The Gorgon was not a monster but a threshold — a guardian set at the edge of the world, whose lowered gaze spared the ready and turned the rest to stone. The serpents are not hair; they are what keeps watch while she will not look up. Carved in amethyst, the face holds the instant between being seen and becoming stone. The stone was chosen because it keeps cold the way a held breath does. Against the skin it stays the temperature of that pause for a surprisingly long time.