing and building and shifting until not even world tumbled into imbalance. the Gorgons themselves could recall its location. Either by design or negligence, however, the The door had been lost. ritual was imperfect. Fissures in the seal soon And so shall it remain until the Key Generation allowed daylight escape by creatures not content arrives, seeking answers to questions long for- to remain in the bleak prison realm. Sentinels gotten. Until then, the fractured seal struggles to still were required to secure Panogia against the separate man and monster. Until then, those who beasts of Abyssos. Medusa’s greatest secret became remember the past can but hope that the magic humanity’s greatest defense. Her children, her holds.

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