I know that in Ancient Greece Athena wasn’t trying to protect Medusa by turning her into a monster and certainly wasn’t trying to help her by sending Perseus her way but guess what? This ain’t Ancient Greece, and during the several hundreds of years that story existed during that period it was retold and reinterpreted dozens upon dozens of times. If we modern readers wish to see it and reinterpret it as a goddess protecting Medusa we absolutely can. Stories and myths were never stagnant.
HELL YEAH, myth takes on new meaning depending on who reads it and retells it!! This is literally one of the primary functions of myth!! Myth is so rad!!