The mythus respecting the family of Phorcys, to which also the Graeae, Hesperides, Scylla, and other fabulous beings belonged, has been interpreted in various ways by the ancients themselves. When Heracles went out against Lacedaemon he gave the lock of hair to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection of the town of Tegea, as the sight of it would put the enemy to fight.

§ 2.) Athena gave to Heracles a lock of Medusa (concealed in an urn), for it had a similar effect upon the beholder as the head itself. There was a tradition at Athens that the head of Medusa was buried under a mound in the Agora. Hence the great difficulty which Perseus had in killing her and Athena afterwards placed the head in the centre of her shield or breastplate. Perseus.) Her head was now of so fearful an appearance, that every one who looked at it was changed into stone. § 1.) Medusa, who alone of her sisters was mortal, was, according to some legends, at first a beautiful maiden, but her hair was changed into serpents by Athena, in consequence of her having become by Poseidon the mother of Chrysaor and Pegasus, in one of Athena's temples. On the chest of Cypselus they were likewise represented with wings. 1050) adds that they had wings and brazen claws, and enormous teeth.

233) as girded with serpents, raising their heads, vibrating their tongues, and gnashing their teeth Aeschylus ( Prom. But later traditions place them in Libya. § 2), and they are conceived by Hesiod to live in the Western Ocean, in the neighbourhood of Night and the Hesperides. 230.) The names of the three Gorgones are Stheino (Stheno or Stenusa), Euryale, and Medusa (Hes. 278) had mentioned three Gorgones, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, whence they are sometimes called Phorcydes or Phorcides. Euripides ( Ion, 989) still speaks of only one Gorgo, although Hesiod ( Theog. 289), the Aegis of Athena contains the head of Gorgo, the terror of her enemies. 633), was one of the frightful phantoms in Hades: in the Iliad (v. Homer knows only one Gorgo, who, according to the Odyssey (xi. GORGO and GO′RGONES (Gorgô and Gorgones). PEGASOS, KHRYSAOR (by Poseidon) (Hesiod Theogony 278, Apollodorus 2.40, Lycophron 840, Hyginus Pref, Nonnus Dionysiaca 31.13) MEDOUSA, EURYALE, STHENNO (Hesiod Theogony 270, Pindar Pythian 12, Apollodorus 2.39, Hyginus Pref, Nonnus Dionysiaca 40.227) OFFSPRING OF MEDOUSA GORGO & KETO (Hyginus Pref & Fabulae 151) NAMES PHORKYS (Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 794, Pausanias 2.21.5, Nonnus Dionysiaca 24.270) PHORKYS & KETO (Hesiod Theogony 270, Apollodorus 1.10) In mosaic art her round face was wreathed with coiling snakes and adorned with a pair of small wings on the brow. Medousa was humanised in late classical art with the face of a beautiful woman. The three Gorgones were depicted in ancient Greek vase painting and sculpture as winged women with broad, round heads, serpentine locks of hair, large staring eyes, wide mouths, lolling tongues, the tusks of swine, flared nostrils, and sometimes short, coarse beards. Earlier Greek writers and artists, however, simply portray her as a monster born into a large family of monsters. Perseus fled with the monster's head in a sack and her two angry sisters chasing close on his heels.Īccording to late classical poets, Medousa was once a beautiful woman who was transformed into a monster by Athena as punishment for lying with Poseidon in her shrine. When he fell upon Medousa and decapitated her, two creatures sprang forth from the wound-the winged horse Pegasos (Pegasus) and the giant Khrysaor (Chrysaor). He accomplished this with the help of the gods who equipped him with a reflective shield, a curved sword, winged boots and helm of invisibility. King Polydektes of Seriphos once commanded the hero Perseus to fetch her head. Of the three sisters only Medousa was mortal. THE GORGONES (Gorgons) were three powerful, winged daimones named Medousa (Medusa), Sthenno and Euryale. Terrible, Fierce ( gorgos) Gorgoneion, Athenian red-figure hydria C5th B.C., British Museum

Medusa gorgon