Medusa's coil

by Zealia B. (Zealia Brown) Bishop

"Medusa's Coil" by Zealia B. Bishop and H. P. Lovecraft is a short story first published in January 1939. A traveler seeking shelter at a decaying plantation hears a tale of forbidden love and supernatural horror. When Denis de Russy brings his mysterious Parisian bride Marceline home, dark secrets emerge through a painter's portrait—revealing monstrous truths about the woman's true nature and her serpentine hair that possesses its own sinister life. The story blends Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos with Greek mythology.